An Enterprise Of Geeks

Review - Sherlock

2012-01-17T22:39:00.004+10:00

I was going to review Sherlock episode by episode, but there are only three, so it felt more appropriate to review the "season" as a whole. Season one of Sherlock set an impressive bar for television in general, and of course for it's succeeding season in particular, by giving us three episodes that were enormously impressive, alongside updating Sherlock Holmes for a new generation. Insular and autistic, technologically savvy with an encyclopedic memory, the new Sherlock Holmes felt like the perfect update, and was brought to impressive life by Benedict Cumberbatch who played the part as though he were born to. It's diffifcult to make such an arrogrant character likable, but Cumberbatch succeeded, helped in no small part by an astonishing chemistry with Martin Freeman, playing Dr John Watson. Freeman is a great actor, but his understated performance as Watson allowed audience empathy: if Watson could like Holmes, then so could we. Add to them DI Lestrade (Rupert Graves), Mrs Hudson (Una Stubbs), Molly Hooper (Louise Brealey), Sgt Donovan (Vinette Robinson), the mercurial Mycroft Holmes (Mark Gatiss) and criminally insane James Moriarty (Andrew Scott), and you have a very, very solid cast.

Happily the cast is back for the second season, and everyone is given a chance to expand on their characters and build upon their performances in the previous year. We'll get to the support in a moment, but let's take a look at Sherlock and John first. This year, Cumberbatch gets to expand upon Sherlock in three different ways over the three episodes. In the first, A Scandal In Belgravia, Holmes is forced to confront the possibility of love with the mysterious Irene Adler; in the second (The Hounds Of Baskerville), Sherlock has to deal with his own insecurities - the possibility of being wrong and the absence of friends in his life; while in the third (The Reichenbach Fall), Sherlock has to deal with his world slipping away, coming up against someone who is possibly more than his equal. This gives Cumberbatch a lot more to do with Sherlock, and every performance is perfectly nuanced, giving us an even more interesting character than we got in the first season. Plus we get the deerstalker joke which is very well played.

But for me, it was Martin Freeman who got to shine in season two. Although undeniably good in the first season, Watson occasionally seemed to be really playing his sidekick role all too well, but this season has given us the chance to see Watson step out from Holmes shadow just a little more, and his character to become more rounded, while at the same time developing a firm and unshakeable loyalty to Sherlock. The moment where Sherlock admits that he has only one friend, is a great moment for Sherlock, but it is the final scene of the season when Watson analyses what Sherlock has done for him, and how being in Holmes company has changed him for the better, is the far better moment for Watson. It's a delight to see, and gives Freeman his greatest moment to date.

The supporting characters are indeed developed nicely as well: Lestrade becomes a loyal supporter for Holmes, and in Reichenbach, we discover that he is one of the three close friends Sherlock admits to having. The other is Mrs Hudson, a woman for whom Sherlock is happy to apparently effectively torture a man in revenge for the pain they have inflicted on her. Although Moriarty never claims her to be one, Sherlock himself tells Molly how important she is to him, and Molly is a great character who still manages to have a heart of gold despite the horrid treatment she receives from Sherlock. Donovan remains sceptical throughout the season, but steps up in the final episode to deliver the first attack on Sherlock. Moriarty and Mycroft, however, become ever more interesting - Moriarty playing his game throughout the season, while Mycroft plays his own game with Sherlock, using John as his pawn when he screws it up. I'm not really a big fan of Gatiss, but I do think Mycroft is the character he appears born to play. Gatiss goes from effortless charm to sneering anger brilliantly, and I can never decided whether I like Mycroft or not (the character, that is, not the performance which I most certainly do).

And finally, of course, James Moriarty. In this series, Moriarty is a very different character to the versions that have gone before. In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories, Moriarty is often mentioned, but only ever appears in one story (the very one where he and Holmes fall from the Reichenbach Falls). In this series, he virtually cameos in every episode, but it is not until the last episode where we get to see Moriarty at his best - a cunning master of disguise, a spider at the centre of a web (as Holmes poetically describes him). An out of control Moriarty is the perfect foil for the always in control Sherlock, and their final showdown is outstanding. Andrew Scott almost steals the series from Cumberbatch and Freeman. Almost.

A Scandal In Belgravia brings Sherlock up against Irene Adler, a dominatrix for the rich, and the possessor of a lot of secrets which disturbs Buckingham Palace and Mycroft Holmes, so much so that they summon Sherlock to confront her. The original story - "A Scandal In Bohemia" - does indeed deal with Adler blackmailing royalty, but this time round Adler is actually seeking protection from those that want her secrets for their own benefit. Lara Pulver plays Adler, and is a joy to behold in the role (not least because of her initial naked appearance), creating a character who becomes as infatuated with Holmes as he is with her. The final face off is great, and given Adler having the upper hand for the entire episode, it's very satisfying to see Holmes regain a certain amount of control. Her links to Moriarty give the solution to the cliffhanger from last season, but also set up what Moriarity actually is. This episode, written by Steven Moffat, is a brilliant opening to the season and is full of Moffat's wit and the strong, sexually powerful women that Moffat likes to write about. The problem with a three episode season is that one is the best, one is the worst and the other sits between. When you have three brilliant episodes, it's harsh to say that this is the middle one, but it doesn't quite have the impact of the final episode, but hits a great deal more than the second.

The Hounds Of Baskerville obviously follows, very loosely, the most famous Sherlock Holmes story. Last year, when Steve Thompson wrote the second episode of the season and it wasn't quite as good as the other two, I placed the blame at Thompson's door, believing that Moffat and Gatiss probably understood their characters a little better than Thompson did. However, it's clear that thanks to the three episode season, the first and last episodes are always going to be the big opener and closer, meaning that the second episode is always going to be the weaker of the three. Gatiss writes a fantastic story, not utilising the on screen graphics that Moffat is such a fan on, but taking the original story and adapting a little more closer than either Moffat or Thompson are inclined to do. The episode features Russell Tovey as Henry Knight (as opposed to Sir Henry Baskerville), and in truth I've never been a fan of Tovey, not quite seeing the attraction. Again, Tovey doesn't really impress her, but is effective in his part. It's a good episode and better than most television, but is my least favourite of the three episodes.

The Reichenbach Fall rounds the series off with a Steve Thompson script that echoes "The Final Problem" story - cleverly alluded to here at various points throughout the episode. There are no guest cast in this episode, really, as the eight regulars step up to tell the story of Holmes' life being manipulated by Moriarity into a final defeat. This episode was brilliant, though if you knew a little of "The Final Problem" you had some idea of where it was going (I sort of guessed that Moriarity and Holmes would die at the end, and did indeed suspect a fall from a building). However, Thompson was clever enough to include even little points such as Holmes sending Watson away before heading for the final confrontation. Cumberbatch and Scott are electric on the rooftop in the climactic scene, though I also love the confrontation between Mycroft and John as the truth comes out. The ending, as I mentioned earlier, is easily the highest point for John in the entire six episodes.

Ultimately, season two has amped up Sherlock, taking it to the next level in both its approach and its storylines. Characters are becoming more and more enjoyable, while Gatiss, Moffat and Thompson's adaptations of Conan Doyle's work are not only extremely entertaining, but very, very clever. With the announcement that there will indeed be a third season (presumably after Cumberbatch fights the crew of the starship Enterprise, and Freeman wanders around Middle Earth), again we play a waiting game for the return of a series which is taking television to a new high.

Review - The Muppets

2012-01-17T18:36:00.001+10:00

I was accused the other day of being too harsh on Tintin which, I was told, was a children's film and should be judged accordingly. I don't agree, however, because Tintin was supposed to be a family film, and as Mi pointed out, the bar for those types of films have been set very high by Pixar. The Muppets, however, is indeed a children's film, and so I set my expectations accordingly. And, it was absolutely brilliant.

Before we get onto the actual Muppets, the film is prefaced by a short Toy Story film, where a Happy Meal version of Buzz takes Buzz's place in order to get played with. As usual it's brilliant, and I am astonished by the number of really good shorts that Pixar are able to produce.

The Muppet Show, a product of a naive and innocent time, now no longer has a place in this cynical world, and so when Gary (Jason Segel) and his brother, Walter (who just happens to be a Muppet himself), visit The Muppet Studios they are shocked to find it decrepit and unused. Walter is more shocked when he overhears Statler and Waldorf (my all time favourite Muppets, I have to say), offer to sell the studios to Tex Richman (Chris Cooper), who secretly plans on knocking them down to get the oil beneath. Walter, Gary and Gary's girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) go to Kermit's home to convince him to put on a telethon to get the ten million needed to keep the theatre. Naturally enough, Kermit agrees; but getting the Muppets back together and having a telethon is not going to be an easy venture.

The human actors in the film - Segel, Adams, Cooper and Rashida Jones (as television executive Veronica) - embrace their roles playing them firmly over the top, but at the same time quite seriously. As such, despite the fact that Cooper says "maniacal laugh" instead of actually doing it, and Segel openly acknowledges his song and dance routines (though Segel is careful enough to avoid doing any serious dancing, unlike Adams), the relationship problems between Gary and Mary seem quite real, and although Gary's brother is a Muppet, there is still a very strong brotherly bond between them. It's a very difficult line to walk, but the actors do it with aplomb.

And, in fact, so does the whole movie. The movie is a dutiful homage to the original Muppet Show television series - recreating the opening title sequence, having Scooter give the guests their time to stage, Kermit performing "The Rainbow Connection", and a special guest in the form of Jack Black, who is just as keen to indulge the whole format - but at the same time embraces a more modern television movie with Kermit and Miss Piggy going on an emotional rollercoaster, along with Gary and Walter trying to find their place in the world and with each other. It is a credit to Jason Segel who wrote the film that the story is so rich, and to James Bobin, whose direction brings the seventies back to life while firmly pushing the Muppets into the current century.

There are copious amounts of cameo appearances, be they small roles for Alan Arkin and Mickey Rooney, or just surprising guest appearances from Whoopi Goldberg and Selena Gomez (and one cameo that was completely unexpected but utterly brilliant), and everyone seems to be in on the joke of the Muppets, with no one sending it up at all.

The fact is, this movie just reeks of love by a production crew who are keen to make a brilliant new Muppet movie. The fact that they succeed, is not only brilliant for the audience, but also for the Muppets who have proven that they still have a place in today's media world.

Forthcoming Movie Rumours

2012-01-05T01:35:00.001+10:00

We've neglected movie news that has been coming forth of late, but there's a few rumours that have been circulating that might be worth writing about, so let's air them here.

The Avengers Interestingly a press release for the Avengers toy line says: "[Join the Avengers] as they battle the villainy of the Red Skull and Loki!" This is the first time we've heard that the Skull might be in the movie, and certainly no sighting of Hugo Weaving has been made to date. There is also a mention of Hydra, which would back up the Skull rumour.

Skyfall Ralph Fiennes character in the forthcoming James Bond movie has not really been talked about to date, but a new rumour suggests that Fiennes' character is going to be taking over from Judi Dench as "M". Dench has confirmed that Skyfall will be her last film (can you believe she's been playing "M" for almost twenty years??), so it would be an interesting move bringing in her replacement.

Man Of Steel We've not said much about the forthcoming Superman movie, but filming on that movie is progressing nicely. However a new rumour suggests that Bradley Cooper has been cast in a cameo as Lex Luthor. In this case, we'd be prepared to accept the Luthor cameo, but the Cooper rumour seems a little obvious. Nonetheless, interesting if true.

Finally, Paranormal Activity 4 has been confirmed. Big surprise there.

Review - The Adventures Of Tintin

2012-01-03T00:57:00.001+10:00

It's been a fair old while for the much-talked about Tintin movie. In fact, it took so long in development that it lost its original Tintin (Thomas Sangster) and ultimately Jamie Bell got the job. The story is, of course, a mixture of three different Tintin books - The Crab With The Golden Claws, The Secret Of The Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure (the last two were actually a two part story). Famously, Steven Moffat was the man tasked with writing the movie, but he gave the job up to do Doctor Who and it was finished off by Ed Wright & Joe Cornis - two gentlemen who have fairly impressive resumes already. Of course, the movie is directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Peter Jackson, and the cast has some huge names in it, including Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Andy Serkis.

So, with all those movie points in its favour, and the fact that Tintin is a property that nearly every child should definitely read, and certainly this one did and absolutely loved, it's fair to say my expectations for this movie were fairly high.

Maybe, unfairly high.

Because when I walked out of The Adventures Of Tintin, I have to admit, I was just a little bit bored. For some reason, despite the enormous amount of talent making this movie, there were a lot of moments where it just sort of limped along.

So let's try and be a little bit objective. First off, the motion capture for this movie is without doubt unsurpassed. There is not a moment when the CGI characters don't act in a completely human fashion, and despite the fact that the characters are all based on their comic book counterparts, there's a lot of the actors facial expressions still coming through, and this was most noticeable with Ivan Sakharine, where often you can see Daniel Craig's mannerisms reflected in his character. Of course, having the king of motion capture in the movie - Andy Serkis - it's fair to say that you would expect it to be very high quality. That said, we tend to be more forgiving of animal motion capture than we are of humans, and this is not an issue here.

The other thing that really blew me away (and this comes from a fan point of veiw), was the rather superlative title sequence which had a mini Tintin comic adventure, with nods to nearly all of the Tintin comics that had come before. I often yearn for movie title sequences in a time when they tend to be just thrown away, but this movie comes through in spades, delivering a brilliantly designed sequence that is reminiscient of the old Pink Panther films.

I was very happy with Jamie Bell as Tintin, and Pegg and Frost really surprised me as Thompson and Thomson; at first I wondered if they would deliver the characters that Herge created, but they showed they were more than competent in the roles. The standout of the cast, however, was Daniel Craig, who seemed to positively revel in playing a villain, and gave a great performance, balancing mustache-twirling villian, with a smoother, suaver modern villain. Surprisingly, however, it was Andy Serkis who didn't really gel with me as Captain Haddock. His voice seemed completely wrong for the part, and his behaviour was just a little too ridiculous.

The story was well written, but given the pedigree of Messrs Moffat, Wright and Cornish, it surprised me how little humour there was in the film. Occasionally a chuckle was raised, but it felt as though the movie wanted to deliver more laughs but they just weren't there to do so. Equally, though there were a couple of really nice action sequences, in general it felt as though the action was a little slow and not very energetic. I want to lay the blame at the door of the writers, but in truth this is really the director's area of responsiblity. It's surprising that there are moments of boredom in a Spielberg film, but I really did find myself losing interest frequently throughout the film.

I'm fully prepared to accept that my expectations of this film were possibly too high, but given that I'm sitting here finding it difficult to write a review that actually says something, if not insightful than at the very least entertaining, the fact is I really do feel that this movie is just mediochre. Not terrible, but certainly nothing special.

Movie Review-A-Rama!

2012-01-02T19:45:00.000+10:00

Ahh, Christmas and New Year. A time when people are celebrating, good will to all, peace on earth, etc, etc. But you know what I love most about this time of year? Time. Time that is that I can use for things that I want to do, such as watching movies. My better half J and I always use this time to catch up on things we have been meaning to watch. Often TV series, but this year the focus has been movies. Some old, some new, some borrowed, some ... well, I've taken that analogy as far as I can! And so, I thought I would put them all together in one big Review-A-Rama. Some have been already reviewed here at the Enterprise, others new, so for your reading pleasure I give you a random collection of movies recently watched by me!

Cowboys & Aliens
2011
Starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Keith Carradine, Clancy Brown
Screenplay by Damon Lindelof, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby with a Story by Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Steve Oedekerk and Based on the comic Cowboys & Aliens by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg
Directed by Jon Favreau

Just read the above list again of how many people worked on the story for this movie, and can anyone tell me a time when having that many writers improved the story? Anyone? Didn't think so. And unfortunately, it happens again here. Some very talented names (Lindelof from Lost, Kurtzman & Orci from Fringe) but what results is a bit of a mess. I think the issue is that basically, besides from a 5 second coolness to going "Cowboys ... and Aliens!", there is not enough of an idea to work into a story.

Daniel Craig is actually ok as the grizzled Cowboy who has lost his memory and woken up with a strange looking bracelet attached to his wrist. People that know me know that Olivia Wilde has moved up high on my "shits me" list lately, but in her defence, she is ok in this film (with what she gets to work with anyway). But Harrison Ford. In J's words, he was "so 2-dimensional, I thought he was a cartoon". It's almost embarassing to watch, to think that this is the man who brought us Han Solo, Indiana Jones and Deckard.

On the plus side, and yes, there were a couple of pluses, mainly in the form of Sam Rockwell and Clancy Brown. Rockwell is always good, and brings some real strength to his role. And I've always loved Clancy Brown who is almost criminally underrated, so good to see him here.

Overall, not a lot to recommend this film, which quite rightly is now recognised as one of the bombs of 2011.

Horrible Bosses
2011
Starring Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Anniston, Colin Farrell, Jamie Fox
Written by Michael Markowitz, John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein
Directed by Seth Gordon

I thought Horrible Bosses was going to suffer from being another "gross out" style comedy, as that was how it seemed to be pitched. Now, nothing against this style of comedy, but we have had a run of them (Hangover I & II, Bridesmaids, etc) so I have had this sitting there for ages before finally getting around to watching it.
However, I was pleasantly suprised. It is a fairly easy watching movie, helped along by the likeableness (ok, I know the word should be likeability but I prefer likeableness) of the Jasons Bateman and Sudeikis. Jason Bateman seems to play a very similar character as his Michael Bluth of Arrested Development, which let's face it, seems to be close to the actual Jason Bateman!

Add in some great zaniness by the Horrible Bosses of the title in the form of an asshole Kevin Spacey, a sex-mad Jennifer Anniston (a great change of form for her from the nice-girl roles she normally plays) and a coked-up Colin Farrell, and you get an enjoyable romp that doesn't try too hard but is an enjoyable way to spend a few hours.

Super 8
2011
Starring Elle Fanning, Joel Courtney, Kyle Chandler, Riley Griffiths, Ryan Lee, Ron Eldard
Written & Directed by JJ Abrams

Undeniably JJ Abrams' love affair to the Speilberg movies of the 70s and 80s, mixed in with his love of the "mystery box" idea, ie. a danger / villian / thing that is only fully revealed at the end. And it works wonderfully, with some spot-on performances from the young cast of mainly unknowns. Of course, the stand-out is Elle Fanning (younger sister of Dakota Fanning) and she really shines here. The scene where she has to act in the movie the kids are making is wonderful, with the kids themselves blown away by her performance.

Of course, I remember Ry's review here at the Enterprise mentioned that he preferred the "kids" scenes and when the movie introduces the train accident / monster / alien, that it loses some momentum, and I think he is right. The first third to half of the movie is pitched wonderfully, very reminiscent of early Speilberg or something like Stand By Me, a kid's coming of age flick. Not to say the second half is a letdown, but it does change the feel of the movie somewhat.

Still, I came away very impressed and enjoyed this a lot. In this day of sequels, movie franchises and adaptations (with 14 of the top 15 highest grossing movies in 2011 being sequels, spin-offs or based on comics*), it is pleasing to see JJ out there continuing to try original ideas. While we here at the Enterprise obviously love our comics adaptions & horror franchises, we really like to see fresh ideas, so more please!

(* And just so you know, the one movie in the top 15 that was not a sequel / franchise / etc? Bridesmaids. Yep, Super 8 was about 20th.)

Somewhere
2010
Starring Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, Michelle Monaghan
Written & Directed by Sofia Coppola

After watching Elle Fanning in Super 8, we decided to watch her earlier performance in Sofia Coppola's Somewhere, which came out last year but we never got around to watching. And again, Elle Fanning shows that she will be a force for a long time to come in movies, with a more supporting role than in Super 8 but again putting in a great performance.

If you have ever seen any other Sofia Coppola movie - Lost in Translation, Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette - you will know what to expect and Somewhere is very similar. And by that, I mean the style, the look, the slow, drawn out scenes. And they are beautifully shot, starting with the opening fixed-camera scene of Stephen Dorff doing laps in his car, with the sound of the engine rising and falling as he goes around, and around, and around.

Coppolla loves these long scenes which approach the uncomfortable, and then go straight past and you can then relax and be part of the movie. Somewhere tells the story of a movie star (Dorff) who basically has no life - he is aimless, and when not involved in something basically has no life. His daughter (Fanning) comes to stay with him and he starts to slowly come to a realisation that he needs to start living his life. And that's basically it - the story is just there to show the characters, and both Dorff and Fanning are great. My other half J mentioned that is was great in the way Fanning's character is depicted - a young girl, she is not "sexualised" at all, which is rare for modern movies, and she acts like a true kid which is nice.

But for all that, the movie doesn't quite work. It's almost if there is just not enough story here to hold it together, and for all the great filmwork and acting, it's a bit of a letdown at the end when you think - "is that it?". Having just visited LA, it was good to see some of the locations, but I don't think anyone else will feel like that :) One thing the movie did do, was make us want to watch ...

Lost in Translation
2003
Starring Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Giovanni Ribisi, Anna Faris
Written & Directed by Sofia Coppola

After getting a taste of Coppola with Somewhere, we decided to follow on with a re-watching of Lost in Translation. Coppola's most successful film to date, it stars Bill Murray as an ageing movie star, in Tokyo for the filming of a Japanese whiskey commercial, and unable to connect with the world around him, until he meets Johansson, in Tokyo with her husband (Ribisi) who is off making videos and leaves her to fend for herself. The two connect in a very touching way, in a week-long adventure lost in the strange world of Tokyo.

There is a reason this movie was successful, and it rests in the relationship between Murray and Johansson. Two very different people, you can really understand and follow how they come together and how they develop feelings for each other, and then the sense of loss as they realise Murray must leave to return to his normal life (and wife, and Johansson her husband). It's funny, because obviously both characters are married, so this would be an affair, but you really find yourself wishing they could work it out and be together, which is testament to the way it is handled. Possibly the dramatic role of Murray's lifetime, and Scar Jo's break out performance. A wonderful movie, and a real actor's piece.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
2011
Starring Tom Cruise, Jeremey Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton
Written by Andre Nemec, Josh Applebaum
Directed by Brad Bird

Ry has reviewed this film very recently here on the Enterprise, so I don't want to say much here except that I really enjoyed MI:GP and the dynamic between the four major characters worked well - so well in fact that, like Ry, I would like it if they kept it the same for a while and allowed us to build up some familiarity with the team. Make another movie with the same people, please! I understand the IMF is a large organisation, but surely when a team works well you would keep them together. Simon Pegg brings his usual comedy to the fore and lightens the mood, but the stand-out is clearly .. Brad Bird?! Yep, the director. To graduate from animated movies to something this high-profile is clearly a big step, but Bird handles it brilliantly from start to finish. Unlike Ry, I didn't even mind the Rhames and Monaghan cameos at the end, with the only glaring issue is, as Ry said, just how can Nyquist's character outrun Tom Cruise?? But small quibbles aside, some great action, which is what is needed from these movies.

Unknown
2011
Starring Liam Neeson, Dianne Kruger, January Jones, Aidan Quinn, Frank Langella
Written by Oliver Butcher, Stephen Cornwell (based on the book Out of My Head by Didier Van Cauwelaert)
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra

When I came across Unknown, I thought I had already seen it. It just seemed familar, but I think that is because I saw both Kruger and Neeson promoting it on shows such as Graham Norton. But apart from that, it was quite a good movie, continuing the re-emergence of Neeson as a bit of an 'action hero', after movies such as Taken and A-Team.

Uknown tells the story of Neeson and his wife Jones, attending a science conference in Berlin, when a car accident robs Neeson of his short-term memory and leaves him in hospital for several days. When he leaves the hospital, he finds that someone has taken his place and his wife no longer recognises him. Turning to the cab driver who saved him from the accident (Kruger), they then have to work out what has happened while fleeing from the strange people trying to kill them.

A fairly stock-standard thriller, Unknown is lifted by the performances of Neeson and Kruger. January Jones plays her normal self (I really don't think she has that much of a range, but there you go). Some reasonable action and chase scenes through Berlin, and you get a decent movie that flew under the radar. A good "Saturday Night" movie, just don't expect too much and you won't be disappointed.

New Years Eve
2011
Starring Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Jon Bon Jovi, Abigail Breslin, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Robert De Niro, Josh Duhamel, Zac Efron, Héctor Elizondo, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Seth Meyers, Lea Michele, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank, Sofía Vergara, James Belushi, Cary Elwes, Carla Gugino, Alyssa Milano (man that's a long list!)
Written by Katherine Fugate
Directed by Garry Marshall

My last comment about Unkown applies doubly here - if you really don't expect much, at all, this movie is ok, for what it is. An American take on the ensemble love movie, with intertwined stories set in New York on New Year's Eve 2011 (which was when I saw it by the way, which did add a nice feeling to it, but obviously that is now hard to replicate unless you go back in time!). An absolutely enormous cast, with names such as Cary Elwes, Carla Gugino and Alyssa Milano with tiny roles right down the list you must be doing something right. Some strange "pairings" in this movie with some noticable age differences, which I think was the idea to make it seem different, but not sure if it works - ie. you get Jon Bon Jovi & Katherine Heigel, Ashton Kutcher & Lea Michele, and Zac Efron & Michelle Peiffer!

No surprises at all, but good to see Abigail Breslin growing up as she has a bright future. I believe this was also the first Zac Efron movie I have ever seen, and he's actually ok in this - I didn't even realise it was him
until the end. Look, this movie is what it is - it was never going to be an award-winning, blow you away blockbuster, but for a sappy rom-com it was passable.

Love Actually
2003
Starring Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Laura Linney, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Keira Knightley, Martine McCutcheon, Bill Nighy, Rowan Atkinson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Andrew Lincoln, Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton, Claudia Schiffer, Ivana Miličević, January Jones, Elisha Cuthbert, Shannon Elizabeth, Denise Richards
Written & Directed by Richard Curtis

On the other hand, after watching New Year's Eve we thought we would go back and watch it done right, with Richard Curtis' Love Actually. What is there left to say about this movie, which really sets the standard for the ensemble rom-com, with actual comedy, touching scenes, and a "realness" which is refreshing. Curtis' script is perfect, and the casting spot-on with some of the best names in British cinema. I find myself watching this movie with a huge smile on my face the whole way through, which is a good sign that I thoroughly enjoy it.

The best bit? For me, it is a tie - 1) the extended scene with Colin Firth and Lucia Moniz, when they have to dive into the lake to save his book sheets through to the kitchen afterwards - both speaking different languages, and the comedic bits but also touching scenes when they are revealing themselves. And 2) with Laura Linney, when she invites Rodrigo Santora back to her place, she has to leave him for a second to literally do a little happy dance, and the quick cleanup of her bedroom, when she grabs her obviously favourite teddy to hide him, gives him a quick kiss. It's the little touches like this that really make the movie.

In Time
2011
Starring Amanda Seyfried, Justin Timberlake, Cillian Murphy, Olivia Wilde, Alex Pettyfer, Vincent Kartheiser, Johnny Galecki
Written & Directed by Andrew Niccol

On paper, In Time has both huge positives for me (great sci-fi premise and some actors I like such as Cillian
Murphy and Vincent Kartheiser and even JT) but also some negatives (I've already mentioned Olivia Wilde moving up my "shits me" list and Amanda Seyfried seems to be doing that as well). So I went into this movie not knowing which way this one would go. It starts promising - People only age until 25, and they then stay at that age physically for the rest of their lives - which is only 1 year, unless they can earn more years through work, bartering, however they can. The currency is literally time, you can use it to buy things but you are shortening your life-span. People live in "time zones" with the rich (ie. long-life) living separate to the poor, people living literally minute to minute. JT is one such person, who lives with his mother (Olivia Wilde, remember, just because you look young doesn't mean you are inside). Life is a constant struggle to ensure that they have enough time to keep living, until one day JT saves the life of a stranger who gives him 100 yrs. Using this to get into the rich time zone, he finds Amanda Seyfried, the daughter of the man (Vincent Kartheiser) who runs the "time lenders", a really rich family. Through normal movie magic, they find themselves thrown together on the run, and trying to survive but also to break the cycle and change the world ...

As I said, it starts well, and the underlying premise is really interesting. It is just a shame that the movie turns into a bog-standard thriller which doesn't really make sense. I mean, there is some things that happen that make no sense at all - for example, when JT and Seyfried team up, they become Robin Hoods - stealing from the rich (her father) and giving to the poor. You would think she could use her knowledge of her father's operations to have a technical way to be able to steal, but no, instead they simply seem to be standard bank robbers and do smash and grab break ins. I mean, no-one else in this world ever thought of doing that? They don't seem to be very well protected, if two absolute beginners can achieve so much.

And Cillian Murphy's character, a timecop basically, does some very strange things which are never really explained - including being so caught up in chasing JT that by the exact time he catches up to them, he runs out of time himself, basically killing himself.

So, unfortunately it doesn't quite work. The problem with having such an interesting premise is that expectations start to rise, and when you don't reach them, you end up disappointed when it probably wasn't that bad overall. Probably not a movie that I will ever watch again, but I'm not sorry I watched it in the first place, if that makes sense.

Attack the Block
2011
Starring Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Franz Drameh, Simon Howard, Luke Treadaway, Jumayn Hunter, Nick Frost
Written & Directed by Joe Cornish

And finally (thank fuck I hear you say!), Attack the Block. Set on a council estate in South London on Bonfire night, the movie follows a street gang which have to defend themselves from hostile alien invaders.

Attack the Block doesn't muck around - it gets straight to it, and it needs to with an official running time of only 88 minutes, but around 79 minutes from my reckoning when it actually finishes. As you know, I like a short movie, so this is on a winner here already!

Much like Super 8 in a strange way, the film is carried by the predominantly young cast of the gang, and they perform very well. The characters themselves are not that likeable, which, reading some reviews on the Net, has turned off a lot of people from the movie. But I feel they have missed the point, which is yes, the gang of kids do lots of bad things, including ultimately being the reason why the aliens are after them, but the main character Moses comes to realise the results of his actions, and does stand up and take responsibility. And let's face it, you don't need to love every character in a movie, that's not the point, this is a horror-comedy much like some old school filmaking - tight environments, being attacked by an enemy you are not sure of, and having to survive to the end of the night.

For what it is, I quite enjoyed Attack the Block (once you get past the London-slang of the street gang which makes them a bit hard to follow to start with!). Jodie Whittaker really reminds me of someone, but I can't quite put my finger on it - Emily Mortimer maybe? Anyway, she is good as the victim who ultimately has to rely on the gang to save her life. I see that Joe Cornish hasn't directed anything before this, but he does have some good writing credits, including the current Tintin movie and the maybe-one-day coming Ant-Man movie!

You could do worse than watch Attack the Block. It certainly doesn't try and make the young gang-members into angels, and for that I am grateful, as it makes it much more realistic.

Well, that's it for this Review-A-Rama. If I ever find time to watch this many movies in such a short space, I'll do it again!

Retrospective - The Avengers

2011-12-27T00:17:00.005+10:00

This year was the fiftieth anniversary of the classic television series The Avengers. Given it's cult status and the fact it is a virtually iconic programme, it seems appropriate to take a little look back over the series, how it came about, and the impact it ultimately left.

The Avengers had it's origins in a television series called Police Surgeon which starred Ian Hendry as Dr Geoffrey Brent. Though the series was not a huge success, it's creator, Sydney Newman, who was the Head of Drama for the Associated British Corporation, felt that Hendry had star power, and consequently devised another programme which riffed off Police Surgeon, for Hendry to star in. The Avengers was created to be a gritty crime drama, and saw Hendry playing Dr David Keel, a character not too far removed from Dr Brent. Ingrid Hafner, one of Hendry's co-stars in Police Surgeon, moved across to play Keel's secretary Carol Wilson, and the new programme was produced by Surgeon's Leonard White. The first episode revolved around Keel being caught up in the murder of his fiance. He met up with a shadowy spy and the pair effectively avenged her death. From that point on, Keel would help the spy in his investigations, and one on occasion, carry out a mission he stumbled upon alone. Newman cast British actor Patrick Macnee, whom he had worked with in Canada, as the mysterious John Steed, Keel's shady colleague. It was a dark programme, but had some nice moments in it, and was much more successful than Police Surgeon.

Sydney Newman often stated that while he was responsible for creating iconic television programmes, he rarely understood what made them work (famously he created Doctor Who, but objected to the introduction of the Daleks). In the case of The Avengers, his instinct to cast Macnee was dead on, but his feeling that Hendry would be the star was what was wrong. At a time when spies were becoming more and more popular (the Patrick McGoohan programme Danger Man was already hugely successful, and the James Bond movies were just around the corner), it was John Steed that became the draw card for the programme. Quite aside from the love of spies the world was getting, there was no doubt that Patrick Macnee's natural charisma helped bring an already interesting character well and truly to life. As the first season continued, plans were made to change the format of the programme, but a strike saw the first season end prematurely. Oddly enough, this allowed the production team to implement their new changes even more effectively.

For season two, the decision was taken to reduce the number of episodes that would see Steed team up with Keel, and the remaining episodes would have a new partner for the spy introduced - a sultry lounge singer by the name of Venus Smith. Singer Julie Stevens was cast as Venus, and her episodes would include a short musical interlude where Stevens would show off her skills. However the strike saw Ian Hendry seeking other work, and when production was about to resume on The Avengers, Hendry's movie career was firmly in place. Jon Rollason was cast as Dr Martin King, a character who was Keel in all but name. However, Rollason was clearly not working for the programme, or for Patrick Macnee, and so a decision to recast was quickly made. However, with time not on their side, the character would still be just Dr Keel. Except for one small point which would change the direction the series would take forever - with little time to cast, Leonard White decided to cast someone who had already auditioned for him - Honor Blackman. The new character was Dr Catherine Gale.

This small casting decision meant a number of things. Firstly, with the striking out of women's liberation, a character who was female but playing a male part with only very minor adaptions was effectively the most liberated woman on television. Cathy Gale was an equal to John Steed in all things, and though writers started to change the character to be more "female", both Blackman and Macnee fought for the character to remain as powerful as she was. Cathy Gale would rescue John Steed as often as he rescued her; she would be more effective with a gun than Steed was, and as Steed became more of a dandy, she seemed less interested in fashion as well. On top of that, in her skin tight leather outfights, she was sexy to boot.

The character of Venus Smith was altered as filming progressed, making her a younger nightclub singer to better contrast with Cathy, and while Steed seemed quite taken with Cathy Gale (who showed little interested in him), Venus was smitten with Steed. But the chemistry between Macnee and Blackman was undeniable, and so as the seacond season drew to a close, changes were made. The character of Venus was dropped from the programme, and Steed's handlers (mysterious men with the codenames "1-10" or "1-12") were also written out. Steed's image in the second season - more businessman with bowler hat and umbrella than the trenchcoated archetype of the first season - impressed and remained the image that Steed would keep.

The third season saw Steed and Cathy partaking in adventures that started to become a little more surreal than the crime dramas of the previous seasons. Steed and Cathy flirted more, and Cathy even stayed in Steed's flat while work was done on hers. The decision was taken for Cathy to lose her gun, and instead she became an expert at judo, giving her more chance to tackle the villians hand to hand. This ensured that at all times Cathy and Steed were equals in their adventures, and the programme became progressive in a way that no other television programme had been at that time. But all good things come to an end, and as the movies beckoned Honor Blackman (well, Goldfinger beckoned, anyway), Cathy disappeared at the end of the season.

As the fourth season headed into production in a simliar vein to the third, a new character was created to join Steed on his adventures - a woman with man appeal or m-appeal, who was consequently named Emma Peel. New producers Brian Clemens and Albert Fennell cast Elizabeth Shepherd in the role, but after a production began it became apparent she was very wrong for the role. As such, recasting was required and Diana Rigg became the new Emma Peel. If lightning could be said to strike twice, it most certainly did on The Avengers, for the brilliant chemistry that Macnee and Blackman had was equalled, if not surpassed, by the chemistry between Macnee and Rigg. Emma Peel became the archetypal Avengers girl. Dressed in her leather catsuits, with a wry smile and a lot of flair, Mrs Peel took the show to new heights of popularity. While Steed seemed determined to pursue Cathy, his relationship with Emma was more recipricol; there was often the suggestion that there was perhaps more intimacy between the two than with Cathy, though nothing like this was ever made explicit (well, in the television show, anyway). More and more science fiction elements started to creep into the programme, with the Avengers going up against a robot army called Cybernauts at one point. Even on the production side things amped up a bit, with the series moving onto film for every episode. Additionally, the jazz theme that had been composed by Johnny Dankworth was replaced this season by Laurie Johnson's Avengers Theme which is the far more memorable of the two themes.

The fifth season brought colour with it, as well as a new wardrobe for Mrs Peel (Rigg not really liking the leather she had had to wear in the previous season). The stories became even more fanciful than before, and Steed's calling on his partner became a regular gag, creating the famous catchphrase "Mrs Peel, we're needed." A comic like tagline was also introduced to the beginning of the episode, although mid season both the "we're needed" scenes, and the taglines were dropped. This came after a production break and many actually split the fifth season into two seasons because of this. But the image and memories of The Avengers that most have were cemented in this season - outlandish adventures in an almost fairytale sixties England, with no blood and obscurely anagrammed organisations. This was the very definition of the sixties; of swinging London.

James Bond beckoned again, however, and Diana Rigg went off to marry George Lazenby, leaving The Avengers to search for a new leading lady, but this wasn't the only problem behind the scenes. Clemens and Fennell were fired and replaced by John Bryce, who had succeeded Leonard White. The network executives had decided the series had gotten too far from reality and hoped Bryce would return it to the way it had been during his time. Bryce decided to go against the thirty-something women that had been so popular, and cast his girlfriend, twenty year old Canadian, Linda Thorson as Tara King, another agent from Steed's department. With two agents on screen, it seemed only natural to introduce their boss as well - a corpulent man in a wheelchair named Mother (Patrick Newell), aided by his Amazonian assistant Rhonda (Rhonda Parker). Three episodes were filmed (the first being a double episode), but once the networks saw the blonde Thorson in action, Bryce was fired and Clemens and Fennel were called back. Thorson was turned into a brunette, Rigg came back for an episode to hand over to Tara, and the filmed episodes were hacked up and remade. Long time script editor Dennis Spooner noted that in this season things went really over the top. But the US had had enough of The Avengers and removed their financial back from the series, meaning it was no longer possible to make it. As such, when Steed and Tara went into space in the final episode, it would be the last we'd see of them - though Mother assured us they'd be back. And he was right.

It would be impossible to understate the impact The Avengers has had on popular culture - be it little things like bringing Honor Blackman and Diana Rigg to the attention of the producers of the James Bond films, or more notable things like Patrick Macnee effectively reprising the role of Steed in the Oasis music video for "Don't Look Back In Anger", or Marvel being inspired by an infamous episode of The Avengers to create the Hellfire Club and Jason Wyngarde (Peter Wyngarde appeared in the episode in question, and was most famous for playing the character Jason King in Department S).

In 1975, Macnee and Thorson reprised their roles for French champagne advertisement, and this inspired Fennell and Clemens to remake the series. The New Avengers debuted in 1976, and saw Macnee reprise the role of Steed, joined by Joanna Lumley as Purdey and Gareth Hunt as Mike Gambit, as there was some concern that Macnee was not in the best physical condition to do all the stuntwork required. Disturbed by this, Macnee began a fitness regieme that meant he was in very good condition for the second season. The New Avengers was less like the series that spawned it, and more like a 70's action show. However, money again became a problem for the series, and though it was regarded as a success, without cash, the second season was the final season of The New Avengers. In 1994 there was a great deal of interest in the video release of the programme, and Clemens and Fennell moved ahead with a new programme that would see the return of Purdey and Gambit, but for reasons that remain unknown, this never actually happened.

In 1998, a movie version of The Avengers came to the big screen with Ralph Fiennes as Steed and Uma Thurman as Mrs Peel, going up against Sean Connery as Sir August De Wynter. Patrick Macnee made a cameo as Invisible Jones, Steed's contact, and Jim Broadbent played Mother. The movie was not well received. The original film (almost two hours in length) was cut down by a half an hour, confusing audiences. Feeling like an attempt to mix all eras of the series, the movie never seemed to have an identity of its own, and while the series rested strongly on the chemistry between Macnee and his associates, none of this was present between Fiennes and Thurman.

But ultimately, it was all irrelevent. Even today there is still a great deal of love and nostalgia for the original The Avengers, and the DVD boxed set that was released this year is not only a brilliant collection of the original episodes (well, those that remain - a lot of the first season has been lost), but a testament to the love of the original series that there is. Someone once said that if ITV wanted to best the BBC's Doctor Who, it would need to bring back The Avengers. Despite my fan-ness for Who, I would love to see The Avengers return with the same level of love and care that the return of Doctor Who has. Until then, I'm sitting down tonight to continue my viewing of my fiftieth anniversary box set.

"Mrs Peel...we're needed!"

Review - Doctor Who: The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe

2011-12-27T00:15:00.001+10:00

It's traditional. It's been eagerly awaited. Yes, it's the return of Matt Smith in Doctor Who "The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe".

By now, I think it's safe to say, we know that Steven Moffat has a very different approach to Christmas Specials than Russell T Davies had. Whereas RTD saw the Christmas Specials as huge, action packed, bursts of energy, Moffat sees them as smaller, more romantic stories. Last year it was the simple story of teaching a man to love again, while this year it is the Doctor returning a favour and showing new friends a new world. It's hard to be miserable about it (though if you go to the Gallifrey Base forums, I'm sure that you'll find enough people who can prove me wrong).

I'd like to kick off by noting one thing that strikes me time and time again whenever this happens, and that is that Matt Smith's Doctor works extremely well with young children. I often felt that the eleventh Doctor seemed to work better with the young Amelia Pond, rather than the older Amy, and once more, with a younger girl by his side, the eleventh Doctor seems to be in his element. Oddly enough, more than other Doctors, the eleventh Doctor has a very paternal side to him, and I felt he was at his most interesting when exploring with Lily Arwell (played with precision by Holly Earl - who I note is 19, but the character isn't so I stand by what I said).

Meanwhile, nominal new companion (or at least acting companion) is Claire Skinner as Madge Arwell. Skinner is best known for Outnumbered, and is also married to regular Who director Charles Palmer, and she plays her part quite well, giving a nice earthiness to the woman who has just lost her husband (The Sarah Jane Adventures's Alexander Armstrong), and doesn't really know how to break it to her children. She is a kindly soul, and it's her decision to help the Doctor when he falls to Earth is what inspires him to return the favour. I have to admit that my only problem with Claire is that she just seemed to be there. She didn't grab me in a way that other one-off companions have, and as she didn't actually spend a lot of time opposite the Doctor (that was Lily), she made less of an impression. Maurice Cole as Cyril had a similar problem - he was effective in his role, but didn't have enough interaction with the Doctor, or enough screen time in general to really bring his character home.

Bill Bailey and Arabella Weir, on the other hand, were immediately endearing as their characters, and despite a relatively small appearance and not getting to meet the Doctor at all, there was such character in them that you immediately knew who they were. Perhaps my biggest complaint about these two was indeed the fact that there wasn't enough screen time given over to them - but in context of the story it's hard to see how they could be given any more, anyway. In this case, it's like wishing there were just a few more Picnic's in the Flavours box.

Ultimately I did enjoy this story, but not as much as the previous year's Christmas special, mainly because it felt a little too fluffy this time round (and also the fact that at the end, Reg Arwell's fighter was flying through the time vortex - how could that happen?). The final scene with the Doctor visiting Amy and Rory for Christmas was superb and brought a little tear to my eye, but when I leave the episode being struck the most by this small scene, it makes me realise how little the preceding fifty minutes meant to me. A lovely story, but merely a stocking filler this year, rather than an out and out gift.

Enterprise's Geek Pin-Up Girl

2011-12-24T00:10:00.003+10:00

December - Paula Patton

It's Christmas time and the new Mission: Impossible movie has just been released, so as a celebration of Christmas, and Tom Cruise, the pin up geek girl this month is none other than the beautiful Paula Patton. So let's see if we can take a walk down her geek memory lane.

Paula is 36 (gosh!), but curiously enough her acting career has only really taken off in the last few years. Before that, she spent most of her time behind the cameras on documentaries (which tends to point towards a certain geekiness in as of itself). But once in front of the cameras, she has got a few geek points to her name. Her first appearance was in Will Smith's Hitch, and then went onto films like London and Idlewild, before starring in the sci-fi film Déjà Vu, and followed this up by the horror film Mirrors. She was in Precious and Just Wright, before signing up for a regular gig on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as the new ADA, which she then tossed aside to do Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. She is also in the comedy Jumping The Broom, but her next big geek outing will be as the villainess in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? 2, which I think most people will have mixed feelings about. Regardless...

So charge your glasses and salute Paula Patton.

Review: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

2011-12-24T00:07:00.003+10:00

It's been a while since the IMF hit our screens (and by IMF, I mean Tom Cruise, as the rest of the team don't get much of a look in these days), and for some that's been a blessed relief. Whilst the first film pissed all over the television series that spawned it, like the Resident Evil films, it was still a good movie - just a poor Mission: Impossible movie. M:I-2, however, couldn't be said to be of quite the same standard, and though John Woo's style shone through every frame, and Hans Zimmer provided an incredible soundtrack (mostly plagarised from Gladiator), the best thing that can be said about M:I-2 is that it is the sole reason Hugh Jackman ended up getting the part of Wolverine (overshooting meaning that Dougray Scott was forced to stick with the mission). The best thing that can be said about Mission: Impossible 3 is that Simon Pegg was in it. Other than that it was a huge pile of turd.

Of course, by this stage, Tom Cruise was revealing just how completely fucking insane he truly is, and fingers were crossed that he had given up on the while Mission: Impossible idea (fans of the series, however, had been crossing their fingers long before this). However, six years later, and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol launches onto our screen amidst a flurry of rumours that Tom Cruise would be handing over to the increasingly popular Jeremy Renner (who is apparently fronting the new Bourne movies, as well as joining The Avengers). With the beautiful Paula Patton and ever reliable Simon Pegg on cast, a modicum of interest started to flare up, helped no end by Brad Bird being announced as the director. Bird has had an interesting journey getting to this point, directly mostly animated movies up until now, but he his style with films such as The Iron Giant and the superb The Incredibles indicated that Bird could be an inspired choice for director.

And, in truth, he is. Bird brings much of his vision from The Incredibles, along with composer Michael Galacchio, onto the film, and his style is clearly in the action sequences which are handled extraordinarily well. In truth, however, one gets the feeling that both Bird and Galacchio would have preferred to be making a James Bond film, as more often than not, there is an attempt to bring a Bondian flare to the movie. Galacchio's score is very much in the same style, and every so often you think to yourself that he would prefer to have been using Monty Norman's theme, rather than Lalo Schiffin's. But none of this detracts from the film in anyway, and in some cases adds to it, more than just a little.

The action sequences are the true stars of the film, particularly the extraordinarily tense scene of Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt making his way up the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Filmed for real, and with Cruise doing a lot of the work, it is easily the best scene in the entire film. For the rest of the film, the action is great, though the climactic fight is mostly nonsensical, and not helped by the movie's greatest failing. More on that soon.

Tom Cruise maybe nuttier than squirrel shit, but he's still a fairly solid actor, and the fact he is starting to look a little older, actually adds to the character of Ethan Hunt a great deal. However, his supporting cast completely blows him out of the water. It's almost impossible to take your eyes of the statuesque Paula Patton, and her fight with assassin Sabine (Lea Seydoux) is great fun, with a brilliant ending (though they missed a trick by not having Sabine's body land near Hunt as he makes his chase). Simon Pegg is again mostly comic relief, but he does get a little more action than last time. Ultimately though, he's playing the standard "Simon Pegg" character, which is great, but nothing eventful. Jeremy Renner, on the other hand, is very eventful. I've often seen him as the poor man's Daniel Craig, but he gets some great moments in the film, and often the film is split into Tom Cruise moments, and Renner/Patton/Pegg moments, the latter of which are much more fun than the former. The television series worked as an ensemble programme, and the movies generally work best in the same manner (you listening, Tom?), so that seeing the team in action is really good fun.

All that said, however, there doesn't seem to be any indication that Cruise is planning on leaving the series in a hurry, and while I would have no problem with Renner taking over as the lead full time, I don't really have a problem if we got to see the Cruise/Renner/Patton/Pegg team in the next film. That said, it would be nice to see a consistent team in these movies, rather than just randomly getting team members whenever the series feels like it. Again, movie series in general these days, make more of an effort to get a regular cast, and the Mission: Impossible films would do well to stick to this as well.

They would also do well to find a better story and screen writer, because the one thing that grossly lets down this film is a script that goes from average, to spectacularly stupid. There are some nice ideas in the film, but not a lot of them really string together very coherently, and there are plot holes in the movie so big, one of Dubai's infamous sandstorms could fly through it without making much of a dent. For instance, when the Kremlin is bombed, given that the nuclear codes were in the building and were specifically in the area that was bombed, regardless of whether you thought they were stolen or not, wouldn't you change them, just based on the fact that someone was able to sneak into that room and plant a bomb there?

"Someone got into the room where we keep the top secret nuclear codes and planted a bomb!"
"Did they take the codes?"
"We're not sure...they exploded the bomb."
"Ah, should be all right then."
"You did hear me say 'we're not sure', didn't you?"

Equally, by the end, the movie just gets sillier and sillier, climaxing in the aforementioned scene where Ethan Hunt goes on the chase for the villainous Michael Nyqvist's Kurt Hendricks. Quite aside from the fact that Nyqvist never quite sells as a villain, and how a middle aged, slightly overweight man is able to outrun a trained IMF agent aside, the fight as they try to get hold of the suitcase holding the destruct sequence for the nuclear missiles is just purely ridiculous. There are other things in the movie that Brad Bird should probably have paid a little more attention to (quite why, as Ethan Hunt flees a sandstorm, the people around him are running towards it, would be one of my top five), but they are nitpicking little things. That said, let me give a little bit more of a nitpick and say that Ving Rhames and Michelle Monaghan's cameos in the movie are completely stupid. Rhames' couldn't be anymore gratuitious, and Monaghan's not only makes Jeremy Renner's character look pretty crap as an agent, but also begs the question why Ethan Hunt married her in the first place, if his plan was to shut her out of his life on their honeymoon.

If Tom Cruise doesn't return, I can't help feeling that the climax should have seen Ethan Hunt die in his fight with Hendricks. Quite aside from the fact it would have been one hell of an ending, and a real climax (Hunt and Hendricks locked in battle to the death), it would have given a lot more gravitas to Rhames and Monaghan's cameos if they were at Hunt's funeral.

Ultimately, though, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is an entertaining action flick which works best if you just switch off and let it happen. The moment you start to think about it, is the moment you will start to wonder how many monkeys wrote the script, and that's not a good thing for any movie.

Movie Review: Drive

2011-12-13T19:13:00.000+10:00

Drive
2011
Starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, Albert Brooks
Written by Hossein Amini (based on the book by James Sallis)
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

So, I haven't posted anything in a while, relying on Ry to keep the Enterprise flying. And he's done a fantastic
job, but I thought I had better pull my weight round here or risk getting cut from the crew! Last night I sat down and watched Drive, and here's what I thought:

1. 2011 seems to be the year of Ryan Gosling - well for me anyway. Before this year, I could count the number of movies of his I have seen on 1 finger - being Lars & The Real Girl. But so far this year I have seen both Crazy, Stupid, Love and The Ides of March (neither of which I have reviewed here at the Enterprise but both of which I heartily recommend, with Gosling's performances very strong). And now, Drive.

2. Gosling plays an unnamed character (the "Driver") who is a stunt driver for Hollywood films, and moonlights as a getaway driver. During the day he also works at a garage, run by Shannon (Bryan Cranston). Shannon is involved with some shady characters (Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman) for funding. Driver becomes friends with his neighbour (Carey Mulligan) and her son, while her husband is in jail. After the husband is released, he gets caught up with the wrong crowd and Driver is required to help out with his special skills to try and save the wife & son from repercussions.

3. Great cast for this film, and every performs well. Bryan Cranston is always good, as is Ron Perlman and Albert Brooks. I have only ever seen Carey Mulligan in one thing before, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, which let's face it, sucked harder than a pornstar at her day job, so I wasn't sure how good Mulligan was - but she put in a strong performance here. But it is Gosling's movie, and he broods his way through it admirably. I think he was better in The Ides of March, but the 2 roles are completely different and hence he plays them differently.

4. This is Director Nicolas Winding Refn's first US film, being Danish. And he obviously has an eye for the type of movie he wanted, right down to the choice of music. I turned to J during the movie and said "isn't the music very 80's", and it is, but not in a "put a Hits Out 87 CD on" type of way but just the feel and style of the music.

5. Just an aside here, it wasn't until the end credits that I saw the name Russ Tamblyn pop up - yes, for those Twin Peaks fans among you that is Russ "Dr Jacoby" Tamblyn. But it must be a blink and you'll miss it role because I don't recall seeing him.

6. I've read some reviews of this film that are shocked by the violence in the movie - and to be fair, it's pretty full on. I think what shocks is that it is quite a way into the film before anything violent happens, and when it does it is pretty explosive, so people aren't ready for it (it's not like you are really expecting it like you would be if you were watching a horror movie for example). So yes, it is violent, but I think it is good that a movie shows "realistic" violence - if someone shoots you in the head with a shotgun for example, it's not going to be pretty, and the movie portrays this.

Drive does have it's faults, not least of which is the ending, in which the actions of Driver, who seems to be quite smart and handled things well up until then, makes a decision / simple error which surely he would have known to avoid. But apart from that, the movie is quite good. The opening getaway sequence which introduces us to Driver is fantastic and different than a traditional Hollywood car chase scene. Overall, a good way to spend Saturday night and I look forward to Refn making more American movies in the future!

Two new "lost" Dr Who episodes found!

2011-12-12T11:17:00.000+10:00

In some early Christmas news for Dr Who fans, two old formally lost episodes have now been found!

As you may or may not know, in days gone by the BBC had a policy of not keeping copies of their programs, routinely junking or wiping tapes for re-use - hey, we didn't always have digital and gigabytes of storage! Early Dr Who was particularly affected, with 108 episodes (mainly Patrick Troughton but some William Hartnell as well) considered lost. Over the years, this number was higher and many episodes have been found - usually from some far off territory (such as here in Australia) where the BBC sent copies of the episodes and they were never returned. However, it has been some 7 years since any discoveries, and it is getting harder and harder to find any more, leading people to believe the final episodes (now 106) are gone forever.

So, while these episodes may not be any fan's dream, it is good news that anything has been found at all. Let's all hope that further episodes can still be discovered in the future!

Current Doctor Matt Smith agrees
this is good news!

Retrospective - Planet Of The Apes series

2011-12-03T21:06:00.004+10:00

Yes, the Enterprise has convened again for a walk back through memory lane and this time, rather than taking on a horror series, we're going sci-fi with Planet Of The Apes!

The first movie is based loosely on a novel by Pierre Boulle, and the plot of that novel (which was originally called Monkey World) is sort of in Planet Of The Apes. Sort of.

Watching the movie with a view to seeing it for the very first time is extraordinarily difficult. The ending is so monumentally famous that any hidden clues about what that ending is going to be now seem signposted by neon lights. The crew getting the Eart date at the beginning of the film (in a scene that we at the Enterprise had completely forgotten had even existed) and Cornelius' discovery of the Earth relics in the archeaology site, seem to scream that Taylor is still on Earth (how could he have been that surprised by the ending?). And yet, I wonder if it's because we're so familiar with the ending we are noticing those clues more so.

Given that this is the first film in the franchise, it's also easy to forget that this wasn't the first of the Apes series when it was released, but rather it was a Charlton Heston vehicle. Heston dominates the entire movie, swaggering along with a stogie in his mouth and a smile that suggests he's merely seconds away from punching you in the face. Heston actually isn't that brilliant an actor, but there's something tremendously compelling about him that he brings every scene he's in to life. The film benefits so much from him that it's not funny, and we'll see why this is true in the sequel.

The supporting cast all struggle to make an impact for a variety of reasons. Kim Hunter, Roddy McDowall and Maurice Evans are all hidden behind their ape masks, while Robert Gunner disappears not long into the film, and Linda Harrison doesn't get a single line in the entire film. However, all do actually make an impression in spite of the odds against them, with the apes of particular note.

And the ape masks are actually pretty good, and stand the test of time relatively well. There's perhaps not as much movement about the mouth as you might expect from a modern film, but the mask is quite seemless and well made. There does appear to be three distinct sort of masks as well, though it's not entirely made clear in this movie what that difference is supposed to represent (though there does seem to be a warrior class, a government class and a scientific class).

Mi made the observation that older films seem to take more risks than modern films, in terms of sound and photography. Whilst those risks might not always pan out (and you may remember our observations about the Amityville series, in particular the first one), it's still to the filmmakers credit that they tried. Perhaps, though, there was less need to make a massive impact on opening weekend in the 60's, than there is today. Certainly the music (by Jerry Goldsmith) is a lot more experimental that his traditional orchestral scores, and the scoundscape is occasionally quite abstract.

Ultimately, Planet Of The Apes is a damned good film. Not in terms of the impact it has on popular culture (when Evans first appears on screen, both Mi and Ry burst into "Dr Zaius" from The Simpsons), or indeed on the legacy it has left on film in general, but simply because it's a very entertaining film that keeps you engrossed and interested until the very end.

Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, not so much so.

Goldfinger scribe, Paul Dehn, takes over scripting responsibilities for this film (I forgot to mention that one of the co-writers of the original film is Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling), and he seems to have decided to just throw a whole heap of things into the mix in the hope that an amazing and clever movie will come out as a result. Most of the ideas, however, just simply don't flow. And worse, the film has Heston for just a few minutes.

James Fransciscus takes over as star of the movie, and ostensibly he seems to have been cast for a striking similarity to Heston - one wonders if people might have been fooled when watching the trailer into thinking that this was another Heston film. It's not until Heston appears at the end that you realise that Fransciscus really is the poor man's Heston, as Charles himself literally towers over James in both size and presence. And whereas the original film was entertaining simply by Heston's sheer charisma, without it, Beneath has to rely on it's plot and that is something that it really couldn't afford to do.

A fair bit of retconning has taken place (and Roddy McDowall has left the cast to be replaced by someone who ultimately makes little difference because Cornelius barely appears). Now the class of apes is actually distinct by type - the warriors are gorillas, the scientists chimpanzees and it's never quite clear what Zaius and his lot are supposed to be. There's a fair bit of division between them as well, with gorilla Ushas (played by James Gregory) determined to go to war (against whom is also not really clear - perhaps it's the devolved humans, though they hardly seemed like much more than a pest in the first film), and wants to take his army to the place where Heston makes his first few minutes discovering special effects. Fransciscus, having stumbled on Linda Harrison (who is given considerably more to do in this film than be Charlton Heston's bitch), also goes to the area to find Heston, and instead discovers a group of humans who are intelligent and highly evolved, though wear masks to cover the fact they are all freaky veined albinos in real life (it's not quite clear why they wear masks because they all look the same...). As if that weren't confusing enough, there's a nuclear bomb in the place that Charlton Heston knows about (suggesting that the war took place not long after 1972) and everyone wants to set it off. Then Dehn remembers the apes part of the title, and suddenly they return to the plot. Silly is perhaps a tactful way of putting it.

Everywhere the original movie succeeds, the sequel fails. A sub rate lead, a sub rate plot, and characters that are so different from their original appearance you wonder what happened between films (Zaius is the greatest victim of this, apparently completely changing personalities overnight).

It doesn't bode well that the Apes series bombs out in the second film, but hopefully the next one will have some more redeeming qualities.

Game Review - Batman: Arkham City

2011-12-03T20:59:00.002+10:00

We don't often look at the gamer side of geekdom here on the Enterprise, though in truth we aren't averse to that sort of thing - we just feel it's probably best left to those who are better versed in that kind of thing than we are (hello Rayfield!). However, with the release of Batman: Arkham City, and the fact we have no idea what the fuck is going on with Rayfield's gamer website, I thought I'd take the opportunity to have a quick review of this much hyped game.

Let me kick off by saying that I am not a hardcore Batman fan, but I really did enjoy Batman: Arkham Asylum which was a game that brought to life the character of Batman and managed to balance quite nicely the world of the comics and the movies and, more importantly, the Bruce Timm cartoon series that was very popular in the 1990's. Using the cartoon series voices - in particular Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill as Batman and the Joker - gave me great joy as I feel that those two are almost the definitive Batman and Joker for me.

Batman: Arkham City is mostly a sequel to the previous game, bringing back the majority of voice artistes (and most importantly Conroy and Hamill), whilst expanding the world of the original game. Arkham now occupies a large part of Gotham City, and the prisoners are all holed up inside, fighting for supremacy under the control of Doctor Hugo Strange. To be honest, it's a bit of a nuts premise to begin with - I can't really see anyone in their right mind thinking that cordoning off a section of the city and dumping every prisoner of the city in there being a great idea. Variously we are led to believe that Hugo Strange is working with the council who are all corrupt, but it's quite a leap.

And from that point, the story really doesn't hold up anywhere nearly as well as the previous game. There are layers upon layers to unravel, but it reaches a point where it's all just a bit ridiculous. Who's behind Hugo Strange? Who's behind him? Who's the mysterious opponent? Who's the real mysterious opponent? But who's behind the real mysterious opponent? By that point you can't help but wonder if the writers of the game weren't trying just a little too hard.

The gameplay is very similar to the previous game which is both good and bad. Good in that if you've played Asylum you'll be au fait with the controls; bad in that there aren't a lot of refreshers on the way to remind you of what you should be doing. In order to make the gameplay a little more challenging, you do need to switch off detective mode fairly frequently, something which was almost unnecessary in the previous game.

On the downside, there's little difference from the first game in approach and tactics, and disappointingly, the fight against the Penguin about a third into the game is almost mirrored exactly when you battle your final mysterious opponent. So while the game isn't a disaster, I think it lacks the spark and ingenuity of its predecessor. Additionally the background dialogue about women does reach a point where it's almost a little too sexist. Catwoman's character - who I only briefly encountered as I was unable to download her - seems to be nothing more than a walking sexball. (That said I did love the appearance of Robin).

Finally, and this should be noted, I had reached 49% of the game, and was in the process of completing side missions and finding Riddler trophies (there are 400 of them in this game, which borders on ridiculous, to be honest) when the game suddenly couldn't find my saved game. I could see the saved game on the hard drive, but the game just refused to acknowledge it was there. I did some research and discovered that this is actually a common fault, but can occur anywhere between 30% and 96% completion. For this single reason, until the game is actually fixed, I would strongly recommend not getting it. When it is all patched up, go for it, but whilst it has this very big fault, I'd sit back and wait for the next movie.

Stop Worrying And Learn To Love Yates' Doctor Who

2011-12-03T20:54:00.003+10:00

David Yates was interviewed on the red carpet the other day about his plans for the Doctor Who movie which amounted to little more than we had already heard the man say - he was seeking out a writer to bring it to life. However, it prompted an interesting response from Steven Moffat who, the last time Yates spoke, seemed to know nothing about a movie and indeed suggested it would have nothing to do with them. This time, Mr Moffat, has said that any movie would be made by the current development team, would star the current Doctor and would not be a Hollywood reboot. Which seems to be the exact opposite of what David Yates originally said - it would be a reboot, it would not have anything to do with Steven Moffat and would be independant of the television series. Clearly there is some miscommunication somewhere, or alternatively, someone is a very unhappy showrunner.

Fans, of course, have fallen apart at the merest suggestion that the movie should be a reboot, and having retrieved their daggers from Steven Moffat's back, they quickly plunged them into David Yates'. But is Yates' original plan such a bad idea?

The first thing that should be noted is that Yates hasn't actually committed to directing the movie - he's merely developing it with Jane Tranter. It does seem very likely that the man would direct, and frankly he's probably the best person for the job. His handling of the Harry Potter films was nothing short of superb, and he seems to understand how a film of a different media needs to be made; getting rid of what is unnecessary and refining the story to be film friendly. In truth, fans should be happy that someone like Yates is the man being entrusted with the film.

So, should Steven Moffat, or even Russell T Davies be involved? The fact is that both these gentlemen would probably be more than a little miffed if, on being given the show, they were told to go back and consult with their predecessors for a bit of advice. At best it smacks of unprofessionalism; at worst it indicates that the choice to make the film was not the right one at all. David Yates, like Davies, Moffat and all of their predecessors, should be given the freedom to develop Doctor Who in whatever manner he so chooses. To be forced to fall in line with another's creative vision is a waste of getting someone like Yates to make the film.

Now, before we move onto the next point, let me make one thing clear - I want the UK television series to remain on air, being made every year, as has been the status quo since 2005. Now I say this, because we need to understand one thing - if a movie uses the current television Doctor (and let's be serious, by the time the film is made it won't be Matt Smith), the television show will be suspended. It is simply not feasible for an actor to make a big-budget sci-fi Doctor Who film and a full 14 episode series of Doctor Who in one year. If the movie goes ahead with the current Doctor, the series will be put on hold for at least a year. If the movie is successful, the BBC may even consider ending the series. After all in a time when the BBC is strapped for cash, if Hollywood can provide money to bring a big budget Who film in every couple of years, why waste their own to make a series? From a purely economic point of view, it would make more sense to end the series and let the movies progress, making money for the BBC without the series costs involved.

I don't care if there is a US version of Doctor Who, of if there is a big screen reboot, I don't want to see the television series end. And if a reboot is what it takes to keep me getting 13 episodes every year on BBC1, then I say reboot for all it's worth.

Everyone needs to get a slight sense of perspective in regards to this movie. A big screen Doctor Who movie will need to be a success internationally, and most importantly America. You can pretend all you like, but the truth is that, at present, Doctor Who is not an American success. Yes, it rates very well on BBC America, but if it went to NBC or CBS and had those same ratings, it would be cancelled within three weeks. The Playboy Club was getting three times the ratings Doctor Who gets in America, and it was canned after three weeks. Doctor Who is lucky in America as, on BBC America, the rules are different. A successful movie cannot rely on the television series to make it in America. Fans will see it no matter what, and the English audience will also see it. More importantly, the general English audience won't care if it's a reboot.

Finally, we also have to realise that reboots are not the kiss of death they use to be. Casino Royale breathed new life into the James Bond franchise and was more successful than Die Another Day. The Star Trek reboot proved that that franchise also had a life in it, despite the fact that the last few films and television series seemed to suggest it was on it's very last legs. But take another angle - the Ultimate Marvel reboot comics were just as successful as the regular series (more so in some cases), and both were running at the same time. Though Doctor Who is in a healthy position, a reboot film could be just as good as the series that spawned it, and if handled by a competent production team (and at present it seems that that seems to be in place), then we could get the best of both worlds - a regular television series, and a regular movie series. Really, what's not to like?

Review - Immortals

2011-12-03T20:49:00.002+10:00

There's a point about a quarter of the way into Immortals when the Oracle (Freida Pinto) and her three colleagues are all lined up beside a drinking hole which looks suspiciously like a rich kid's wading pool), and look a little like a lampshade display. I start with this observation for two reasons; firstly, there are a lot of moments in this film that are just a little weird and you have to wonder either what's going on, or what's actually curious in this particular scene.

Secondly, there are a lot of silly hats in this movie. A lot of silly hats.

300 has an awful lot to answer for. Sometime after this movie came out, people realised that there was a market for films built around the ancient times, particularly incorporating the Greek gods, because those guys are always a lot of fun. It also proved that you can make a whole movie against a green screen. Sometimes these movies are really good, sometime they are a bit rubbish, and sadly Immortals falls into the "bit rubbish" category.

The cast is not particularly noteworthy. Mickey Rourke plays King Hyperion who has decided he is going to get the Bow of Espirus in order to release the Titans to...well, it's not clear what he plans to do with them. Ostensibly it seems that he wants the Titans to kill the Gods, but he makes it clear he doesn't believe in the gods, so it seems a bit of an odd exercise. Rourke plays his usual character, gravel voiced, snarling and just a bit fat in his outfit. Having complained that Marvel stopped him from creating a wonderfully, in-depth three-dimensional character in Iron Man 2, presumably he'll be complaining about a similar thing in this film. Hyperion is evil for the sake of being evil. He disfigures his soldiers and crushes their testicles, muttering something about the entire world being remade in his image. If that means he plans on repopulating Earth with all the women he can find, he's certainly set himself up a task and a half. And for most of the movie, he wears an astonishingly silly hat, that looks like a claw with a lot of teeth around the face area.

His opponent is Theseus, played by the new Superman, Henry Cavill. Cavill is slick as the hero, and after seeing this I have every confidence for him as Superman. Sadly, he lacks the charisma to make this movie work without a plot or great supporting cast. The rest of the cast includes John Hurt as a strange old man, Isabel Lucas getting her boobs out as Athena, Luke Evans as Zeus (after playing Apollo in Clash Of The Titans - stereotyped or what?) and Stephen Dorf as Theseus' mate, who seems a womaniser but never actually gets a woman. Oh, and Freida Pinto who is most notable in this film for the moment she strips down to nothing, which surprised most of the audience I was with. We weren't prudes, but it did seem a little unexpected in the film.

If I were honest, the thing that irked me most about this film was the way that it dealt with the Greek Gods. Despite the movie being called Immortals, there seems to be no actual immortals in it. The Gods are killed by the Titans, the Titans are killed by the Gods, and Theseus is a mortal from the outset. The film presents us with the Gods and their amazing power, but shies away from having a real minotaur running around the labyrinth for Theseus to kill. A lot of aspects of the film are designed to look amazing without adhering to any particular form of common sense - the Titans number about twelve in the stone box they are locked in, but once released they just seem to multiply. Although there were twelve Olympian Gods that I remember, and a ton more beyond that, in this film only six gods ever make an appearance. Even when the Titans are released, only five of them show up. And in Olympus they all wear really silly hats.

As usual there is no good use made of the 3D, and the sound for this movie seemed terrible - rather than a soundscape of fighting, it was more an onslaught of sounds that all melded together without giving the listener any clear indication of what they were hearing. The film looks fantastic, and should definitely be seen on the big screen. Once you reduce that to the size of a television, no matter how big, you won't capture the enormous vistas that director Tarsem Singh clearly wanted you to see.

But, in truth, this film has no real teeth. It wants to be something amazing, but comes across as a limp blanket. There will no doubt be a sequel, but hopefully the script will actually amount to something. In the meantime, I'm going to continue to cross my fingers and hope for a film where the Greek Gods are presented in a truly spectacular way.

Enterprise's Geek Pin-Up Girl

2011-11-28T10:04:00.003+10:00

November - Lauren Cohan

If you've been watching the new series of The Walking Dead you may have noticed that there is a new...well, just a sexy character on screen these days, in the form of Maggie Greene, as played by Lauren Cohan. She's hot alright, a little bit moody and keen to get her kit off in abandoned pharmacies, but geek worthy? Well, actually very much yes.

28 year old Lauren started her career in 2005 with a movie called The Quiet Assassin, but managed to get down to her underwear in National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise Of Taj which she probably never talks about (being in the movie, that is, not being scantily clad). She has continued to work in movies occasionally, most recently in Death Race 2 this year. However, she got a fair dose of geek cred when she won the recurring role of Bela in Supernatural, a role which she held for two years. Other appearances in things like Modern Family, CSI: NY and Cold Case have peppered recurring roles in The Vampire Diaries and Chuck which put her geek-ness quite high. And most importantly, this year she took on the role of Maggie in The Walking Dead, a role which, if the comics are anything to go by, should see her working for the next couple of years.

So charge your glasses and salute Lauren Cohan.

Review - Shark Night 3D

2011-11-28T09:47:00.001+10:00

Jaws proved one important thing - the combination of hot young girls in bikinis and sharks is a definite money spinner. Three spin-offs and multiple copycats later brings us to Shark Night 3D which is one of those movies that really is so terrible it's great. Craptastic, was the word used, and you can't deny it. And it really doesn't stray to far from the "hot young girls in bikinis and sharks" formula that has served so well for so long.

But let's be critical here, and the first thing we need to look at is the 3D which, like so many movies, makes absolutely no difference whatsoever to the film. Yes there are a few moments where blood seems to float out of the screen, and two moments featuring sharks leaping out of the water are enhanced by the 3D, but for the remaining 95% of the film it's a complete waste of time. Mr M even went so far as to point out towards the end of the film, that we could take our 3D glasses off and watch without any significant loss of picture. It's a sad state of affairs when the 3D effect is only noticeable in the pattern on the shirt some guy is wearing.

Sara Paxton heads the cast - the star of such great films as Aquamarine and, er...The Last House On The Left, Ms Paxton looks amazing in a blue bikini. Which is good, because once she changes into it when the random group of students reach the remote island they are vactioning on, she doesn't get out of it for the rest of the film. It's also good because she actually doesn't have much of a role in the film. At one point, when the writer or director suddenly realised that the actions of her character were making no sense, she suddenly spouts a story that is so wildly amazing you can't help but laugh at it (and Ms Paxton's desperation to make the story believable only helps the humour).

Dustin Milligan of 90210 fame, and Chris Carmack of The OC are the two male leads, and both are just bizarre. Milligan plays a geek (we know he's a geek because he wears big black glasses in his first appearance) who is secretly in love with Sara Paxton, while Carmack plays a tattooed thug who is not-so-secretly in love with Sara Paxton. Milligan's character - a medical student - does actually get to have some good moments in the film, while Carmack is obviously completely bewildered with what he's supposed to be doing, attempting to find some balance between the potential rekindling of his love with Sara, and the fact he's actually a complete psycho who wants to watch sharks eat people.

That was the plot of the film, by the way, in case you just missed it. Group of guys - obviously having watched too much Scream - decide to film people getting eaten by sharks to make a new reality show. It'll probably be a huge success.

Chris Zylka, Joel David Moore and Sinqua Walls play the remainder of the guys - a narcacisstic model, a geek and the token black guy who is the only person to kill a shark by punching it in the head repeatedly before stabbing it. It's a great moment of the film and kept me entertained for hours later. Katharine McPhee and Alyssa Diaz also look fabulous in bikinis (or in McPhee's case, her underwear), and again that's good because they have very little character outside of that. The only two remaining cast members are Donal Logue and Joshua Leonard, one of whom is not who he appears to be. I won't ruin it for you, because I'm sure you want to be shocked and surprised when the shock and surprise happens.

It's a terrible film that is so ridiculous it can't help but entertain for the entire running time. Strangely enough, though, the excesses of this kind of movie - lots of gore and nudity - are actually non-existant, as though it were the intention, but no one had the guts to really pull it off, and there are moments when that shows. It's a little like a serial killer who's a bit coy about actually carrying out his job, and the movie does suffer a little because of this. Still, there were one or two moments when I was genuinely shocked by something and that's rare in horror films, so this one does have some achievements under its belt.

David R Ellis, the director of this masterpiece, also directed Final Destination 2, The Final Destination and Snakes On A Plane, but this movie isn't anywhere near as good as those films. It's a great film to turn off to and simply watch, and one that will get better the more pissed you are, or the later at night it is. Not a masterpiece, but there are less entertaining pieces of shit out there.

Loving The Doctor Who Telemovie - Part 3

2011-11-18T00:03:00.003+10:00

And so we come to the delayed part three of our look back at the Paul McGann telemovie. Last we saw of the Master, he was discovering that the Doctor is half human (kept that one a secret, didn't he?), while the Doctor was having a mild fit in a park and scaring poor Grace into locking herself into her house.

From this point on in the movie the witty dialogue kicks it up a gear. The Doctor and Grace are just brilliant with each other, particularly with McGann's delivery. In fact, from this point on as well, McGann really settles into the role and just establishes his Doctor very, very clearly. He's singularly fantastic and, criticise Philip Segal all you like, the truth is he must have some pretty good ideas about what was going on, given that he wanted McGann from the very outset. Everyone seems to understand that they are delivering clever and funny lines, but I think Eric Roberts is perhaps the only one who isn't giving it quite the seriousness that it deserves. McGann in particular is extremely straight in his portrayal and makes it even better. We don't have cliffhangers in this story (obviously), but we do have "go to ad break" moments, and the Doctor opening the door to the Master and they meet eyes is one of my favourites.

More great dialogue in the back of the ambulance, and you can't deny that this exchange is brilliant:

Grace: "I suppose you knew Madame Curie as well?"
Doctor: "Intimately."
Grace: "Did she kiss as good as me?"
Master: "As well as you."

Sold even more by the Doctor and Grace's reaction to the Master.

And here we come to one of the most Doctor-y moments in the entire film. (Incidentally, there was supposed to be some dialogue about how there was a crash on the highway which caused all the chickens to go free. Hence the chickens.) The Doctor whips out a gun and...points it directly at himself. This is absolutely perfect. There's always something mildly distasteful when the Doctor takes a gun and points it at people (The Seeds of Doom I'm looking at you), and worse if the Doctor uses it (I'm sorry Day of the Daleks, did the Doctor just kill an Ogron because it glanced in the Doctor's direction???). Here we have the Doctor pointing the gun at himself, and it's just one of those great moments when the Doctor can take a situation and turn it on its head. And it's absolutely perfect.

But of course this leads directly into the big chase sequence in the film which many people point at and say "AMERICANISATION!!!!!" Yup, it's very American. And Doctor Who, of course, has never had chase sequences in it...oh, well except for that entire episode in Planet of the Spiders! And, of course, I maintained earlier that this movie really influenced the new series more than we care to admit, and quite aside from the relationship between the Doctor and his companion, can we all remember the various action sequences in The Runaway Bride and Voyage of the Damned. Again, everybody raged at the telemovie, but it happened, so we were accepting of it when it came about in the new series.

McGann's Doctor has some great little quirks in the entire ITAR sequence, such as stopping Grace from taking a glass of champagne, or snatching the director's passcard. But this sequence brings up two things. Firstly, the Doctor specifically states to Grace that Time Lords can change species. Now, this is a slightly odd thing to say and doesn't entirely make a lot of sense, given the fullness of time. Certainly to this point it seems quite sensible (after all, Romana regenerates into a blue fish person in Destiny of the Daleks, and from this conversation, it's pretty obvious that the intention was to suggest that the Master regenerated into that morphant creature at the beginning (something that novelist Gary Russell and first writer of the Eighth Doctor Adventures Terrance Dicks completely disagree with). However, the Romana sequence and this particular line don't make sense of identifying Time Lord's physiognomy through double hearts and the like...after all, they could regenerate into a species that don't have that. And, since then, of course, the Doctor revealed the chameleon arch which allows a Time Lord to change species...hmmm? Of everything in the film, it's actually this bit that makes the least sense.

We also get the Doctor again affirming he's half-human on his mother's side. Now, fans say the Doctor was just joking with the director (and certainly the fact Grace says "I think you must be" does seem a bit like a joke), except...well, except the Master already identified the Doctor as such. And, again, it's never been contradicted by the rest of the series, ever.

Some nice bits at the TARDIS - the key in the cubbyhole above the "P", and also the motorbike guy going in and out. Chuckles galore. But Richard Hudolin deserves to take center stage at this point because his design of the console room really comes to the fore from this point on, and Geoffrey Sax's direction, and particularly Glen MacPherson's photography is astounding. There's just so much to drink in and love with these sequences that you can't help but be impressed. Equally, also coming to the fore as of this point, is editor Patrick Lussier. Lussier edited a lot of Wes Craven's films, and has since gone on to directing a lot of horror as well. He really has a great eye for editing, and the sequences from this point on are so brilliant.

Eric Roberts is having so much fun as the Master here, though his sudden visciousness, first with Lee and then with Grace is quite shocking. He really brings a different dimension to the Master; in many ways a far scarier version than any of the others have ever achieved. You genuinely believe that the Master would kill you for no reason. Of course, we then get to the plot which creates a lot of confusion. "What's a temporal orbit?" Grace screams at one point, and apparently most of the audience did as well. I'm not quite sure why it's so difficult to understand. The Eye of Harmony is the source of the TARDIS' power. It's a black hole and when it opens it releases the energy that powers the TARDIS. When that energy is depleted, there is nothing to stop the Earth from being sucked into it, and then setting off the chain reaction that will destroy the rest of the galaxy. The TARDIS is set in temporal orbit with the Eye open; a temporal orbit, presumably being an orbit around a point in time, rather than a point in space. So the TARDIS is effectively moving back and forth around December 31st, and is therefore reasorbing all the energy back into the Eye so that at the precise moment the Earth is sucked into the black hole, the Eye is recharged and the Earth isn't sucked in after all.

Just as interesting is Grace and Chang Lee coming back to life. Now, the truth of the matter is, the writer's intention is that time has been rewound and Grace and Chang Lee were brought back to life by that. However, that isn't what remotely happens on the screen - instead some form of energy brings the pair back to life. Thanks to the new series, we can retroactively say that the energy is regenerative energy (it looks exactly like what the Doctor expels when he regenerates, and he breathes it out later). I'm not saying that the new series was inspired by the movie in this regard, or even that the new series used regenerative energy to correct the telemovie. I'm just saying that now we can do it.

And there we have what could have been the TARDIS crew for 1997. Apparently, though, neither Lee nor Grace were intended to return, though Daphne Ashbrook did say she would have been more than happy to do so. I do think we missed out on something here, sadly.

Lee runs off as the Doctor gives another tip about the future, and Grace rejects her tip in favour of a snog. And her decision to stay is a neat reversal of what usually happens. "You stay with me," she offers. They snog under the New Year's fireworks, and part company. It's funny, but in a short time, McGann and Ashbrook created some real chemistry and there is a genuine sadness that they are parting company.

We have this look which I think is brilliant. McGann completely sells the lonely wanderer in time and space with just one look. In some ways I think the movie should have ended here, rather than the extra coda of the Doctor getting into trouble again, but the coda does bring the movie full circle which is nice. It's a tricky one, I guess we could just say it works either way.

And that's the end of the telemovie. Paul McGann's only outing as the Doctor, and yet it made an impact, not just on Doctor Who mythology, but also on the series that followed it. As a pilot for a new series, it really delivers the goods, though perhaps it actually should have had less ties to the classic series. Nonetheless, it was a brilliant success in England, while in America, people were more interested in John Goodman having a heart attack on Roseanne. It's a tough break, guys.

Illegal Downloads Killed The Video Star

2011-11-15T10:00:00.002+10:00

This week AFACT (Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft) shut down pirate websites that were allowing people to download the television series The Slap - including a Dutch torrent website diwana.org. It's a huge step in the fight against piracy, but it does start to raise some interesting questions.

There seem to be (broadly speaking) two types of pirates when it comes to illegal downloads; those that are tight and refuse to spend money going to see movies at the cinema or buying DVDs; and those that want to watch their television programmes as soon as possible. Now if everyone fell into the first category, then we'd have big problems with the movie industry as distributors would effectively fold (and remember that it's actually the distribution companies who suffer from piracy, not actually the production companies - though, of course, if a distributor collapses it has a severe impact on the production companies as well).

I don't really hold with illegal downloads for the sake of saving money. They are a product, after all, and if you would pay to see them normally, then you should. However, I do wonder if you can get away with justifiable homicide, then can you get away with justifiable piracy?

For those pirates who don't do it to save money, the reason piracy takes place is because the distribution companies do their job quite poorly, particularly when it comes to television programmes. The Walking Dead, for example, is now into it's second season in America and has yet to be broadcast in Australia. Indeed, only recently has an Australian network actually bothered to pick the programme up. The rating figures for Australia's broadcast of The Walking Dead will be pitiful, because you can now legally purchase the DVD. This is the perfect example of a distribution company (in this case a television network) dropping the ball and opening the door for pirates. The Walking Dead, as a genre programme, is also one of those programmes where illegal downloads will be very high because geeks like to get their television as soon as possible.

Despite the ABC's desire to "fast track" Doctor Who, it still ends up getting broadcast a week after the English broadcast. That's a week too late for a lot of computer-savvy fans who want to really see it fast tracked. There are a huge variety of excuses trotted out by television networks as to why they can't broadcast their television any sooner, but all of these reasons are bollocks when programmes like The View, The Late Show With David Letterman or The Late, Late Show With Craig Ferguson can be broadcast within twenty-four hours of their original broadcast. Glee proudly boasts broadcasting six hours after the American transmission.

Equally, downloading television programmes tends to feel like a victimless crime insofar as you don't pay to watch those programmes on television anyway. Commercial networks may argue that they need the viewers because they are funded by advertisers, but in situations such as The Walking Dead, when you wait so long that the DVD is legally available, you've already shot yourself in the foot. The ABC don't have an advertiser's excuse, so downloading a programme that appears on that network genuinely is a victimless crime.

Television networks (and I believe this is true not just of Australian ones), treat television shows appallingly. They find it virtually impossible to show a season consecutively in the same time slot; seasons are interrupted by repeats when the ratings period is over, and should the programme not rate as well as they want it to, it is shuffled further and further back in time until it ends up trying to edge out Letterman for the 11.30 slot. If you're a fan of a television programme, watching it on tv is not an attractive option thanks to the networks. Of course, in some cases they simply just cancel it after three episodes...

Movie companies are really in much the same boat. Worldwide releases for movies are possible and have been done. But when distributors choose not to do that, geeks in particular, go straight to the net to see their movie because they don't want to wait. You'll never get money from those that don't want to pay, but by distributing your movies in a timely fashion, you will get most of those that are downloading for time reasons away from their computers.

In the AFACT case this week, the website diwana.org has lodged an official protest because, they argue, programmes like The Slap and also Packed To The Rafters are not broadcast in the Netherlands and as such, diwana.org is the only way the Dutch can see the programmes that they love. I am in a similar position - the English game show Never Mind The Buzzcocks has never and will never be broadcast in Australia. As I'm unable to access the BBC iPlayer and there are no DVD releases of each series, how do I watch a programme that I think is brilliant?

The BBC, however, is actually progressing by attempting to open up their iPlayer to the entire world so they can access the content at the same time as Britian, which is naturally upsetting foreign networks who feel this will bite into their ratings (though they should probably have realised it won't - the people who will go to iPlayer are the people who are currently illegally downloading the programmes anyway).

Whilst I applaud AFACT for doing their job so effectively, it's time to start looking into reasons why this problem is occurring, and for the distribution companies to actually address those, rather than hunt down downloaders to fine them.

Doctor Who Movie A Go!

2011-11-15T09:00:00.002+10:00

It's nice to know that you can still be surprised as a hardcore fan, and today I got one such surprise, which is quite fun to get; and that surprise was that the Doctor Who movie that's been rumoured and mumbled about since before time appears to be much more tangible than we first thought, and it's come in the form of the revelation that David Yates will be directing it. Yates, you may or may not recall, has directed the last four Harry Potter films.

Yates spoke about his involvement revealing that they were going to take two or three years to make sure they got it right, and that the British sensibilities of the series would remain, though he did say an American could write it as Steve Kloves had done such a good job on the Harry Potter films. Perhaps, even more interesting, is the news that Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat will not be involved. Yates mentioned both by name: "Russell T. Davies and then Steven Moffat have done their own transformations, which were fantastic, but we have to put that aside and start from scratch."

So the movie will be a reboot and it looks as though any appearance by David Tennant or Matt Smith would be out. It shall be interesting to see how this one develops.

Skyfall - Bond 23

2011-11-03T22:54:00.001+10:00

Albert R Broccoli's Eon Productions will present Daniel Craig as Ian Fleming's James Bond 007 in
SKYFALL.

Yes, it was confirmed today that the new Bond movie will indeed go under the title that was speculated when MGM suddenly went out and bought all the domain names with that variation.

All the other details were pretty much as expected (as here), though there were some new and interesting bits of news. Firstly Alberty Finney is in the film, which is great. Finney's a brilliant and underrated actor, and brings any film he is in just that little bit more prestige. Secondly Bérénice Marlohe will be playing a character called Severin. Apparently she is glamorous and enigmatic, which is a little like Olga Kurlyneko's character in Quantum Of Solace, so could be code for "Bond won't be sleeping with her".

But finally, Naomie Harris is playing an MI6 agent named Eve. Now, this is interesting, because when it was first announced she was going to be in the film, it was stated that she would be playing Miss Moneypenny. So either the original information was very wrong, a lot has changed in the script since then, or Moneypenny will have the first name Eve and be an MI6 field agent.

I guess we shall find out November, 2012!

Review - DVD: Doctor Who - Colony In Space

2011-11-02T23:14:00.002+10:00

I've been a bit slack on this review, so I apologise, but at long last let's take a look at the final "classic" Doctor Who release for this year - Colony In Space.

This is a six-part story that sees producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks finally get their wish, as the Doctor leaves Earth and UNIT to go back into space, even it if it just acting for the Time Lords. Someone has stolen the plans for the Doomsday Device from the Time Lord achives, and if you've been remotely paying attention to Season Eight of Doctor Who and noticed that the villain in all three stories so far is the Master, you can take a pretty good guess as to who that might be. The Doctor, however, is despatached to Uxarieus where he finds a group of colonists scared out of their wits by a giant gecko, which turns out to be a robot with a rather strange set of false claws. The robot is operated by IMC - a mining corporation that the 90's original Doctor Who novels would come back to time and time again. IMC want the planet for the minerals (though given that it looks like a clay pit, one can only wonder what minderals they were after), and the colonists just want to live there. Send for the adjudicator to arbitrate and, surprise, surprise, it's the Master, who is seaching for (surprise, surprise) the Doomsday Device; a weapon of great power now in the possession of the local primitives.

On the plus side of this story, there is a lot of actual story, and so the six episodes never really feel padded out. There are also some great performances - Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning and Roger Delado are brilliant as the Doctor, Jo and the Master, but the guest cast are actually pretty top notch. John Ringham - so brilliant as the villain in The Aztecs - plays the kindly leader of the colonists, while Morris Perry gives a very interesting characterisation to IMC head man Dent. Bernard Kay plays Caldwell, an IMC mineralogist who finds himself not entirely happy with either side. It's all acted quite exceptionally. And new director Michael Briant tries to give the show everything he can to bring it up to speed.

Sadly, it all looks a bit tatty. The Primitives, in their bizarre loin cloths, crazy masks (or faces) and green skinsuits never really quite work as well as they should, and their priests and high priest work even less well. Briant is very original in the way he tries to get performances out of them, but ultimately it all just falls a little flat. While the TARDIS console room - and of course the Master's console room - looks great, the rest of the sets have a bit of a "left over" feel to them. In essence, the visuals let the story down, which is a common enough complaint on Doctor Who, but here it's disappointing as you always get the feeling that it could have been so much better with a little more cash thrown at it.

Nonetheless, the story is nice enough, and worth a watch, and fans in particular will enjoy it.

The VAMs are a little like the story themselves. Presumably the money required for a six parter results in fewer VAMs and so we get a short documentary, alongside the usual stuff, and the film trims. The trims are a bit pointless, but the documentary is very good and it seems the everyone who was involved with the story seemed to enjoy making it. I say seems, because then we get to the audio commentary. Made up of director Briant, script editor Dicks, Manning, production Graeme Harper, actors Kay and Perry and moderated by Toby Hadoke, the commentary is actually quite brilliant. Hadoke is a fantastic moderator, and Briant, Dicks, Manning and Harper are all very enthusiastic about the production. A few of the regular stories are trotted out by Dicks and Manning (in particular Jon Pertwee's bouffant), but the four liven up the commentary no end. Perry is a bit of a non-entity, and only surprises at the end where he is critical of his performance, but it is Kay who surprises, moaning about the plot holes (much to Dicks' annoyance), and criticising William Hartnell and Jon Pertwee when he gets the opportunity. Sadly, Kay sticks around to the end, and frankly, no matter how good an actor he is, I'm happy if he never turns up on a commentary again.

Colony In Space is really another DVD for the fans, rather than the general audience, but it is a great release, and the fans certainly won't miss out with this one.

Review - Contagion

2011-11-02T21:13:00.002+10:00

I'd love to think that Steve Soderbergh was sitting down watching Valentine's Day and thinking "We've had a couple of group rom-coms now, what we really need is a group disaster film!" and from there we got Contagion. In truth what was more likely was that Soderbergh came up with a brilliant story and then cast a group of fantastic actors, all of whom aren't "A-List", but are big enough names to sell the idea of a large starring cast. Which is for the best, really, because any disaster film inspired by Valentine's Day would undoubtedly be crap.

And Contagion is not crap. It's an odd film, don't get me wrong, but definitely not crap. The only real "A-listers" are stars who have odd careers - in this case, Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow, the former hasn't really done much since the last Bourne film, the latter rebuilding her career thanks to the Iron Man movies. Paltrow does very, very little in the film, though is the cause of the entire situation. Damon, is the everyman of the film. He is the husband of Paltrow, and after she dies in the first ten minutes of the film, he later discovers he is immune to the virus and spends the rest of the time simply surviving and protecting his daughter. His daughter (Anna-Jacoby Heron) becomes a prisoner of the virus outbreak that her mother has thoughtfully spread around the world, and lives her relationship with her boyfriend through her iPhone. They are a very sympathetic couple and are great audience links. The only problem with them, is a problem that runs through the entire film, and that is, while they are are a sympathetic couple, they don't engender a lot of emotion. I cared that Damon's son dies, but I have a suspicion that I only did because I have a two-year old son myself, and therefore can understand that particular blow. If you don't have kids you may not care.

In a similar manner, you don't really care about Kate Winlset's character, despite the fact you get the feeling you should. Winslet, like every other cast member, performs her duties admirably, and brings her character real life - a doctor determined to track down and find some way to fight the pandemic that has struck the country. But in spite of that, you don't really care when she contracts the virus, and whether it's because of the inevitability of it or not, when she passes away, you are more shocked by the fact her body is wrapped in plastic and dumped in a mass grave, than the fact that a character we should care about just died.

Soderbergh crafts his movie very well, delivering a disturbing story that plays out through a large variety of characters, including Laurence Fishburne's head of the CDC, Marion Cotillard as WHO doctor who is kidnapped in Hong Kong while tracking down the path of the virus, Jude Law (bizarrely sporting an extra tooth in his head) as a panic-mongering blogger, and the criminally underrated Enrico Colantoni as a viciously pragmatic NSA Agent. The pandemic is seen from all these characters points of view - those that are suffering at the front line (Damon and a small Hong Kong village); those that are fighting on the front line (Winslet and Cotillard); those that are divorced from the situation but are the ones who will come up any cure that can be found (Fisburne, Jennifer Ehle as his subordinate, and Elliot Gould as her's); those that are required to control America in a time of panic (Colantoni); those that are dealing with the situation on a global level (the various WHO groups); and finally those that are trying to benefit from it (Law). It's a big movie, with a lot of story to tell, and it's told efficiently and clinically in only 106 minutes. But, unfortunately it is told without emotion and the audience therefore doesn't so much engage as act as a voyeur.

One of the more interesting things about the movie is that it feels very much like it's about forty years old, and that's not in a bad way. The movie's tone and photography feels like it was made in the seventies. Although there was a lot of story to tell, the fact is it doesn't feel as though the movie is racing. It moves along at a steady, deliberate pace, with time taken to loot, break into houses, or just wander the streets in a containment suit (and where do you buy those thing, Jude Law?). I have to admit that I really enjoyed this complete change of pace, as it had the movie step outside of the quickly edited type of films that most are these days.

Contagion is a different sort of film that dares to tell a good story without any frills or bangs. Soderbergh seems almost to want to make a documentary and in that way he does have a certain level of success, but in truth the film is much, much better than any bland documentary. Despite the fact that you don't always feel for the characters, you certainly do feel for the story, and the realism is sometimes very confronting.

In short, a great film!

Enterprise's Geek Pin-Up Girl

2011-10-30T13:20:00.002+10:00

October - Billie Piper

This one comes from the fact that I've just finished watching Series 4 of Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, and I was suddenly struck by the fact that we haven't recognised her on this page, so let's talk about Billie.

Billie, of course, started her career as a teen sensation, bursting onto the music scene at the age of sixteen, and having a nice three year career that ended when she decided it wasn't what she wanted to do. In that time she appeared in Evita and so in 2003 relaunched herself as an actress. She achieved critical success in The Canterbury Tales and Bella And The Boys, but it was her next role that shot her to fame and gave her the geek cred she needed to appear on this page.

At the age of 23 she played Rose Tyler in the relaunch of Doctor Who, arguably as great a reason for the success of the revamp as Russell T Davies of Christopher Eccleston were. She became great friends with Eccelston's successor - David Tennant - but left after only one season with him. From there she started to do a lot of other television, including playing the part of Belle in Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, where she revealed to the world a lot of what all the fanboys wanted to see. She also gained some more geek cred by appearing as Sally Lockhart in The Ruby In The Smoke and The Shadow In The North, both opposite Matt Smith. She has some more television lined up, but after appearing at the end of series 4 and the final tenth Doctor story of Doctor Who, it seems she has definitely shut the book on Rose Tyler.

So charge your glasses and salute Billie Piper.

Review - American Horror Story

2011-10-25T23:50:00.003+10:00

It's tempting to say "from the creators of Glee" when describing American Horror Story, but in feel it would probably be more accurate to say "from the creators of Nip/Tuck, because unlike Glee, American Horror Story is one fucked up television programme.

The programme will kick off soon on Eleven in Australia, which is indicative of the faith that Ten has in the programme - it's not going to be remotely as successful as Glee, but that's, perhaps, to be expected. In America, the programme has broadcast three episodes on FX, and whilst I was going to review this one after the pilot episode, I decided to pause and wait. Because, frankly, there wasn't going to be a lot of nice things said about the pilot, which is slow, boring and has a central family of characters that are both unlikable and unsympathetic - the worst combination. If you want your leads to have some form of success, they have to be one or the other.

Rather neatly, Connie Britton and Dylan McDermott take turns in getting top billing on the programme, which is a nice way of having two lead characters. McDermott plays Ben Harmon, Britton his wife Viv. The pair had a devastating miscarriage which neither dealt with particularly well. Ben, in particular, had an affair which did little to help his marriage. Their daughter Violet (Taissa Farmiga) has become a cutter. In the pilot episode, neither of these three are engaging, likable or generating sympathy. In fact, you can't help but think that all three deserve everything they get. Happily this is addressed in the next two episodes, as the characters emerge and become stronger and more interesting.

Each episode opens with a murderous event that happened in the house that the Harmon's have moved into at some point in the past. The episode then features events that somewhat mirror the opening murder in some way. Over the course of the episode, the ghosts of those previous events also seem to make an appearance - in the pilot they appear briefly in the house, while in the third episode, the ghost physically interacts with Viv. Presumably the house is the cause of the events that take place, as it seems unlikely that every owner that had the house was a complete psycho and involved in bloody murder.

Though, in the pilot episode, the Harmon family are mostly unengaging, the supporting characters have developed characters right from the outset. Leading these is Jessica Lange as the next door neighbour (and in episode three we discover a former owner of the house), Constance. Lange is brilliant creating a character that is enormously unsympathetic and treats her Down's Syndrome daughter Adelaide horrifically. She is, however, extremely likable, and when she goes head to head with Viv when the latter touches Addy, she shows a strong maternal instinct and redeems the character greatly.

Denis O'Hare plays Larry Harvey, another former owner of the house who murdered his entire family by burning them alive (and getting horrifically burned himself). Larry's a bizarre character who just pops up to annoy Ben from time to time. In the third episode he does a little more than just annoy Ben, and seems to be linked into the house and the strange group that seem to be slaved to it; one of which is Constance.

Another is Moira, the housekeeper, who is played by both Frances Conroy and Alexandra Breckenridge. Conroy plays Moira as she appears to Viv - an older lady with a ruined right eye - while Breckenridge plays her as she appears to Ben - a young seductress. The story of Moira and her relationship to Constance is hinted at in the second episode and explained in the third. When Larry deals with Kate Mara's guest character Hayden, Constance takes great delight in telling Moira that she is stuck in the house forever. Now, if you assume that the Ben/Hayden relationship was supposed to mirror Constance's husband/Moira's relationship, then perhaps Hayden's fate resulting in the same as Moira's is the reason that Moira is tied forever to the house; she could only break free if Ben left Viv for Hayden. I'm just speculating however...

The final member of the title cast is Evan Peters as Tate, a young man who is being treated by Ben. In the pilot episode he attempts to help Violet out with her problems with Leah, the local bully, and apparently has some tie in to the house, which is confirmed in the second episode. Tate's character is still a little nebulous, but presumably it will fill out as the series progresses, and I suspect he is probably in some way tied to a previous murder in the house.

So, after a rather shaky pilot, the series has definitely found its feet with some very quirky episodes and some rather gruesome concepts that come with it. The mystery of the house and the people that have inhabited it for the past century is an intriguing one and certainly makes you want to keep coming back to see what will happen. The temptation of future guest stars such as Zachary Quinto and Sarah Paulson is also something of a draw.

Brad Fulchuk and Ryan Murphy have come up with another winning series, and certainly a great departure from Glee, which is a credit to them for being as diverse as they can be. It's well worth a watch, and I shall be keeping on to see where the series will go.

Review - The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Man Who Never Was

2011-10-19T14:36:00.003+10:00

The Man Who Never Was was not intended to be the final story for Series 5 of The Sarah Jane Adventures, but there is a nice feeling of closure about the story regardless. Certainly the mystery of the Shopkeeper and his parrot, Captain, remains one we will never have explained, and the Trickster's vendetta with Sarah appears to most certainly have come to an end. But for the first time, Luke was back, and so the gang was all together as they took on the evil alien menace of...oh, wait, there was no alien menace. Actually, the aliens were quite nice. It was the humans that weren't much cop. Well, one anyway.

Luke returns to Sarah just as Joseph Serf is about to launch his SerfBoard computer, but Sky and Luke notice that he flickers and part one sees the Smith family take centerstage - Sarah in particular - as they try to find out what exactly is going on with Joseph Serf. Clyde and Rani (wittily, Luke refers to them as Clani) are sidelined, while Luke and Sky come to terms with having a sibling, and Sarah gets to have a confrontation with James Dreyfus as the malicious Harison, Serf's PR man. Because, of course, Serf is just a hologram being operated by a group of one-eyed aliens in the basement. All of which is soon discovered by the Smith kids. It's a rip roaring first part, and even has the wonderful Peter Bowles as Sarah's former editor, Lionel. You get the feeling that perhaps Bowles was being lined up for future appearances, as his part is surprisingly small, and the addition of another Professor Rivers style character nicely expands Sarah's universe and gives us more to hang on to.

Part Two is a more ensemble based piece, as Sarah teams up with Adriana - a woman with a very strange accent - while Luke and Sky and Clani form their own little pairs, all three groups working to stop Harison, with a little bit of communication help from the wonderful Mr Smith. There are some great one liners (and a particularly dirty joke frome Clyde when Mr Smith tells him that Luke wants him to "grab Harison's pen." and Clyde replies "I've never been so grateful to see a full stop in my life") and the three pairs actually have a nice little rapport.

Harison is, of course, defeated and strangely is taken back to the homeworld of the Light Sculptors, so we shall never know his final fate, while Adriana is encouraged to join UNIT. Luke and Sky have finally bonded, and then...

Then we get a montage of scenes and the voiceover from the first episode as we bid a final farewell to Sarah Jane Smith. "The adventure goes on...forever" we are told in the final caption, and I don't mind admitting I shed a tear.

This is actually a brilliant story to end The Sarah Jane Adventures on. The menace is not hugely Earth shattering - the villian is just out to make money using aliens as slaves - but it sums up the ethos of the series perfectly. This is a little group that help aliens home and stop the threats to Earth; both of which they do this episode. And more importantly, all the regular cast get some solid screentime. In an ideal world, you might have wanted Maria and K9 to return, but this isn't an ideal world, and this is the closest we'll get to perfection.

And perfection is something that The Sarah Jane Adventures has nearly almost always achieved. It's been consistently briliant for the past five years, bringing to life a character that must have seemed completely redundant. Yes, Sarah worked as giving Rose an opportunity to see what her future could be like, but the BBC must have thought Russell T Davies was completely out of his mind to think that a programme could be sold off the back of the character, and yet, it was. With it's twenty-five minute format and cliffhangers, in many ways, it was more classic Doctor Who than new Doctor Who is.

Child characters tend to be quite annoying, and yet, the likes of Yasmin Paige, Tommy Knight, Daniel Anthony and Anjli Mohindra, have shown that there is great talent to be found in young actors and their characters can become quite special, even to the point of headlining the show themselves. Even Sinead Michael was proving that she had what it took to be part of the series after just six episodes.

And, the programme itself started to have an impact, attracting the acting chops of such as Samantha Bond, Jane Asher, Ronan Vibert, Bradley Walsh, Russ Abbott, Gary Beadle, Nigel Havers, Suranne Jones, Jeff Rawle, Miriam Margolyes, Simon Callow, Julian Bleach, Julie Graham and Peter Bowles. In terms of English actors, that's an impressive list of guest stars to have on your television programme, and certainly a list that very few childrens programmes could ever hope to have.

But the thing that appealed to Doctor Who fans was that, unlike Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures wasn't afraid of showing its roots. This was a programme lodged firmly in the Doctor Who universe, with references to the Doctor, his many companions, UNIT, and dear old Harry Sullivan; appearances from Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier and Katy Manning as Jo Grant; K9 himself being a semi-regular character, and of course, both David Tennant and Matt Smith appearing as the Doctor in a story each. This spin-off was really everything fans could have wanted.

So, it's with a great sense of sadness and appropriateness that the final story of this wonderful series is just so good. And now? Well, I suppose that Sarah is just going to continue fighting menaces and helping those in need, with her children Luke and Sky by her side, her friends Clyde, Rani and Maria always there to help out, and the resources of the supercomputers Mr Smith and K9 ever ready. And if things get really tricky...well, maybe a certain time traveller will arrive in his battered old police box.

Thank you Russell T Davies for this wonderful, wonderful programme and the chance for a new generation to fall in love with Sarah Jane Smith in the same way that my generation and the generation before that did as well.

And thank you, Elisabeth Sladen, for Sarah Jane Smith.

Loving The Doctor Who Telemovie - Part 2

2011-10-17T20:30:00.005+10:00

Before we do anything, a quick shout out to Mi, currently tripping around the US, and still making time to check in on the Enterprise. Hope you're having fun, Mi - we'll have to get stuck into Planet Of The Apes when you get back!

But back to feeling the love for the Doctor Who telemovie.
More homages to the classic series with the Doctor finding the velvet coat and the long scarf. Again, these sorts of touches were very nice, and preferable to the slightly heavy handed references at the beginning. What is perhaps equally as nice is that we get a clear sense of what the Doctor is like when he discards the gun. Matthew Jacobs script is actually quite well written and his characterisation is usually spot on.
There was a lot said at the time that, in the UK, the sound of the Master breaking Miranda's neck was edited out, but in fact that wasn't the case. What was edited, was a large portion of the gun battle at the very beginning of the story, mainly because of the very tragic Dunblaine incident. British censors remained quite sensitive on that particular topic and as such it wasn't until the DVD was released that the US version of the story arrived in the UK. It still got a higher rating though.

It took me a little bit to notice this, but there's a nice touch the way that, when we see things from the Doctor's point of view, it's just a little bit brighter and contrasted. McGann has hardly been on screen, but he's already making the Doctor his own. The scenes in the lift, followed by the moment in the car - creepy and weird, to panicked and commanding; McGann is one of only three actors to get the part of the Doctor right the moment he starts to play it (William Hartnell and Christopher Eccleston are the other two).
Eric Roberts is actually great in this movie for so many reasons, but again, the editing doesn't make it quite clear here that Bruce is dead and decaying. Flicking off the finger nail is very gross, but it's never quite clear why it falls off. Back to Roberts, and who can't like his delivery of the line "The Asian child"?

More homages when Chang Lee finds Jon Pertwee's TARDIS key. However, I have more of a point to make here. When Lee enters the TARDIS for the first time, it is superb, utterly superb and extremely well done. It is, however, completely underwritten by the fact that the audience already knows what's inside. It would have been so much more effective if this was the first time we'd seen inside the TARDIS. A brilliant moment, but it could have been better.
Once again, I'm going to gush over Eric Roberts. He seems to be having an absolute ball as the Master, and so far is getting all the best lines in the movie. "I had a bit of trouble with the walking and the talking...". Again, marry Sax's direction, the tilting of the camera and Roberts flicking his fingers to bring Lee to him, and you have a mesmerising scene. "He's not dead!" hisses the Master...fantastic.
More gushing over how fantastic the TARDIS is, and the Cloister Room (though, of course, it looks nothing like the previous time we saw the Cloister Room, but really, who cares? It's not like the TARDIS hasn't radically changed before). Much offense was taken to the thought that the TARDIS has the Eye of Harmony inside it, although nowadays it's more believed to be a link to the Eye. I always had the notion that it was the Eye, and that, thanks to temporal engineering, the Eye existed simultaneously in all of the TARDISes. It's hardly a drama though. Now, the fact that a human eye can open the Eye is a bit puzzling, but strangely enough, an audio story called The Apocalypse Element actually explains why this is the case - the Doctor reprogrammed all eye sensors on Gallifrey to respond to human eye in order to stop the Daleks from moving through Gallifrey. Clever? Well...it's an explanation.
The chejmistry between McGann and Ashbrook is fantastic here. McGann is brilliant, saddened about Puccini and then telling Grace she'll do great things. There is a suggestion that the Doctor has the ability to see people's future, and later novels refined this to suggest that each incarnation did have some abilities that the others didn't. The eighth Doctor, it would seem, has the ability to see along the time line of some people. He hardly ever does, though...

Pretty much from this moment on, whenever McGann or Roberts are on screen the whole thing is going off with a bang, and when they both are it's even better. The original plan was that all seven previous Doctors would be seen in the Eye, but it was cut back to just the one seen at the start of the movie. Probably a good idea that one.
Once again, it's time to rave about McGann's performance as the Doctor. His passion as he remembers being with his father on Gallifrey (whoa...did he say "father"?) and then his equal passion for the new shoes is a delight. McGann knows exactly how to pitch the new Doctor, and surprisingly it's nice to have a straight forward, almost childlike Doctor. Grace seems to be impressed because she's certainly up for more snogging...OH MY GOD THE DOCTOR KISSED A WOMAN!!!
Yes, it's the first time and dear me wasn't there upset. DWM writer Matthew Jones seemed to hate this story simply because the Doctor was being depicted as straight, but most people seeemed upset that the Doctor was finally getting a snog. You have to wonder why. But it started something, and since then, most of the Doctor's female companions (and a male one), has gotten a bit of action from the Doctor. Nowadays, there isn't an awful lot of upset over the Doctor havng a kiss, and again we see the telemovie breaking down a wall, getting hated for it, but making it possible for the following series to do it without too much flak.

It's just a kiss people. I'd be more upset about the massive spit string that the Doctor leaves when he pulls away from Grace.

DEAR LORD!!! THE DOCTOR KISSED A WOMAN....AND HE'S HALF-HUMAN???????? OK, brace yourselves people. This bit of news does not contradict one bit of Doctor Who continuity. Yup, even when the human tenth Doctor makes a comment about there not being a human Time Lord, he seems to be referring to his physiology only having one heart, something which is not the case with the eighth Doctor. So, is the Doctor half human? Well, it's up to you to decide, really, but the truth is there doesn't actually seem to be any reason for him not to be. It's said on screen, by the Master, so why not?

And so, as the Doctor gives us a info dump about past Doctor Who continuity, we bring Part 2 of our journey through the telemovie to a close. There's been a lot of upset, but it's not so bad, really...is it? And the best is yet to come!

All images were nicked from The Doctor Who Image Achive: . Go there, it's a brilliant resource.

Review - The Phantom Of The Opera 25th Anniversary

2011-10-17T19:43:00.001+10:00

The Phantom Of The Opera is the most successful musical in history. Fact. So hate on Baron Lloyd-Webber as much as you like, the simple fact is that, while he's sitting at his million-pound grand piano, being waited on by butlers whilst counting his 750 million pounds, frankly, he doesn't care. And why should he?

I have a confession to make, right now, and that is that Phantom is my favourite musical. I love Gaston Leroux's original novel, and the musical adaptation is surprisingly close, retaining the hint that the Phantom might actually be supernatural, with his Punjab lassoo and ability to throw fireballs and disappear into the ether. If you don't know the story...well, you should be flogged.

Essentially, it centers around a young lady - Christine Daae - a ballet dancer at the Opera Populaire in Paris, who is being tutored in singing by a mysterious man whom Christine sort of believes might have been sent to her by her late father. The mysterious man is also the ghost of the Opera Populaire, a being whom new managers Andre and Firman discover is a force to be reckoned with. When lead soprano Carlotta refuses to perform, the managers put Christine in her place, and this brings her to the attention of the theatre's new patron - Raoul de Chagny who was a childhood friend of Christine's. However, Christine is then caught in a love triangle between the Phantom and Raoul, and as the Phantom's jealousy grows, so too does his tyrannical control of the Opera Populaire.

Of course, as each cast takes on the Phantom, different actors give the parts different feels, and after 25 years, there's a very wide variety of quality in the show. Arguably the definitive version is the original, with Michael Crawford as the Phantom, Sarah Brightman as Christine and Steve Barton as Raoul. Not so arguably, the other end of the spectrum is Joel Schmacher's movie version - Gerard Butler as the Phantom, Emmy Rossum as Christine and Patrick Wislon as Raoul. (Incidentally, Crawford was the standout in the original, Rossum in the movie).

The 25th Anniversary version is in the middle of these two versions, but make no bones about it, far closer to the definitive version than the mess that Schumacher created. Sierra Boggess plays the part of Christine, and I name her first because she is easily the absolute standout performance in the show. She's so gorgeous that even when she spits all over the Phantom's hand you don't mind too much. More importantly, however, she sings the part perfectly, and plays it just as well. Whilst I won't for one moment question his acting and singing talent, I do feel that Ramin Karimloo was possibly miscast as the Phantom. It's worth noting that Boggess and Karimloo were the original cast of Love Never Dies, the sequel to Phantom and as such are playing younger versions of the parts they are more used to. Ironically, while Boggess is possibly a little too old to be Christine in Phantom, Karimloo is possibly too young to be the Phantom in either production. Personally, I would have preferred to see him as Raoul.

Hadley Fraser plays Raoul, and is a little hit and miss in the part. His voice is usually spot on, but there are moments he seems to struggle with the music. I was going to say that he also plays the part of Raoul a little unsympathetically, but I think that might be my criticism of the overall production. There is not a lot of sympathy generated for either the Phantom or Raoul, which is probably not what should be intended.

The rest of the cast are all quite good in their parts (particularly the lady who plays Carlotta), and only occasionally do you get the feeling that they weren't on particularly sure footing.

Without a doubt, the orchestra is absolutely fantastic, note perfect from start to finish, and - under the baton of Anthony Inglis - bring the music very much to life. It's a superb orchestra and arguably the best part of the entire show. One might almost forgive Inglis for his desperation to get as much applause as possible.

I remarked to Mr M, who I was with on watching this production, that the show is staged exceptionally well, given that it didn't have access to the specially built mechanics and props that the standard stage production has. Giant computer screens allow for a clever changing backdrop, frequently animated, while the important props have been rebuilt and brought in. Sadly, we don't get to see the chandelier fall, there is no moment where Chistine's mirror image reaches out to her, and the scene in the graveyard where the Phantom attacks Raoul is, sadly, very poorly directed and holds no drama whatsoever. This scene is definitely the weakest moment in the entire production.

Perhaps the only other significant flaw in the production I might point out is that, on occasion, the sound balance seems a poorly judged, resulting in moments where cast members are almost completely unheard. This was most notable in Prima Donna and immediately after the Phantom is unmasked (and how brilliant is that makeup, compared to Butler's in the movie version?).

This is, of course, a 25th anniversary production and so at the end, Baron Lloyd-Webber comes and makes a speech, introduces us to the original cast - including Crawford and Brightman (sadly Steve Barton is no longer with us) - and then we get Sarah Brightman singing for us. Michael Crawford doesn't - for whatever reason - but Brightman sings The Phantom Of The Opera, supported by four Phantoms from various productions; five as Karimloo comes in for the final moment. I want to mention the four Phantoms because they are note worthy; Colm Wilkinson - the definitive Jean Val Jean from Les Miserables - was actually the Phantom I saw when I saw the production live; and Anthony Warlow represents the Australian production. Both men are superb and show why they were able to play the part so well. Peter Jobeck, was sadly, pretty poor all things considered, but John Owen Jones was absolutely spectacular, and I really, really wish we'd heard his perform the Phantom rather than Karimloo (Karimloo could still be Raoul...just wanted Owen Jones instead).

But make no bones about it, this was a fantastic, and utterly brilliant production. I couldn't encourage people more to go and see it, and if you haven't seen The Phantom Of The Opera before, then this is a great way of doing it. You really won't regret it.

Loving The Doctor Who Telemovie - Part 1

2011-10-12T20:10:00.004+10:00

Reviewing the telemovie is a little old hat, and frankly this is one of the few things that I will sit down and watch and think "gee, we kinda did miss out on something." For me there's something quite special about the telemovie, as it smacks Doctor Who firmly into the present, and it's influences would be felt in the series that followed it. So, let's look back over the telemovie and do so by noting a few little things, but mostly just trying to feel the love for this usually ignored moment of Doctor Who history.
Pre-title sequences are pretty much a thing of commonplace these days in Doctor Who, but in 1996 this was only the third time it happened. Of course, pre-title sequences on American television were standard in 1996, so this is just the first example of American-ism creeping into Doctor Who. More than that, however, this style of television would influence drama television as a whole and Doctor Who in particular. The title sequence is interesting as it seems to want to blend the time tunnel into the starfield. I'm going to say that we see here the first influence of the telemovie on the new series - the Eccleston/Tennant title sequence is quite similar to the McGann one, even down to the way the credits zoom out.
This telemovie successfully resulted in the end of two different Doctor Who projects. The first was a big screen movie that a company called the Daltenrey's had been trying to get off the ground since the mid 1980's. The Daltenreys were co-funded (curiously) by a group of Doctor Who fans that included Bryan Ferry. Later, the Daltenreys would file suit against the BBC for deliberately stalling them in their attempt to get the movie off the ground. The tagline for the movie, incidentally, was "The Man. The Myth. The Movie."

The other project was the 30th Anniversary story The Dark Dimension. This was a story that would have revolved around the fourth Doctor stopped from regenerating and as such would find time out of balance. The other surviving Doctors (Pertwee, Davison, C Baker and McCoy) would have little input, though both the Brigadier and Ace played a substantial role. It was written by Adrian Rigelsford and was to be directed by Graeme Harper. Aside from Tom Baker, none of the other Doctors had signed the contract, and all of them expressed reservations about the project. If you get a chance, pick up a book called "The Nth Doctor" which details scripts for the various movies and The Dark Dimension that were being attempted. They are, universally, pretty crap.
After the opening monologue (which was originally recorded by Gordon Tipple - hence his credit for a non-speaking role), we get plunged further into Doctor Who mythos with this scene set aboard the TARDIS. I love it. Sylvester McCoy (why didn't he get an "and" credit?) is fantastic in his new costume and gives a nice sense of world weariness to the seventh Doctor in his final moments. Equally, how bloody awesome does the console room look? I'm gonna say it now - this is easily the best iteration of the console room ever, and shits all over the current version. But take a look at the design of this room; the central column of the TARDIS stretches up to the ceiling, it's supported by great struts, and the roundels are tucked away, hard to notice. Remind you of anything? Maybe the Eccelston console room layout?
However, arguably the seventh Doctor shouldn't be in this at all (and if executive producer Jo Wright had her way, he wouldn't be - she wanted to bring back Tom Baker, if anyone). It presents a fair bit of confusion to grow to like McCoy and then have to do the same for McGann in a single telemovie. As great for fans as it was to have the seventh Doctor, this is probably the first mistake the telemovie made, and it is part of an unnecessary need for continuity to the original series, which must have isolated American fans very quickly.
A lot of people heap shit on this story, saying that the plot makes no sense, but that's bollocks. It does, but thanks to the editing, you have to pay very close attention to everything that's going on. Right here we see "Timing Malfunction" which explains what is happening to the TARDIS. If you don't pay attention to that, you may think that later on the eighth Doctor makes a bizarre leap of deductive logic. But he doesn't.
I read somewhere that the entire scene in the TARDIS should have been left out, and the movie should have started here, with the chopping of the fish head. In many ways, I'm inclined to agree. It would have given a lot of mystery to the sudden arrival of the Doctor, and furthermore (and thanks to editing again) it's a little tricky for viewers who know nothing about Doctor Who to realise that the giant room with the small Scotsman is in the blue box bouncing through a blue tunnel. For me (and fans) this is clear and obvious, but if I'd never seen Doctor Who before, and knew nothing about it, I'd have struggled with everything at this point.

If you've ever read any of the New Adventures, there's a certain tragic irony that the seventh Doctor - a master manipulator and brilliant planner - has his life ended simply because he didn't look at the scanner to see what was happening outside. Some people don't like this scene, but it's a - probably unintentional - ironic fate for the seventh Doctor. On the same note, the novel Lungbarrow ends with the Doctor being sent to collect the Master's remains from Skaro; a neat bit of retroactive continuity.

Chang Lee obviously has a heart of gold (and I love the way he refers to the Doctor as "old man") as he not only calls an ambulance, but waits for it, takes the Doctor to hospital, and then sits to find out the Doctor's fate. That's impressive for someone he's never met. Also, criticise Eric Roberts all you like, but he does give a nicely subtle difference between Bruce and the Master.
All the hospital stuff, and the two hearts x-ray, the John Smith, etc, are all strong homages to Spearhead From Space. This sort of continuity is very nice for the fans, and works much better than the name dropping of Skaro, the Daleks, etc. Interestingly, this also influenced The Eleventh Hour a little.

The Morphant Master is a bone of contention. Terrance Dicks hated it (but he hated most of this movie) and so suggested that the Master put his mind into a deathworm. Later in the movie, Grace asks the Doctor if he can change into any species, and the Doctor essentially says he can. It's pretty clear that the morphant is actually supposed to be the Master in a very alien body, but despite the ninth Doctor suggesting he might regenerate into a headless body, or Romana changing bodies - including a blue alien - there's heaps of resistance to the Master becoming a CGI snake. Frankly, I think, fans tend to decide they hate the movie and as such, flatly refuse to accept anything that conflicts with their opinions.
Grace running down the hospital corridors in a ball gown, and then operating to Puccini's Madame Butterfly is so grand and operatic. I adore it. Sadly, of course, she kills the Doctor. The bitch. But how freaky is that editing? As the Doctor screams, dies and the music swells, with Grace looking up? This is one of many moments of brilliance that for me, mark Geoffrey Sax out as one of the greatest directors the series saw. And on plot - notice the Doctor asks about the atomic clock? The timing malfunction plotline is still there - but you have to pay attention to get it.
You have to love the chemistry between the lead cast members. Here we get a great moment between Daphne Ashbrook (who is frankly fantastic in this movie) and Yee Jee Tso (as dear old Chang Lee). Both characters are great, and I can't help but love each of them. Probably should have rethought that ballgown, though Grace. Could've chased people down corridors a bit better...Janet Fielding would be chomping at the bit to moan about this.
Surprisingly simple regeneration, without the flowing of power that we get from other regenerations such as the fourth, fifth, sixth, ninth and tenth. Perhaps because the Doctor was "dead too long" this time, the regeneration didn't release as much power as it usually does?
So, let's go back to Geoffrey Sax's slick direction (why hasn't he been asked to direct for the new series? He's English, and you can't fault the direction of the telemovie). Aside from the fact we have some brilliant parallelling of the Doctor and the Master both changing bodies - the way it is done is extremely effective - the scenes of the Doctor walking down the corridor humming Madame Buttefly and hearing the clocks tick is extremely well done, and very disturbing. It leads nicely into the shattered mirror and the Doctor's question of who he is - his own mind reflecting the mirror (which is reflecting him...oooo...). And in the middle of that you get a neat little comic moment where Pete struggles to deal with the Doctor coming back to life. As much as I love all forms of Doctor Who, I really do think that the direction of this story is a cut above anything we've ever seen. It's so well thought out, and so nicely done that it's almost big screen worthy. And, of course, we get our first glimpse of McGann as the Doctor. He looks great (even the wig is fine).

I'm gonna pause here as I have just realised how much I'm writing, but Part 2 of this assessment will be just around the corner....

Review - The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Curse Of Clyde Langer

2011-10-12T14:18:00.002+10:00

The Sarah Jane Adventures continues to go from strength to strength with The Curse Of Clyde Langer, a story that sees Clyde get a splinter from a totem pole, and a curse to go with it. The curse means that anyone who says him name will turn on him, and as such Clyde finds himself out on the streets, amongst the homeless - and in particular, the beautiful Ellie.

In truth the totem pole is less the crux of the story than Clyde's discovery of the homeless and what life is like for them. Sky (Sinead Michael settling very nicely into her role and bringing her performance up a notch from last week) is able to deal with the totem problem and sort out Sarah Jane and Rani (who get some nice moments, but generally sit in the background looking growly).

No, Daniel Anthony is, naturally, the star of this story and he brings a great force of personality to Clyde, as the lad struggles to adapt, firstly to his friends turning on him, and then to being a homeless person. He gets a lot of support from Lily Loveless as Ellie. Loveless (best known from Skins) is brilliant from start to finish and believably sells a girl who is rough and homeless, but vulnerable enough to want to let Clyde into her life very quickly. It's a hard performance from both Anthony and Loveless, especially given the limited time and the fact that they are in a children's program, but they convey a lot of emotion, and I have to admit I was a little heartbroken when the gang made Clyde return to the attic, abandoning Ellie once more in her life.

The writing of this episode was particularly brilliant (another Phil Ford script this season), and again, Ashley Way showed a real flair with the direction. There were some great moments, and the way he films "London" is very well done.

I have to admit I'd like to have seen more of Ellie and learn what happened to her. Whether her storyline was part of a greater plan, I suppose we shall never know, but this story created a fantastic new character and showed Clyde really growing up. Fantastic story.

Doctor Who Series 6 - Win/Fail?

2011-10-12T09:23:00.003+10:00

Doctor Who underwent two major changes with series six: the first being that it's broadcast schedule was dramatically changed; the second, that the arc story became something more integral to the series. The question is, of course, have these things worked?

The decision to split the series into two distinct halves was attributed to Steven Moffat, who wanted a mid-series cliffhanger, to keep people on tenterhooks, and to lessen the time between series breaks. Some have said that in truth the reason was to bolster the ratings by moving it to the autumn, rather than the spring.

If the reason was indeed the latter, then the plan didn't really work as Doctor Who's ratings have been astonishingly consistent, not just from last year, but from 2005 when the series first began. Series averages remain anywhere between 7.5 and 8 million viewers, and while the overnight figures have been getting lower and lower, the timeshifting has increased more and more. And that doesn't take into account the iPlayer viewing figures. So while the figures remain constant (or marginally bigger than they have been), the decision to broadcast in autumn rather than spring has had little effect.

Moffat's other reason - to reduce the time between series - also seems rather frivolous, especially given that it has now been confirmed there will be no Who in spring 2012, meaning a year break between series. Scheduling is not Moffat's job, of course, but he certainly seems to suggest that he is in on the scheduling decisions, which makes it slightly annoying when Moffat gives answers that don't really make sense.

I have a feeling that there are other, more financial reasons, as to the spilt in series. I'm confident that every decision the BBC makes is to comprimise finance with keeping their flagship alive, and for that I won't ever question Danny Cohen's motives. But I certainly will question Moffat's flippant "we had this all planned" answers, when it seems it most certainly is not the case.

The mid series cliffhanger actually ties into the arc story being integral to the series, so this is a neat segue.

In the past, the elements of the overall arc have been small, subtle and fully developed in the final two-part story. Last year, Moffat didn't deviate too far from Russell T Davies' series structure, having the crack appear at the end of each episode and explaining it all in the final two-parter, though the crack did play a more central role in both The Eleventh Hour and The Time Of Angels. That, however, was nothing compared to this year, where it felt like a five-part story had been split up and bookended both parts of the series six.

The mid series cliffhanger was the stunning, game changing revelation that River Song was Melody Pond. I say stunning and game changing, but I probably mean underwhelming and status quo. Ultimately there wasn't really anything tremendously stunning or game changing about it. Surprising, yes, but game changing? Not really.

What was more annoying about it, was that the cliffhanger ending to The Almost People was indeed both stunning and game changing. And it was so integral to the story arc it made it feel like The Rebel Flesh was a story that was arc-heavy, even though it wasn't, and that, in turn, made it feel like, of the seven episodes of series six-A, five of them were about the arc. More on this later, but essentially the balance of series six-A was poorly laid out, and the simple shifting of A Good Man Goes To War to the start of series six-B would have improved this no end. I know I personally would have been on tenterhooks waiting to find out what was happening to Amy after The Almost People, whereas I just didn't really care about the Melody Pond revelation at the end of A Good Man Goes To War.

This year, the best episodes of the series have been the standalone ones - The Doctor's Wife, Night Terrors, The Girl Who Waited and The God Complex. The problem is that only one of those fell in series six-A, and as such we waded through arc episodes, a gem of brilliance and the poorly script edited (or just edited) The Curse Of The Black Spot (coming to the conclusion that we will never find out what happened to the vanishing pirate). Series six-B, on the other hand, saw the arc apparently dispensed in the first episode and then we got onto three episodes of brilliance.

It was this uneven balance between the two halves of the series which meant that, ultimately, series six just didn't work tremendously well. I'm not a professional script writer, but it seems to me that it would have made more sense to have more of the arc in the second part of the series. I wonder if a better structure for the season wouldn't have been:

Series Six-A
The Impossible Astronaut/Day Of The Moon
The Curse Of The Black Spot
The Doctor's Wife
Night Terrors
The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People

Series Six-B
A Good Man Goes To War
Let's Kill Hitler
The Girl Who Waited
The God Complex
Closing Time
The Wedding Of River Song

This way we get more stand alone episodes in the first part of the series, a kick-ass mid-series cliffhanger, and the feeling that the series six-A only had two arc episodes. Series Six-B becomes arc-heavier, but is broken by those two (brilliant) episodes in the middle.

I think Steven Moffat is a brilliant writer and much better than Russell T Davies. His plots are very clever and his resolutions ingenious. However, as a showrunner, I don't think he is as good as Davies, who seemed to have a better grip on the series, and gave it a more coherent feel (even if it, apparently, meant rewriting every script). Perhaps if Series Six had to only deal with one major change it would have worked better, but at the end of the day, I can't help feeling that this was something of a failed experiment.

The Playboy Club Cancelled

2011-10-12T08:33:00.002+10:00

Sad to see that NBC has cancelled The Playboy Club. The three episodes I saw were quite engaging, with a likable cast and an suitable amount of drama that kept me interested in the ongoing storylines. As usual, Amber Heard was particularly engaging, but I guess we'll never know what happened to Maureen after she got in that car...

Apparently there are some hopes the series will be picked up on Bravo, though this will probably result in an introduction of nudity, which may (bizarrely) lessen the series. Fingers crossed though.

Review - DVD: Doctor Who - Day of the Daleks

2011-10-11T17:58:00.001+10:00

There are a fair few Doctor Who stories you could say "that's a great story, except for THAT one element there". I'm looking at The Talons Of Weng-Chiang, Kinda, The Caves of Androzani...you know the ones I mean.

Day of the Daleks fits into that category. It's a rollicking good story that sees the third Doctor trying to stop 22nd century guerillas from killing a 20th century dignitary, so that a future that results in Dalek control doesn't happen. The story has many great moments, and the twist at the end - that the guerillas actually caused the Dalek future they are trying to avert - is very well done.

And then the Daleks decide to invade 20th century Earth...with three Daleks and five Ogrons. It's a bit of shambles, truthfully, and not helped by the brilliant idea of painting one of the Daleks gold, so that you can't have tonnes of Daleks in different places doing differnt things. I think, though, the fault needs to be laid at the hands of the editor and the director, because there is a vague attempt to suggest a Dalek army, but after that it's never really capitalised on.

Oh, and the Dalek voices are terrible.

But those two points aside, everything else is superb, with Nicholas Courtney in particular, extraordinarily good. He had a great moment where he bellows after the Doctor to come back, but stands there as though he knows it's a waste of time even asking. Courtney is brilliant in this story, but let's not take anything away from Jon Pertwee and Jo Grant who are just fantastic as the Doctor and Jo. Pertwee's delivery of the "You did it yourselves" line is word perfect.

The other cast is surprisingly small given the huge scope of the story. Aubrey Woods plays the Controller of the region as though he's just stepped off stage; it's a huge performance but it's very enjoyable nonetheless. The guerillas are well played, with Scott Fredericks and Anna Barry of note as Boaz and Anat. Barry is a very believable leader, but there's a fantastic moment where the two share a cigarette, reminding you exactly of the times you are in.

Aside from that woeful Dalek invasion, Paul Bernard's direction is quite good, and he makes good use of the scenary he is presented with. Quite why he has the Doctor murder two Ogrons in cold blood is a bit questionable, but let's skim over that...

In all, Day of the Daleks is a brilliant story and even without the extras we're about to mention, I would strongly recommend this one.

The commentary track is a little full on, with a large number of people contributing very little to the commentary. Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks are probably the most interesting commentators, though Letts criticisms of director Bernard always make me wonder why he didn't bother to do something about it at the time. Anna Barry and Joe Winston are nice to listen to, but I have to say that while it's interesting to hear from the Vision Mixer, he doesn't really add anything more than what he says on the related documentary A View From The Gallery. This documentary is far more lively and with just Letts for company, Mike Catherwood gives a far more informative talk about his job.

Blasting The Past is the gratuitious talking heads documentary looking back at the story, and it's quite interesting, while the Now And Then featurette is a little more useful than more recent ones. The UNIT Dating Conundrum and The Cheating Memory are two quite entertaining features discussing the controversial issue about when the UNIT stories are set, and about how stories worked better as kids than when we reveiw them nowadays. The UNIT Family is the second part of the UNIT documentary that was issued earlier, and this one is fantastic. You really do get a feel for how close the cast was back in those days.

And then there's the Special Edition. I have very mixed feelings about these Special Editions, not least because in general they tend to be crap. Neither Enlightenment nor Planet of Fire were improved with the special edition and in general the CGI on these things tends to be terrible. I remember someone saying it's pointless replacing a dodgy 70's special effect with a dodgy CGI special effect, and it's an excellent point. Additionally, updating the special effects doesn't change the fact it still looks as though it were filmed in the 70's. No amount of CGI will change hairstyles and fashion.

The Special Edition of Day of the Daleks contains all these problems. Some CGI looks great - the laser blasts, for instance - but some is just absolutely appalling - the CGI future city. And while getting Nicholas Briggs to do the Dalek voices does improve them out of sight, there's still the uneasy feeling you're doing a grave injustice to the original actors who performed the voices.

And then, we get to something which I have a real problem with. This special edition wasn't edited by the director or producer as previous ones were...this one was put together by the disc producer. There was a fair bit of outrage when the Restoration Team reedited The Five Doctors and frankly there's no difference here. The editing removes some of the more classic moments, but I really do wonder if it's the Restoration Team's place to be making these edits. At least we get the original version, though. If one of the Value Added Material is a crap Special Edition, I suppose we should probably just lump it.

Ultimately, a great DVD package with a great story, once again securing the fact that Doctor Who DVDs are the best television DVDs on the market.

Review - The Sarah Jane Adventures: Sky

2011-10-11T17:26:00.003+10:00

It's a bit sad that Series 5 of The Sarah Jane Adventures has started, because, of course, it signifies the end of the show. Without Elisabeth Sladen there will be no more adventures, which is, in some ways, appropriate, but in others disappointing; Anjli Mohindra and Daniel Anthony have proven they are more than capable of carrying the programme. C'est la vie.

Sky, however, clearly, was targeted at a programme that was not in any danger of cancellation. With Tommy Knight mostly leaving the series to continue his studies, the character of Luke Smith is - in Sky at least - little more than a small presence on a monitor screen. However, Russell T Davies and Phil Ford have clearly decided that the series needs four lead characters, and with Clyde and Rani turning seventeen, a new character that younger viewers can identify with is required. Perhaps not the age we thought though...

In the first episode, Sarah wakens to find a baby on her doorstep after a meteorite crash the previous night, and soon becomes caught between a metal man and the Miss Myers, the child's mother (Christine Stephen-Daly looking as though she's auditioning for Desperate Housewives). By the end of the episode the baby - named Sky, obviously - has grown up very suddenly into a twelve year old girl.

Needless to say it doesn't take too much to work out that Sarah solves the problem - neither the metal man nor Miss Myers are "goodies" - and soon they are despatched, leaving Sky behind. (The fact that the metal man takes Miss Myers with her for...well, presumably for execution, with the blessing of Sarah, Rani and Clyde makes for a slightly darker ending than one might expect...) The important part of the episode, really, is to introduce our new regular - Sinead Michael as Sky.

On the one hand, it seems a little convenient that Sarah is adopting yet another alien created weapon, but both Clyde and Rani point out the deja vu of the situation, and as Clyde was teaching Luke, so this time round Rani is teaching Sky. However, whereas Clyde and Luke were contempories, Rani gets to play the older, wiser sister to Sky, which makes for a new, and sweet relationship. Sinead Michael is not the greatest actor out there, but she does play the part nicely, and hopefully she'll grow into her character and the television series.

Finally, this episode sees return appearances by semi-regulars Mina Anwar and Ace Bhatti as Rani's parents, and Floella Benjamin as Professor Rivers; all three really there to move the plot along at certain places and provide some light comic relief. It's the sort of thing you don't usually see in Doctor Who or Torchwood, and usually the only indication in The Sarah Jane Adventures that the programme is targetted at kids.

Most interestingly, however, is the appearance of Cyril Nri as the Shopkeeper, from the episode Lost In Time. There's clearly some sort of interesting backstory with this character, but the sad thing is, we'll probably never know what it is. He's certainly a fascinating character (along with the parrot, the Captain), but it's another example of the bittersweet feeling of this series.

A television show being cancelled is always upsetting for fans, but it's worse when the programme is actually at its peak. Sadly this is where we find The Sarah Jane Adventures. We still have two more stories to go, so from this point on, we'll get out of the maudlin and go straight for enjoyment.

Bond 23 News

2011-10-11T17:08:00.002+10:00

It's been a long time since we reported any news on the old Enterprise, though in truth, most of what has been coming out has been idle speculation and rampant hypothesizing. But let's update Bond 23...

First up, it seems that a lot of domain names are being snapped up by the various production companies behind the Bond films, all centering around the word Skyfall. It may mean nothing, but it may be the title of the next film (I kind of hope not, because there is still the Fleming title The Property Of A Lady which could be used...)

We've reported the following a few times, but just to check boxes...

Director: Sam Mendes
Producers: Michael G Wilson & Barbara Broccoli
Screenplay: Neil Purvis, Robert Wade, John Logan
Director of Photography: Roger Deakins

Returning cast seem to only include Judi Dench as "M" (oh, and of course Daniel Craig as James Bond, but we figured you'd have guessed that one).

Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Rhys Ifans and Ben Whishaw are all in the film, though their precise roles haven't been defined...Bardem seems to be the villain. Helen McCrory has also confirmed she will be in tehe film, and Naomie Harris will be playing Miss Moneypenny. Most recently Bérénice Marlohe has been cast as the primary Bond girl.

Rumour has it that filming starts next month, so that's when the fun should really begin.

Review - Doctor Who: The Wedding Of River Song

2011-10-03T01:08:00.002+10:00

Mmm. Wow? Errm...you know what? I'm not really sure how to take this one...

OK, so for all the Who fans out there, the reference to the passing of the Brigadier, a nice tip of the hat to the passing of Nicholas Courtney himself earlier in the year, was very much appreciated. Given that it really was the point where the Doctor realised he had to face up to his future...well, it was respectful and deserved, and worked well with the plot.

And the way the Doctor got out of his murder was actually quite clever. I must admit I had a grin when it flashbacked to the explanation, which I thought was tremendously well handled. In much the same was as I was impressed by The Big Bang referring to "The Big Bang", Moffat did come up with an unexpected and clever end to the "Doctor's murder" story arc.

And, the wedding of River Song did nicely tie up all we need to know about River Song. I was chatting to my friends last week about what exactly was the story arc supposed to be for this season, and came to the conlusion (today, actually) that there were three story arcs - River's identity, the Silence and the Doctor's death. And they were all, indeed, wrapped up in this episode, and they were wrapped up very effectively. Quite often this season (and in some ways last season) you got the impression that the only person who really grasped the story arcs this season was Steven Moffat himself. But I'll write about the effectiveness of this season later this week.

So, on the whole, it would appear that I did like this episode a lot. And yet...and yet, when I rated it a little while ago, I gave it a 7 out of 10. Was hovering over the "8" and then decided it wasn't quite that good. Because there was something a little flimsy about it. I had this feeling in Torchwood: Miracle Day where I realised you could go back and get rid of a good few storylines because ultimately they didn't actually progress the story forward in any way. Here, I got a similar feeling, even though I don't immediately see how you could have written the episode without them. The various bits of history all being slammed together, obviously all leading up to the point where we discover that River is happy to sacrifice the entire universe in order not to kill the Doctor (more than just a little obsessed, sweetie), were cool, but felt unnecessary.

Actually, no, check that. In some ways they felt a little like a retread of The Big Bang. Churchill noticing that time never changes had the same sort of feel to it that Amelia noticing there were no stars did. A lot of the episode felt a little bit "been there, done that", with the exception of the last ten minutes which, frankly, weren't there or did that. It's hard to explain really, but perhaps the best description would be to say that the episode seemed laced with deja vu, and for me personally it was at its best when the episode was fresh and new and clever, rather than when it was eliciting the feeling of remembering old episodes.

As I said earlier, I gave the episode a 7 out of 10, and I think I stand by that. I enjoyed it a lot, and I really was very impressed by the ending, but the episode as a whole didn't completely fire for me, and in truth, I think maybe some of that stemmed from the structure of the season as a whole. Perhaps, though, with the Doctor apparently dead to the universe, we may have somewhere very different for the series to head next year, and that might just be for the best.

Review - Doctor Who: Closing Time

2011-09-26T20:15:00.002+10:00

So shall I nail my colours to the mast right now? Frankly, I was pretty disappointed by Closing Time, particularly after a run of such good episodes. Was it James Corden? Was it the plot? Let's find out...

The Doctor arrives on Craig Owen's doorstep just as the Cybermen appear to be invading Earth again. Fortunately, the Doctor and Craig are on hand to stop them, and Craig gets the opportunity to learn a litle about fatherhood.

I don't mind James Corden. I thought The Lodger was a pretty good episode, and worked well as a character study more than an episode about a crazy time machine on top of a building - though that part of the episode was pretty damn cool as well. The problem with Closing Time is that, there isn't really much of a story here. If it's another character study about the Doctor and Craig, it's all a bit "been there, done that" with nothing particularly new learned for either character. The Doctor mopes about a bit in anticipation of his forthcoming death, while Craig moans about not knowing how to be a father. The Doctor talks to Craig's son (which is a bit stupid, frankly...had it been a throwaway joke, that would be fine, but it's not played like that, so either Matt Smith was off his game, or the Doctor can genuinely talk baby...and that's a bit too silly).

Then there's the Cybermen. Let me say from the start that I thought the Cybermats worked really well, and were very well realised. But the Cybermen. Under Mr Moffat's regime, the Cybermen have not really fared well. Aside from a funky moment in The Pandorica Opens with the spider-Cyber-head, the Cybermen have generally come across pretty poorly in the past two series, and the greater shame is that these are actually "real" Cybermen (that is, they don't have the Cybus logo on them, so presumably are from our dimension). Now, without a doubt, the Cybermen in the classic series were occasionally used as a generic monster, but this year they've bumbled about as the Doctor blew up their fleet to make a point (and let's not even go down that path...), and now they are bumbling about...trying to do what? The Doctor mentions that their ship crashed years earlier, and Craig is to be converted into the new CyberController (and precisely why does a bi-cardiovascular system create incompatibility with Cyberconversion???), so one assumes that the aims of the Cybermen are to create enough Cybermen to get their ship working again, but unless I missed it, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of an explanation to confirm this guess.

And then the Cybermen are defeated by love. So the idea of the Cybermen being destroyed by an overload of emotions is a neat one, that was used in The Age Of Steel when the Doctor gave the Cybermen access to their emotions, but this time it really doesn't work well. Craig has his emotions wiped...but then they "reactivate" when he hears his son crying. And this affects all the Cybermen...Really? The Cybermen are all linked into the equipment for CyberConversion? Isn't this a really stupid idea? The Cybermen come across as enormously ineffective in this episode and are pretty stupid all up.

The majority of the humour of the episode is just retreading The Lodger's humour, but it's not fresh this time around and so isn't as funny. Equally, Daisy Haggard's absence from the episode is a bit like doing a The Empire Strikes Back without Princess Leia. The Doctor/Craig/Sophie triangle was one of the most effective elements of The Lodger and makes Closing Time pale by comparison.

And then there's the ending. I'm gonna say it right here: Steven Moffat is a much better writer than Russell T Davies, but Moffat is not as good at structuring a season arc as Davies was. The season would have been much better structured had it been arc heavy later in the season, rather than earlier, and the better mid season cliffhanger would have been the revelation that Amy was a ganger, and the pregnancy. The ending of this episode would have been much better as a pre-title sequence for the next episode. Here, it seems what it is - a scene tacked on to the end of an episode that was probably under running. In truth it didn't particularly excite me for the next episode (the discovery that River is the Doctor's killer was completely thrown away), and didn't provide the cliffhanger it should have.

Closing Time proves that, despite atmospheric direction and lighting, there is still no substitute for a good script. And Closing Time did not have a good script. I suppose 4/5 ain't a bad hit rate, but this should have been better.

Review - Charlie's Angels (Pilot)

2011-09-26T20:14:00.002+10:00

Charlie's Angels returned to television last week in the States and this week in Australia. It's been talked about a bit, and I won't lie; I was looking forward to it because I think that, despite the previous versions, the show does actually have a lot of potential. And, rather uniquely, it would have a predominantly female cast which would be a complete breath of fresh air.

The pilot episode does something a bit clever - it kills an Angel very early on (an Angel that is established in the title sequence), and it's up to the remaining Angels to find the killer, naturally coming into contact with a third lady who by the end of the episode is recruited as the third Angel. And, of course, they have Bosely to help them along the way.

It's slick, it's stylish and it's well handled by the production crew. However, there are problems - some of which may be corrected as the series matures, and a few which can't be, so hopefully will be more tolerable as things move on.

The biggest problem with the series (and this is surprising given that this has come from Drew Barrymore) is that it's not really fun. Fun was a staple element of both the original series and the two movies (more so the movies), but sadly, this version is very po-faced. Occasionally, there seems to be an attempt to inject some fun into it, but it falls flat, and the humour doesn't work.

And the reason it doesn't work is the second problem - there is absolutely no chemistry between the four leads - Rachel Taylor (Abby), Annie Ilonzeh (Kate), Minka Kelly (Eve) and Ramon Rodriguez (Bosley). They try to joke with each other, but it comes across as four people who haven't met before, desperately attempting to make small talk in the hope they can develop a life long friendship.

The good thing about these two problems is that both can potentially be solved as the series moves on. In terms of acting - Rachel Taylor is probably the best, but her line delivery is annoying and makes you want to smack her every so often, while Annie Ilonzeh is just bland. Minka Kelly is gorgeous, but can't act her way out of a paper bag. Again, these are all things that may get better as the series moves on. We'll just have to wait and see on that front.

As events have transpired, Robert Wagner has not ended up playing Charle Townsend, thanks to scheduling conflicts, but Victor Garber is effective in the role, and thankfully he is kept off screen as he always was. And then there's Bosley. This is a problem that doesn't seem like it's going to be fixed.

Part of the advantage of programmes like NCIS, House and others, is that a variety in age gives a variety of experience levels and character development and interaction. This was a good thing about the earlier Bosley's, all of whom were a good twenty years older than the Angels and could provide a different life outlook for them. It also gave the opportunity for more humour, as the older Bosley would occasionally find himself in the younger Angels' world. Now, however, Bosley is the same age as the Angels and as such has a similar life outlook to them. All the advantages of an older Bosley are lost, and the only advantage of a younger Bosley is that he can be a playboy and joins in on all their mission. The first is largely irrelevent, the second counter-intuitive. There doesn't seem to be much chance that Rodriguez is going to be replaced anytime soon, so it looks like this aspect of the show we're going to have to life with.

For a pilot episode, there's enough potential to keep watching, but hopefully the series will change enough to become enjoyable as it goes on.

Review - Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - Season 13 Premiere

2011-09-25T00:43:00.003+10:00

It's all change at Special Victims Unit on all fronts, really. In the fictional universe, they police have lost Detective Stabler and gained Detective Rollins, while the DA's office has a new DA, Mike Cutter has been demoted to SVU Bureau Chief, and Alex Cabot is back from the congo. In the real world, the various producers' credits have been significantly cut back, and a new name joins the executive producers as show runner of the programme. And you can tell the difference.

Warren Leight was show runner on Law & Order: Criminal Intent after Chris Noth joined the programme, and you can see that there is a distinct change to the programme from that point on. Leight prefers the more character-dramatic type stories, which really didn't suit CI and as such the programme started to go off the rails a little. Oddly enough, however, Leight's style suits Law & Order: Special Victims Unit a whole lot better; it being a naturally more character driven programme. Add to that the ready made drama in the absence of Chris Meloni and Leight's job seems almost half done upon his arrival.

Mariska Hargitay, now the show's star, drives the drama, her loss for Stabler palpable, and it is mentioned many times in the programme. Benson is a changed character, a little more remote with her colleagues than she used to be, and a little less proactive. Returning cast Richard Belzer (Munch) and Ice-T (Tutuola) - despite being bumped down the credits a place - have changed as well; Munch is more comfortable as a sergeant and a leader, and is clearly now a firm second in charge of the office, while Tutuola is less of a firecracker and now more balanced and thougtful. Even Captain Cragan (Dann Florek) has gotten back his authority and taken a firm grip on his department. It's as though Stabler's shooting of the girl last season has changed the way everybody thinks. And strangely, I really like that. It should have an impact on the office, and it should give them all cause to think about what happened. The change is appropriate.

New girl on the block - Detective Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) doesn't really get much of a chance to shine. She has the opportunity to question the suspect in a subtle way, which is nicely done, but that is pretty much the extent of her involvement in the episode. Given the nature of the relationships between the cops at this point, it's perhaps not unsurprising that the newcomer is sidelined for the moment. In much the same way, this probably explains why Danny Pino - though credited in the opening sequence - doesn't actually appear.

Meanwhile it's nice to see the Order return to Special Victims Unit as we have a courtroom drama handled with usual aplomb by the returning Stephanie March as Alex Cabot. Though she will be sharing the SVU episodes with Diane Neal's Casey Novak, neither will be getting a title credit, rather both are "special guest stars". Their boss is Michael Cutter - Linus Roache returning to the franchise after the cancellation of the mothership. I have to admit I was bothered by the fact that Cutter seemed to have been demoted, but a throwaway line reveals that Jack McCoy is no longer district attorney, and as such it would appear that the new DA has appointed a new 2IC. Cutter is a different character to the pig headed Oedipus he was in the original series, and is now a less impetuous character, preferring to pick his fights. There is a feeling of the relationship between the DA's in Los Angeles now, especially when Cabot attacks Mike for no longer being the moral crusader she thought he was.

The story, meanwhile, is the standard SVU fare - girl calls rape on foreign diplomat, and he claims otherwise. Cabot is behind the victim, though when it turns out she has lied repeatedly, even Benson starts to doubt the woman's story. In a nice touch there is no clear victory for Cabot, which is the way it used to be, which is nice.

In all, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit seems to have taken a step forward, by taking a few steps back, reminding itself of where it came from. It's a nice move and has refreshed the programme to the point where Stabler's absence didn't actually seem noticeable. It's going to be interesting when Pino joins the cast proper to see if the show can sustain this new energy.

Review - Abduction

2011-09-25T00:19:00.002+10:00

I was going to kick this off with some extraordinarily witty anecdote that would lead in to a critical lambasting of Abduction, but the truth is, I just can't be worked up about this movie to even do that. I've never seen any of the Twilight series - something which I'm extraordinarily proud of - but I recently discovered that apparently Lautner was going to get the chop after the first one. No further details were given, but having seen Abduction, I'm assuming it was because of his acting abilities (or, more accurately, lack thereof). But in truth, while Lautner is the very worst thing about this movie, the sad fact is, there's enough rubbish in the film to potentially put the blame for its imminent failure elsewhere.

I was quite excited by the trailer which seemed to be about a boy who discovered his face on a missing person website, and therefore the big question - was he kidnapped and are his parents random crazies? It's a pretty interesting premise for a movie, really. Turns out, however, that the movie is ultimately not that interesting.

Lautner plays Nathan, a lad who chills with his friends (by laughing inappropriately every five minutes) and is held in general disregard by the girl across the road from him. Well...possibly. The relationship between Nathan and...I want to say Karen, but I really can't remember the girl's name (though she is played by Phil Collins' daughter, strangely)...the relationship between the two is very, very strange and one of the first bizarre moments in the film. When she first appears she is with another guy, and she says hello to Nathan; the boyfriend gives Nathan a shove; she tells the boyfriend to back off...all leading to "Nathan and Karen were together but broke up". Later, she seems positively disgusted when she's paired with Nathan for an assignment. However, it turns out that they've never been together. Until about 3/4 of the way into the film when Karen suddenly remembers they made out four years earlier, but never got back together. Karen herself initially seems like a bit of a geek, but it later turns out she's head cheerleader.

The whole point I'm making here is that films employ a certain shorthand, and this sort of film even more so. There's no point using that shorthand to confuse the audience, and it happens time and time again in this film. Something is set up in a certain way, only later revealed to be nothing like that at all, and where as in some films you might go "Oh, so it's not like that at all" in wonderment, all you do in this film is murmer "What the fuck???".

Meanwhile, Lautner himself displays that he has absolutely no acting abilities outside of taking his shirt off. He manages to do this frequently in the film (indeed, within the first five minutes he is in his boxer shorts), but for the rest of the film, he turns to the camera - sometimes scowls, maybe furrows brow a little - before going back to his default blank face. There is a singlular lack of charm, charisma or persence from the man, and so you have no liking for him and little care about what ultimately happens to him. Sadly, Miss Collins is in a similar position, and had the pair of them been killed off in the first half hour, I doubt I would have felt any loss. Though, given that the film doesn't actually get underway until about thirty minutes into it, sadly there's not much chance of that.

The rest of the cast is actually quite impressive, with names like Alfred Molina (who is brilliant in everything, and regardless of the script for this film is convinced that he's one of the good guys), Jason Isaacs (appalling American accent, but presumably took the part so he could kick Taulor Lautner's arse), Maria Bello (god knows why she did the film...), and Sigourney Weave (who is, in fact, absolutely terrible in the film. Obviously at some point she just gave up the will to live and is just collecting a pay cheque). Rather thoughtfully, about half way into the film, Alfred Molina takes time out to explain the plot to us, which is great because until that point it really was just a sequence of disconnected events that lurched from one sketch to the next. We have a plot, but sadly no explanation for anything else (like, for instance, why in the world a sociology assignment would require our hero and heroine to be searching the net for missing children websites).

I suspect someone took advantage of the fact that English is Michael Nyqvist's second language, in order to get him to sign on the dotted line.

I really wish there was something nice I could say about this movie, but the truth is there is absolutely nothing to recommend it. The supporting cast are wasted, the principal cast are terrible, the script is largely incoherent, and the action scenes are really not that amazing. In short, you could probably get a group of mates together, shoot the script on a hand held and still make a better film than what was released at the cinema. I shit you not.

Review - The Playboy Club (Pilot)

2011-09-20T23:55:00.003+10:00

The Playboy Club has an awful lot that I love about it, and so in some ways I wonder if perhaps my view of the show is tainted. Now, I'm not talking about the girls - though they are very beautiful - but a long list of things in the series that appeals to me. It kicked off last night in America.

The story revolves around the beautiful Maureen (Amber Heard) who starts work at the Chicago Plaboy Club as a cigarette seller, and is accosted by a man who she accidentally kills with a stilletto to the throat. Lawyer and States Attorney candidate Nick Dalton (Eddie Cibrian) reveals she has killed mob boss Bruno Bianchi and helps her get rid of the body, and gives her an alibi, alienating both himself and Maureen in some ways from Carol-Lynne (Laura Benanti), the first Playboy Bunny. Carol-Lynne herself is making waves by pushing in on Club Manager Billy Rosen's work, but Rosen can't get rid of her because she has a benefactor in the form of Hugh Hefner himself. As such, Maureen finds her new boss is her accomplice's former girlfriend and the Bianchi family know that she was the last person who saw Bruno alive, meaning she is also their target.

I love Playboy. I love Amber Heard. I love period dramas. I love mobster stories. The Playboy Club ticks all those four boxes, so immediately I fell in love with it. Heard is on top form as Maureen and instantly likable as she is in everything she does. The show is set in Chicago in the sixties, and as such Hef's appearance is from the back in his office, but the man himself does do the narration for the show (though thankfully does not sign off with "xoxo"). In addition to the period details (including the rather nice touch of remembering that in the sixties the Playboy Mansion was actually in Chicago), we do get some great sixties music. The first episode sees Ike and Tina Turner make an appearance.

In addition there are various issues that are raised throughout the episode - racism and homosexuality being the obvious two, with Bunny Brenda (Naturi Naughton) hoping to become the first ever black playmate, and Bunny Alice (Leah Renee) and her "husband" Sean (Sean Maher) being in a sham marriage because both are actually homosexual. The social issues sit nicely with the mob story and neither feels particularly forced against each other. Rumour has it that the international version of the episodes may include nudity, but there was certainly none on display in the NBC broadcast.

The obvious issue that comes up is the sexism issue, though frankly the idea of a Playboy bunny being sexist is somewhat ridiculous - though they are the objects of sexual attention to the Playboy club members, the fact is that the girls have chosen to be in that position; they are taking on a role through their own choice, and this empowers the girls in question. Perhaps the problem where sexism lies is in the way that both Maureen and Carol-Lynn deal with their problems. Maureen - after killing her attacker - then tends to fall apart and it's up to lawyer Nick Dalton to get her out of it. Equally, when Billy Rosen fires Carol-Lynne, her solution is to run to Hef to get her out of trouble. It might have been better had Maureen sought help from one of the other girls to dump the body, though this would, of course, negate the potential love story between Maureen and Dalton. Carol-Lynne, on the other hand, should have found a stronger way to take control of the situation, though sadly this isn't given to her.

However, this is the pilot episode, and television shows really need to be given a chance to develop. The Playboy Club has an awful lot going for it, and is nearly there as a great programme. Just give the girls a little more resourcefulness, and it will hit all marks.

Review - Doctor Who: The God Complex

2011-09-19T17:52:00.002+10:00

There's a very different feel to this half of the sixth season of Doctor Who. The first half was dominated by
"arc" stories, with no less than five of the seven episodes devoted to the arc. Strangely enough, of the four episodes we've seen in the second half, only one has dealt with the "arc". Or perhaps, it would be more appropriate to say, only one has had River Song in it, as all the others do, sort of vaguely, mention the Doctor's impending death. Perhaps the problem with this series is that the arc - the Doctor's death - has been overshadowed by River Song. I'll muse more on this when the series ends, I think. Until then, into a tacky 1980's hotel...

The God Complex is the third in a series of really rather spectacular episodes - and I quite liked Let's Kill Hitler, so I'm really nailing my colours to the mast early on in this review. Populated by likable and interesting characters, the Doctor, Amy and Rory enter into the mix and it all feels just a little like some of the older Doctor Who stories where a small group of people are trapped in a building. In fact, it actually feels a little like a comic strip, but I can't place precisely which one.

David Walliams - an actor I have to admit I've never really been a huge fan of - is the headline guest, playing the part of the alien Gibbis. I was almost about to add that he gets all the best lines, but that is actually not the truth. In fact there are a plethora of brilliant lines that get swapped between the cast, though as usual, on the comedy scene, Arthur Darvill has been stealing it, with somewhat impeccable comic timing. The point of that, however, is that where Walliams could have overplayed the part, attempting to be the guest star, he does, in fact, play a rather beautifully understated role, delivering lines as only he could, but creating a wonderfully memorable character. Howie, Joe and Lucy are suitable for their roles (though Howie's nightmare is particularly entertaining), while it is Amara Karan as Rita who rises to the top of the guest cast, playing the Doctor's new favourite in the form of Rita. The Doctor's firing of Amy is funny and does highlight how important Rita is.

But in a story where a group of characters essentially try to escape the thing that is devouring their faith, it is perhaps the Doctor who rightly is the most important in the story. Perhaps the biggest change between Steven Moffat's version of Doctor Who and Russell T Davies' is the portrayal of the Doctor. While Davies made him an invincible action hero, Moffat's dark fairytale version of Doctor Who, sees a Doctor that could easily have developed from Virgin's New Adventures series of the 1990's (ironic as Davies wrote for the series, while Moffat actually didn't). The Doctor as an all powerful creature of legend in a dozen worlds, seems more like something that would come from the pages of a Ben Aaronovitch novel than an episode of the series pre-2010. And it is this that is driving the storyline, really (which makes you realise that perhaps it's something that Moffat would like to addres). Both Rory and Amy are affected by their travels with the Doctor - Amy becoming almost an acolyte of the Doctor's (which is interesting given that Rory, in Whithouse's previous script The Vampires Of Venice, Rory says: "You know what it's dangerous about you? It's not that you make people take risks, it's that you make them want to impress you. You make it so they don't want to let you down. You have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves when you're around."), and in the last episode, Rory also notes that the Doctor is turning him into the same sort of purpose. If you were a fan of eighties Doctor Who you might be able to see the Valeyard waving around the corner.

But it is this sort of writing that impresses me a great deal, and both Toby Whithouse and Steven Moffat should take credit for the work they have done to date. Whilst I didn't really get impressed by The Vampires Of Venice, the clever development of the Doctor, Amy and Rory over the past two series has shown some detailed and clever planning by Moffat, and those that have so effectively implemented his plan. It's, therefore, inevitable that the ending should come the way it did as the Doctor is a good guy. Being completely confronted by the outcomes of his actions (and again, Whithouse' writing - with Rory saying "Every time the Doctor gets pally with someone I get this overwhelming urge to notify their next of kin" being both generally and extremely specifically true - deserves a great deal of credit), it's no surprise that the episode should end with the Doctor alone, and his companions returned back to their own time and space. It's obviously not the end of Amy and Rory, but it's a good ending (and if Amy's Choice followed this, I might have a bit more respect for it).

Huge kudos should go to Nick Hurran, who's direction is particularly stylish in this story, with some wonderful choices made both for the feel of the story, and the way it has been filmed and edited. Hurran and his team did an absolutely excellent job on the story, bringing it to life very well - though you could tell that the Mill had been superceded by BBC Graphics on the CGI front this episode.

It's been a run of very strong stories since the series returned, and I can't help but feel popping one or two of these back in the first run might have given the series a little more balance than it currently has. But you don't need to enjoy the series to appreciate the brilliance of this episode.

Enterprise's Geek Pin-Up Girl

2011-09-15T00:00:00.002+10:00

September - Deborah Ann Woll

I have to admit I have a little bit of a thing for pale-skinned redheads, so when I first saw Deborah Ann, I was more than a little interested. But is she geek worthy...?

The 26 year old New Yorker started work in an episode of Life, and went on to chalk up episodes in series such as ER, CSI, My Name Is Earl and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. As it turns out, however, her career has exploded since gaining her geek credit, strangely.

In 2008 she was cast as vampire Jessica in True Blood where she has remained for the remaining series, though annoyingly, given True Blood's penchant for having actresses get naked, Deborah has kept her clothes on. She has appeared in the remake of the Troma film Mother's Day and has completed work on the film Little Murder, another supernatural based film. Her future films include Catch .44 with Bruce Willis and Seven Days In Utopia with Robert Duvall. And rather thoughtfully, this season of True Blood saw her obligingly get 'em out. Peer pressure, no doubt.

So charge your glasses and salute Deborah Ann Woll.

Reboot, Reboot, Reboot

2011-09-14T23:58:00.003+10:00

Reboots aplenty seem to be in the air at the mom...oh, wait a minute, they've been there for the last ten years. But it's now clear that there is nothing that could be regarded as sacred.

Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has given up his direction on the remake of The Crow in order to take on the job of remaking The Highlander after Justin Lin has reaffirmed his committment to Fast Six, which has created some conflicts. Now, in case you're wondering what Fresnadillo has ever done to earn some respect, he directed 28 Weeks Later. Of course this means that The Crow has no director, but I'm sure they'll find someone soon.

Meanwhile, the 1991 film Point Break is now up for remake as well. Total Recall remake writer (yup, there's another for ya!) Kurt Wimmer is writing the screenplay which is set "in the world of international extreme sports, and like the original involves an undercover FBI agent infiltrating a criminal ring". Sounds a little like XXX to me.

1991? Geez...

Review - Fright Night

2011-09-13T17:07:00.002+10:00

Yes, it's time for Hollywood to roll out another remake of an eighties film that was a bit of a horror flick and therefore would probably go down well with the youth of today. The truth is, though, that the original Fright Night wasn't really that much cop to begin with. Sure there were some nice moments, and Roddy McDowall was quite fun as vampire hunter Peter Vincent, but it's seriously quite standard vampire fare.

The new movie keeps the basic central premise - Charley Brewster discovers his new next door neighbour Jerry is a vampire, and in order to kill Jerry, he recruits Peter Vincent, a vampire expert, to help slay the beast - but makes a few changes along the way. The changes don't really help the film. Jerry is no longer friends with Ed (played here by Christopher Mintz-Plasse as he plays every role), but rather is now one of the "cool kids". He's dating the hot chick Amy, but frankly it's a stretch to believe in a million years that Amy would be interested in Brewster.

Anton Yelchin is Brewster, and gives probably zero character to the role, making him bland and uninteresting, while Imogen Poots is much better as Amy - she's gorgeous and extremely likable, and as such, is very sympathetic. As a consequence of this, however, it's even more unbelievable that the two would be together. Toni Collete is Brewster's mother, and as usual, she's on top form, with some very nice moments, but for most of the film she's not really around. Colin Farrell plays Jerry, and adds very little to the film. There are some great CGI effects of the vampires, but generally Farrell just stands around looking moody - ironically something that Ed criticises Twilight for earlier on in the film. And for that, Fright Night gets some credit - at least these vampires aren't the brooding, angst-ridden characters we've seen in Twilight; they are the vicious killers that they should be.

The film is, however, completely stolen by David Tennant who plays Peter Vincent. Tennant plays the part, varying between a loutish tenth Doctor and Russell Brand, but is hugely likable and you can't help but barrack for him every time he's on screen. Tennant brings a huge energy to the part and makes the film so much better than it actually is.

Outside of that, however, the film is very standard. Directed by Aussie director Craig Gillespie, there is nothing really amazing about the style of the film, and it certainly make you sit up and take notice. Even worse is 3D elements. I'm no big fan of 3D, to be honest, but I was very impressed at how Final Destination 5 handled the 3D, and this confirmed by belief that 3D is best suited to horror films. However, Gillespie makes very little use of the potential for 3D in Fight Night. It wasn't until something randomly came out of the screen at me, half an hour into the film, that I suddenly remembered I was watching a 3D film. Once again, if ever there was an argument against 3D, this film would be one of the best witnesses for it.

The big problem with Fight Night is that it's coming out at a time when horror movies are in their renaissance. All horror films sit somewhere between "more of the same" and "absolutely brilliant" and with remakes/sequels like Final Destination 5 really trying to reestablish themselves in the genre, horror films have to try very hard to stand out from the pack. Fight Night makes no effort at all, and outside of the very engaging David Tennant, there is nothing particularly exciting about Fight Night. Maybe the sequel will get it right.

Review - Doctor Who: The Girl Who Waited

2011-09-13T16:39:00.003+10:00

I wasn't a fan of Amy's Choice last year. On the one hand it was poorly executed (would have been much more believable if Amy and Rory had left the Doctor at the end of the previous episode, thereby giving people genuine reason to think that the five years later scenario was true), but more importantly, Amy didn't really make a choice. When asked to choose between Rory and the Doctor, she chose both. The world where she would bear Rory's child, or the world where she had the Doctor and Rory. It was a bit of a cop out (I know, I know, "but the one with Rory's child didn't have Rory in it...blah, blah, blah". Big deal. She chose the Doctor's world, not Rory's.)

As a character study, then, Amy's Choice failed. The Girl Who Waited, however, succeeds in every way that the other episode didn't. A Doctor-lite story (thanks to a convenient virus that only attacks two-hearted individuals), the story is mostly about Rory trying to find Amy in a world where time moves differently, resulting in Rory finding Amy a good thirty-six years older than she was when they left her. And she's not very happy about it. Clearly Amy is a lot more resourceful than we've given her credit for. In the thirty six years she's been waiting, she's managed to forge a sword, get some funky armour, and build a sonic probe - not just a pretty face that one. She's also grown to hate the Doctor passionately, and to be honest, you can't entirely blame her for it.

Rory, on the other hand, acting as an agent for the Doctor because he can't leave the TARDIS, is a little lost. He's found his wife, but would like to be able to get the younger version back so that he can spend his life with her - after all, the older version has lived hers. The Doctor has a plan, but to enact it would require the older version to be deleted, and she doesn't want that. So the Doctor agrees to let two versions exist on board the TARDIS. Initially I had a problem with that, until I remembered that the TARDIS had acted as a paradox engine in the past, so maybe, I thought, the Doctor knew how to do it again. Turns out, I was wrong.

Ultimately, this episode is brilliant. Karen Gillan is absolutely superb as both Amy's, giving a very convincing performance as the older version, providing a nice difference between the two Amy's, whilst at the same time, still making them the same character. It's a very clever job, and Gillan deserves much more credit for her acting skills than most people give. Meanwhile, Arthur Darvill continues to make this season his own, utilising a comic timing that is pitch perfect, whilst really being the heart of the TARDIS crew. And, to be honest, it needs a heart. Because this episode shows the Doctor at his most callous.

The Doctor's alien morality isn't often featured in Doctor Who, and when it does, it always comes as a bit of a smack in the face; be it the first Doctor's apparent attempt to kill a caveman, the fourth Doctor's disregard of Laurence Scarman's death, or the tenth Doctor's refusal to rescue a family in Pompeii. But here we see the Doctor happily prepared to lie to his best friend in order to save her younger self. When the Doctor closes the door in Amy's face, Amy knows he's going to do it. And when challenged by Rory, the Doctor places the decision in Rory's hand. And Rory has to choose, and unlike Amy last year, he does. He chooses the younger version, but how much pain does he have in doing it?

It's a brutal moment, and one that we rarely see in the series, but here it has the most emotional impact the series has seen in a long time. For a show that really only has the three regular actors in it, this episode rises above everything we've seen this series (possibly even The Doctor's Wife), and delivers a story that is so much more effective as a character study than the attempts before it. Brilliant.

Review - Torchwood Miracle Day: The Blood Line

2011-09-13T16:33:00.003+10:00

Torchwood: Miracle Day has had a pretty rough ride. It's hit some great highs and some great lows, but overall, it's always been a case of the sum of its parts being greater than its whole. The final episode The Blood Line does a pretty good job at wrapping everything up, and certainly Russell T Davies returning to write the episode is a great improvement (it does, after all, remember that there were episodes before it, something that other writers haven't always necessarily remembered). Nonetheless, you still get the impression that this series would have been so much better as a five part series, with the majority of the extraneous rubbish being cut out (the best episode of the series - episode 7 - could easily be removed without having any impact on the story whatsoever, quite frankly).

Nonetheless, the Torchwood team are at opposite sides of the globe, with Rex and Esther joining forces with an army group in Beunos Aires, while Gwen and Jack, alongside the repulsive Oswald Danes are in Shanghai. They've found the Blessing - a giant flesh wound in the Earth - apparently responsible for maintaining a morphic field around the Earth that sort of regulates human life spans. Conveniently, no one can explain the Blessing, though there are some nice references to Doctor Who by Jack as he ponders what it could be. However, although it's been established that Jack's blood doesn't cause his immortality, it does appear that that blood can alter the morphic field of the Blessing, and now all that's needed is for Jack to sacrifice his life to the Blessing, while Rex and Esther throw the blood they've gathered from Jack at the other end.

Meanwhile, the CIA continue to prove they are the most ineffective organisation in the world, when Director Shapiro orders a trace made on who in his team is a traitor, but doesn't bother to lock the place down, or get suspicious when the one person who's created a few problems so far wanders out of the room. He died, but then, maybe that's punishment for being crap at his job.

It is a good episode this, with a very nice tie up of everything, and while there are still some moments that are a little credulity stretching (Rex's complete blood transfusion being the obvious one), in general Davies does a good job of tying the show up. The final moments where we see what has happened to Rex is quite clever, and does make for an interesting future for Torchwood. The problem is that, at the end of the day, you still walk away from the episode thinking, "well, that was good, but I'm not sure I enjoyed Miracle Day". Again you come back to the sum of the parts being greater than the whole. I liked the new characters - I liked Rex and his character development; I liked Esther and, as sad as it was, I thought there was a certain appropriateness about her ending; and I really liked Oswald Danes and the way his character ended as well. While Rhys and Andy had very little to do for most of the series, it was almost completely reprieved by the beautiful scene the pair share in the category one camp towards the end of this episode. And the relationship between Jack and Gwen has been taken to a new level here, with the pair setting new boundaries based on past experiences. All of these things worked really well and were developed very nicely.

But it doesn't change the fact that, for the majority of the series, writers have simply ignored what has happened in previous episodes and characters have done things that seem to suggest they have only just turned up in the series. Torchwood: Miracle Day had the potential to be as great as Torchwood: Children Of Earth, but sadly it fell short of that. Let's hope if the series comes back, Russell T Davies is till on board, and has a tighter grip on the reins than he did this year.

Review - Doctor Who: Night Terrors

2011-09-06T20:08:00.002+10:00

It wouldn't be completely unfair to say that Mark Gatiss has disappointed me over the years. I've a lot of time for the man's writing, and enjoyed his Doctor Who novels in the Wilderness Years, and while I never really got into his comedy work, his Doctor Who fan spin-offs (particularly PROBE) were really well done. As an actor, I have nothing against the man at all - he's a stylish, competent and varied actor. Then he started writing Doctor Who episodes, and after the brilliant The Unquiet Dead, we got The Idiot's Lantern, which remains the Doctor Who story I like the least out of the entire 48 years the programme has existed. Victory Of The Daleks was marginally better, but you can't blame the crapness of the episode on the technicolour Daleks (as ugly as they are), because they have nothing to do with Amy talking a robot into not committing suicide. So, in truth, I had low expectations for Night Terrors.

But, I was worrying unnecessarily, because it seems that Gatiss is back on track. If you've ever read Nightshade, you'll know that Gatiss is actually quite skilled at writing creepy stories, and creepy is the word that best sums up Night Terrors. Situated in a housing estate, there's already a certain uneasiness with that location. There's something just a little off putting about the dark, unlit stairwells and graffitied walls of London's estates, and even living there you never feel entirely comfortable. It's a great setting for a creepy story, and by confining it to one flat in particular, with a small cast, you get that feeling of claustrophobia that works so well in Doctor Who.

There's a small cast here, and both Amy and Rory actually get slightly sidelined for most of the episode, occasionally on the run from killer dolls, meaning that the episode is dominated by Matt Smith and Daniel Mays who guests as Alex, the father of the boy who has created the situation they are in. I've never actually seen Ashes To Ashes, but I have seen Danile Mays in the comedy series Plus One, so I was surprised by his ability to play a straight role (although comedians are often very good at drama because it's all in the timing). Smith and Mays are a really good double act, and Mays gives a very believable performance as a father, confused about his son. Smith, is, of course, brilliant, and the scene he and Mays have in the kitchen where Mays attempts to kick him out is compelling.

This episode is directed by Richard Clark, the director who handled the earlier episode The Doctor's Wife, and Night Terrors has the same stylish direction, layers of tension added to the dollhouse sequences (though the "surprise" revelation of where they are never really surprised as much as you think it should), while the apartment scenes are equally directed with the same feelings of fear. Where the episode reaches amazing new heights are as the CGI, costumes and direction all come together to show some quite disturbing moments of people turning into dolls.

Night Terrors is a brilliant return to form for Mark Gatiss, and after what seems like months of dealing with the Melody Pond storyline (the result of four arc episodes being separated by three months), it's something of a relief to have a standalone episode, with the regulars just doing what they do best, rather than moon over Melody. Whether Amy and Rory are truly at peace with what has happened, I suspect will be addressed in the next episode. For now, we get the chance to enjoy some good old fashioned Doctor Who horror.

Review - Torchwood Miracle Day: The Gathering

2011-09-06T20:06:00.001+10:00

The ninth episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day, and I'm still getting the feeling that the plot is moving along at a very slow pace. I'm also getting the feeling that, with the possible exception of John Shiban, not a single writer has bothered to read what the other writers had done. I'll get to the big plot point that's been bothering me in a moment, but there's other stuff to get to first.

The problem with Torchwood: Miracle Day is that there's a lot of good stuff there, but none of it is gelling and there's so many other things that aren't working, that, in total, the episodes and series are not coming together. But in this episode things are a little different. We pick up two months after the last episode and for Jilly Kitzinger, this means she's been doing bugger all, until Teddy Sears tells her to go to Shanghai where, a few episodes ago, Ernie Hudson discovered something was up. Yup, we finally get to find out what The Blessing is. More on that later...

Gwen is stealing medicines to keep her father OK, and the police are on their tales, desperate to find out where Geraint Cooper is. Oswald Danes, however, has turned up to get their help, and this means that Jack and Esther - who've been recuperating in Scotland - return to Wales to find out what Danes has to offer. Turns out he believes that Jilly was altering interpreations of videos to get rid of references to "The Blessing". Thanks to Rhys, they discover the Blessing is in two locations on opposite sides of the globe, and the team split up to investigate - Esther to Buenos Aires; Jack, Gwen and Oswald to Shanghai. Unfortunately the police locate Geraint and take him away for incineration...yes the world has gotten a whole lot uglier. This thread of the story is probably the most satisfactory in the episode. The conditions that the government are imposing on the world are very scary and more than a little believable, and the lengths that Gwen will go to to protect her family are wonderful. Equally brilliant is Rhys' reaction to Oswald Danes, and Danes' very real fear that Rhys could happily do what the American government couldn't. Everything about this storyline is brilliant and works perfectly.

Rex and Shapiro are continuing their investigations into the Families, but strangely enough, they seem to be completely unaware that one person in their team is systematically working against them. Rex knows someone is, but I'm astonished that they can't work it out. Maybe they are that trusting, or maybe they are just a little slack. Certainly not one single person mentions the fact that the agent who was assigned to monitor Jilly Kitzinger is dead, or has failed to report, and there is no sign of Kitzinger anymore or Oswald Danes. The two disappear from under CIA surveillance, but nobody seems to care. Seriously it's the most annoying aspect of the entire episode, and makes the CIA look radically incompetent. Rex sods off to join Esther in Buenos Aires, but given what happens in Shanghai it seems a fool's errand.

Jilly heads off to the Blessing whic appears to be a giant hole in the rock wall underground...presumable this hole goes all the way to Buenos Aires, though why it then isn't in the rock floor is somewhat confusing. And just what the Blessing is, still remains unknown. Is it just a hole? Who knows.

There's an awful lot to clear up in the final episode, and hopefully the answers will be satisfactory, but given the state of the episodes so far, I wonder if it's possible there may be too much riding on the episode and as such it may be impossible to meet expectations.

Review - Final Destination 5

2011-09-03T01:48:00.001+10:00

The Final Destination series was a surprise sort of hit when it first hit the market, presenting a quite clever approach to horror movies by a) making Death the villain, and b) being extraordinarily gory. And when I saw extraordinarily, I mean incredibly, extraordinarily. The second and third films in the series were quite entertaining, even attempting to keep some sort of continuity between the films thanks to Ali Larter, Tony Todd and the number 180. The fourth, however, deciding to embrace 3D, sort of lost its way and gave a movie that was, ultimately, quite crap. I adore the first three films, which are fun and gory, but really wasn't over whelmed by the fourth film. As a consequence there was a certain trepidation when I came to Final Destination 5.

I needn't have worried however. FD5 embraces the quirks of the series as well as the standard requirements of the horror genre. Perhaps a little too much of the standard requirements. If I wanted to point the finger at one fault in the film, it's that, in the past, we've seen a wide variety of people attempting to escape death, both old and young. This time round the group are all young and (mostly) beautiful, which is slightly more generic than usual, but it's a minor quibble, to be honest.

Heroes star Nicholas D'Agosto heads the films cast, joined by The Walking Dead's Emma Bell as his love. D'Agosto has the vision of the disaster on the suspension bridge and leads a group away who survive the accident, but merely invite Death to hunt them down at his own leisure. The rest of the cast includes Tom Cruise look-a-like Miles Fisher, Ellen Wroe, PJ Byrne and Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, star of The Bold And The Beautiful, who is quite frankly drop dead gorgeous. Outside of the sexy, young survivors is Law & Order: Criminal Intent's Courtney B Vance, playing an FBI Agent investigating the various deaths. Vance is always worthwhile, and the other cast members play their parts with competence. Also providing a nice link to the first two films is Tony Todd, returning as the coroner who dispenses cryptic advice about death. Todd is fantastic, but I like to think that the part he plays is pretty much just him in real life. I'd love to think that Todd's friends have parties and he just turns up to warn them that death is going to stalk them down.

However, the real star of the film is the deaths themselves. In the past, the Final Destination movies have tended to have nasty deaths in the big event, before leading to the horrifically gory deaths that occur as the survivors pay the ultimate price. Final Destination 5 gives most people two very nasty deaths in the film. It's hard to know where to begin with the sheer brilliance of the passings, but the opening death sees a girl impaled on a yacht's mast, and as gory as that is, it pales into insignificance compared to her ultimate demise which is so astonishing I almost applauded. The deaths are so inventive and so innovative that you can't help but be impressed with the imagination that's gone into them. And, for the first time ever, I was actually disturbed by one of the killings; the beautiful MacInnes Wood meets her end in a scene that is so cringingly gut-wrenching that I briefly thought I may not be able to watch it. I did, and...oh boy.

Perhaps the thing that most impressed me about Final Destination 5 was that, for the first time, I watched a movie in 3D that actually worked well. As stupid as it may seem, I do think that 3D is really made for horror films. Given that the point of 3D is that the movie will leap out of the screen at you, horror is the most obvious genre to utilise this feature, with weapons of all sorts leaping out of the screen, and bits of gore flying out at you. And that's just the amazing title sequence.

I was really quite impressed with Scream 4 this year, which I thought actually did a good job of bringing the franchise back to life, but frankly that pales into comparison with how Final Destination 5 has breathed life back into this series. And given the extremely clever ending of the film, which neatly ties it back into the first film, I have to say that Final Destination 5 is a definite hit for me.

Review - DVD: Doctor Who - The Sun Makers

2011-09-03T01:47:00.002+10:00

The fourth Doctor's back, joined by Leela and K9 as they arrive on Pluto only to find that it has six suns and the local inhabitants are being taxed to death. Life's hard, which prompts the Doctor to lead a rebellion against the authority on Pluto - the Collector, a man who exists to make a profit. Doctor Who has something of a running joke that the Doctor arrives on a planet, finds a cruel and powerful regime, and then leads a rebellion to bring it down, but in truth that rarely happens in the series. The Sunmakers, however, is probably the archetypal example of this story, though.

Written by Robert Holmes, the uber Who-writer, The Sunmakers is Holmes reaction to both the BBC's treatment of him, and Inland Revenue's similar treatment. In that regard, there are a number of clever jokes that these days, and in countries other than England, might easily be missed. That doesn't change the fact that the story is actually full of quite witty dialogue and has a very nice story behind it. The DVD extra that accompanies the story makes comments about how a group of criminals overthrow the authority and murder someone in the process, just before the Doctor smiles at them and heads off into the sunset, but in truth, there's probably a little too much being read into the situation.

Where The Sunmakers is let down, however, is the rather cheap production values, and this is a shame, because the cast is actually on top form. Tom Baker is having a ball, and Robert Holmes ensures that the Doctor and Leela are not in each other's presence much, neatly avoiding the problem that Baker and Louise Jameson didn't have a great relationship, and so each of them get to shine in their areas. Roy McCready, William Simons, David Rowlands and Blake's 7's Michael Keating all play members of the rebellion, and all four are great, but really nothing compared to the two villains, Richard Leech and Henry Woolf who have clearly decided that they are going to play their parts for all its worth. Leech minces his way through every scene, chewing the scenary, while Woolf makes some very clever acting choices, at least one of which is absolutely priceless.

The DVD has very few extras by Doctor Who DVD standards - the outtakes, production subtitles, Radio Times PDFs, corrected picture quality, etc, are all present and correct, while the audio commentary is something special by the sheer presence of Tom Baker, who gives his usual bizarre comments (at one point he asks Michael Keating what Blake's 7 is, though Keating goes along with the joke nicely). There are two features - Running From The Tax Man is the documentary that looks back over the making of the story. It's a good piece of work, though doesn't reveal anything new to fans who have read Doctor Who Magazine's archive feature on the story. The second feature is the second part of the Dudley Simpson interview, and this is much better, with Simpson's stories about his time on the series of great interest.

Again, a very nice story with some nice additional material, this is a story that should appeal to both fans and the general public.

Review - Cowboys & Aliens

2011-09-03T01:46:00.003+10:00

If you were brutally honest, Cowboys & Aliens has to be one of those movies you are going to automatically love if you're a geek. It's based on a comic book, and James Bond and Indiana Jones meet. And it's a western so clearly to follow the rules, it has to have Keith Carradine in it. And that's pretty much all you need in a film. Add Olivia Wilde looking hot to the film (and appearing naked at one point), and you have a film that there's going to be no disappointment at all.

But let's not play games here. There's actually nothing tremendously original about the film. A guy waking up, not knowing who he is, repressing a dreadful past - it's been done. Tough guys who are rough diamonds, willing to fight for their loves, finding they have more in common than they thought - been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Yes, there's nothing that will make you sit up, slack jawed at the sheer audacity of the filmmakers. But again, if we're honest, if you walked into the movie thinking that you would, well...you're a bit of an idiot.

Ultimately, Cowboys & Aliens is fun. It's a western, it has aliens, and it has an absolutely super cast. Harrison Ford is probably the best he's been for quite some time, while Daniel Craig looks as though he's spent his life waiting to dress up as a cowboy. Shame he can't really do the accent, but happily his dialogue is limited to the very basic murmurs, so it's not entirely noticeable. Sam Rockwell turns up as the poor, down trodden guy who learns to shoot and become the hero, and again he's fantastic as he always is.

The film probably works best when it's the Western side of things, and this is certainly where Craig shines. James Bond has prepared him to fight, and Craig does in great style. Harrison Ford is fantastically grumpy, on his horse, terrifying his staff, and Keith Carradine alike (who was obviously born in a Western). When the aliens arrive, however, the story starts to fall apart a little, and the special effects don't really do the aliens justice. In the dark, they work moderately well, but in the final battle as they take on the cowboys in the open plains, they look a little silly. And when their chests open up and tiny little arms come out, they seem a lot like Chris Elliot's character from Scary Movie 2. "Here, grab hold of my strong arm..."

There's lots of fun to be had in this film, but it's probably best to approach it with a relatively shallow view. Low expectations mean little disappointment.

Review - Doctor Who: Let's Kill Hitler

2011-08-29T10:16:00.002+10:00

Doctor Who, Series 6, Part 2 bursts back onto our screen with Let's Kill Hitler, which, if you care to care about these sort of things, didn't particularly fill me with confidence as a title all those months ago when A Good Man Goes To War sort of wimpered the series out, rather than explosively ended.

It's still a particularly silly title, and given that Hitler makes a five minute appearance before being locked in a cupboard, it also has very little relevence to the episode. I suppose it's a hook, but The Next Doctor was a hook, and it had the decency to feature a character whom the Doctor and the character himself believed to be the next incarnation of the Doctor for a good deal of the episode. Additionally, aside from the line, no one has any great desire to kill Hitler, so it's all a bit arbitary.

The Nazi sequences are nicely done, but the episode really centres around River Song, so let's declare spoilers and get down to business.

There's a lot of backstory about River packed into this episode, and given we have seen how she will die, we now get to see how she was born. Nina Toussaint-White appears in the opening few scenes as Mels - the before now unheard of best friend of Rory and Amy - who believes and obsesses over the Doctor as much as, if not more than, Amy herself. Toussaint-White is actually really good in the role and I sort of wish she had had more screen time (though given the nature of time and the possiblity of things being rewritten, perhaps we will see her again). I hadn't been spoilt before seeing the episode so I was genuinely surprised when Mels regenerated into River Song. Whereas the revelation of Melody's name in A Good Man Goes To War was an example of poor dramatic writing, Mels' true identity here is text book perfect, delivering a line that reveals exactly who she is, and allowing the audience to be shocked as the regeneration takes place. It's fantastic.

Alex Kingston then takes over as the younger River (there's a lovely throwaway gag about how she will make herself younger as she grows older, leaving a nice explanation as to why River looks marginally younger in Silence In The Library and also giving us more to ponder about how amazingly well Melody is able to control her regeneration), and frankly Kingston is superlative in this episode, stealing every scene she's in. Her initial scene with an attempt to kill the Doctor is both superbly directed and astonishingly well played, reminding me of the Doctor and the Master trumping each other in The Curse Of Fatal Death. From this point on she develops the character nicely, from Madame Kovarian's murderous assassin to the loyal companion of the Doctor that she becomes by the end. This is Kingston's episode and she's worth every moment on screen.

The rest of the cast all do their jobs well, though while the "Dave" storyline is quite clever, it never really has much of an impact (I have no idea what the names of the characters who pilot the Tesselector are because no great deal is ever made of them). Perhaps the best thing about the "Dave" part of the episode is Michael Pickwoad's production design. Having delivered a quite outstanding group of German sets, he outdoes himself with the Tesselector, which looks fantastic.

And of course, there's the Doctor himself. Matt Smith is having great fun with his role, camping the Doctor up tremendously with a sonic cane and flirting with River Song uncontrollably. There's a real chemistry between Smith and Kingston that even Tennant didn't have, and the relationship between the two is completely believable.

Arthur Darvill continues to impress as Rory - and gets a lot of great lines in the episode - while Karen Gillan gives a nice side to Amy, notably when she and Rory face death, and at the end where she has to leave Melody behind. It's a tricky situation this one - two people who have become parents but never had a chance to know their daughter, or appreciate the pregnancy. Where do you pitch the performance, exactly? Grief sticken mother hardly seems appropriate, but conversely, total disinterest isn't right either. Gillan, I think, nails it quite nicely. However, as always, it's Caitlin Blackwood as the younger Amy that blows me away. If anyone has a chemistry with Matt Smith more than Alex Kingston, it's Blackwood, and there are still times I can't help but wish she was accompanying the Doctor on his travels.

It's a triumphant return for Doctor Who and it's self-assuredness and coherence easily overshadows the disappointing finale of a few months ago.

Enterprise's Geek Pin-Up Girl

2011-08-29T10:13:00.001+10:00

August - Olivia Wilde

Mi's a little over Miss Wilde, and I have to admit I wouldn't be tremendously upset if she were to suddenly up and leave House without so much as a by your leave, but all that doesn't change two things: firstly, she's getting an inordinate amount of Geek cred to her name, and secondly she's hot. And this column is nothing if not shallow.

Wilde is 27 years old, and her parents are journalists, surprisingly. She is part Irish and her real name is Olivia Cockburn, which is probably a really good reason to change your surname when you become an actress. She has done a little television work, starting her career in 2003 with Skin, but gaining fame in 2007 when she started playing Dr Remy "13" Hadley in House. On the big screen she first appeared in The Girl Next Door, and then did a whole lot of bollocks.

But in 2009 she played the Baroness in a short video called The Ballard of GI Joe, and started getting her geek points. She cemented her geek credentials with her lead roles in Tron: Legacy and Cowboys & Aliens, the latter of which, of course, saw her opposite James Bond and Indiana Jones, so strength to strength there. Now, of course, she's replaced Megan Fox as the actress who is going to play every action girl. She will appear in The Change-Up, Butter (with Hugh Jackman), On The Inside, Blackbird, Welcome To People, blah, blah, blah...of most interest to geeks, though, is the forthcoming film In Time which has the plus of Amanda Seyfried and the minus of Justin Timberlake.

So charge your glasses and salute Olivia Wilde.

Review - Torchwood Miracle Day: End Of The Road

2011-08-29T09:52:00.001+10:00

After two rather brilliant returns to form for Torchwood, the Miracle Day continues but sadly, not quite with the same fire as we were hoping for. Bill Pullman and Lauren Ambrose return this week as Danes and Jilly, and their relationship takes a spectacular nosedive, giving a chance for Pullman and Ambrose to get physical, while Danes gets the particularly bad news that he's still up for the chop. Their storyline is very well done and once again they light up the screen everytime they are on it.

Sadly, the Torchwood side of things isn't quite on par. It's difficult to know who exactly to blame when the story is the problem, but ultimately, I would assume, that Russell T Davies has to shoulder the burden. For some reason his ideas aren't being translated to screen. If not him, then one would assume Jane Espenson, because once again we an episode that feels slightly disassociated from the ones before. I had wondered if the Angelo storyline shouldn't maybe have been scattered through the first seven episodes rather than lumped into Immortal Sins, but it's now clear why it was written this way - despite the promise at the end of the last episode, Angelo Colasanto has very little to do with anything. Exposition from his daughter could have been done without the need to bring back the character. The fact that he actually does die, revealing a null field generator is ultimately unimportant. More importantly, the feeling that there should be some massive resolution of the problems between Jack and Angelo is completely ignored. Jack gets a very touching scene with the old Angelo, but this doesn't contribute to the story. Again, nothing is really achieved in this episode, and the plot seems to stall.

The real problem is that once again, Jack is sidelined in favour of characters that the writers obviously think are more interesting. Don't get me wrong, the cast of this episode is top-notch, with the return of Wayne Knight as CIA Deputy Director Friedkin, and the introduction of CIA Director Alan Shapiro, played with relish by John DeLancie who steals every scene he appears in. They are really, really good characters, but focussing on them, and ignoring Jack and Gwen (who is criminally ignored this episode), means that the Torchwood feel of the series is being lost. Perhaps, then, the biggest problem with Torchwood: Miracle Day is that it doesn't feature Torchwood...

There are now only two episodes of the series left. We do seem to have garnered more information, but we don't know who's behind Miracle Day (the families? If not them, then who else?) and we don't know how it was caused. By now, we should know these things and be approaching the resolution of the story, but resolution is a long way off, and so is any form of satisfaction.

Review - Torchwood Miracle Day: Immortal Sins

2011-08-26T13:01:00.001+10:00

I said that last week's episode of Torchwood felt more like Torchwood than the first five episodes, but Immortal Sins has beaten even that, and given us an episode that is arguably the best of the series. Finally giving us some answers to the questions over the past six episodes, this one actually centers around Captain Jack and a relationship that he had in the 1920's. Gwen and Jack get some nice scenes together, but outside of that, pretty much the rest of Torchwood is shunted into the background, and Oswald again makes no appearance. But it really does work.

The Jack/Gwen storyline gives us an opportunity to see, not only what their relationship is like, but also how they've changed since the events of Children Of Earth. Being a mother has made Gwen enormously protective, and slightly bitter towards Jack and what he's done to her. It's interesting that Russell T Davies has always pushed the idea that travelling with the Doctor makes people's lives better, but it appears he thinks the reverse of being with Torchwood and Captain Jack - and given that Gwen is the only survivor of Torchwood, one might argue there's a good point there. They both profess their love (at long last), but it's done in such a way as to show the other that there is something far more important than their love - for Gwen it's her daughter, for Jack it's life. Now this is interesting in reference to a comment Jack made a few episodes back about people being more alive than they've ever been. Important link? Perhaps...

In 1927, Jack meets Angelo and immediately they start sleeping together. For the first time Jack shows that he's not interested in just men as he actually talks about what he would like to do to the woman across the street. He does this in an attempt to seduce Angelo, but with the rampant flirting, it's nice to see the old Jack back again, compared to the new, more sombre version post-Children Of Earth. As Jack and Angelo become embroiled in Jack's mission to track down one of the Trickster's brigade (yes, both The Sarah Jane Adventures and Doctor Who get explicitly referenced this episode), Angelo finds it very difficult to become part of Jack's life and after a year in prison, believing Jack to be dead, Angelo's reunion with his lover is not as Jack would have it, and the results for Jack include him being bought by three people who shake hands in a trianglar fashion, and being killed over and over again - with one old woman running off with a bottle of his blood.

The three people who buy Jack seem to point in the direction of those that were hunting him down with the assassin, and the triangle-motif cell phones, while I wonder if the old woman taking Jack's blood is significant in the creation of Miracle Day. Either way it finally seems that the answers are coming, particularly as Nana Visitor turns up as an agent for Angelo, 90 years after he and Jack met.

The most striking part of this episode is how obvious it is that John Barrowman has star potential. He was always the most engaging part of Torchwood, and getting the opportunity to take centre stage this episode, reminds us of just how charismatic and engaging Barrowman actually is. The relationship between Jack and Angelo is very well played and extremely believable, particularly given the era in which the story is set.

There's still a lot of questions that need answers, but the series has really picked up the ball and run with it, and frankly I can't wait for the final three episodes to discover where this is all going. A great episode.

Retrospective: "Blackadder: Back And Forth"

2011-08-18T21:17:00.003+10:00

In 1999, England built the Millenium Dome to celebrate the forthcoming 2000, and to celebrate the opening, for the first time in ten years, a new episode of Blackadder was filmed for it. Reuniting Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson, Tim McInnerny, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry and Miranda Richardson as modern day versions of Blackadder, Baldrick, Darling, George, Melchett and Elizabeth, this story would see Lord Blackadder and his servant Baldrick travelling through time in a time machine built by Baldrick. Unfortunately because it was built by Baldrick, there are no labelled controls and no obvious ways of getting home. The pair end up briefly in the far future, in Elizabeth times (welcome back Queenie, Lord Melchett and Patsy Byrne as Nursie with an appearance by Colin Firth as Shakespeare), meeting Robin Hood (Rik Mayall doing Flasheart again, alongside Kate Moss as Maid Marion) and at the Battle of Waterloo (Stephen Fry playing the Duke of Wellington again, but nothing like the previous version, and McInerny as both a French and English version of Darling). On their return to modern times they find that history has been changed just a little...

I mentioned that in some ways, Blackadder Goes Forth felt a bit like a "best of" compilation of Blackadder, and that's exactly what Blackadder: Back And Forth feels like as well, except, perhaps, not quite as good. There's no laugh track, and obviously it wasn't filmed in front of a live studio audience, resulting in the whole thing feeling a little under whelming. There are some nice jokes in the show, but it lacks any of the freshness that the series had, and while there's some fun to be had with a modern day Blackadder popping into other times, the most obvious and appealing idea is never explored (that is, a modern day Blackadder assisting his ancestors to rise to the top).

Sadly the whole thing feels like a missed opportunity. Ben Elton and Richard Curtis' script has no real plot, and is really no more than a string of skits, while again it's the sheer over the top enthusiasm of Rik Mayall that is the highlight of the entire episode. There is a place for this kind of episode, but it needed to be much better written than it actually is.

Favourite line of the episode: Blackadder: "There's one question I've always been meaning to ask you. How come you're so great?"
Robin Hood: "Because I'm me!"

Review - Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

2011-08-18T19:41:00.002+10:00

Apes will rise! declares the tagline, but it's slightly misleading. Apes will rise, and then take a short break, might be more appropriate.

So, by this you'll see that I'm not tremendously satisfied with the ending of Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes and the reason I start this review with this nugget of information is that it's actually the only thing I didn't like about the film. Having gone through a tremendously brilliant setup the movie reaches the climax and then...stops. There's no resolution, and perhaps the truth is that I walked in with a specific expectation of how the film would end, and because it didn't end that way I was disappointed, but having said that, the person I went so see the film with, turned to me at the end and said "Well, that wasn't satisfying" which is exactly how I felt. It didn't end, rather it provided a set up for a sequel. I don't mind a lead in for a sequel, but I'd still like the film to stand on its own two feet.

James Franco is a scientist who is intent on finding a cure for Alzheimer's, which is what his father - John Lithgow - is currently suffering from. When one of the apes that they test on shows an increase in intelligence, Franco thinks they have it, and presents to the board, and which point his ape goes...er...ape and has to be put down. But even though it turns out that the ape was actually just protecting its new born child, it makes little difference; the apes are put down. Putting aside the question of why the ape handler didn't notice that one of his charges was pregnant, Franco takes the baby ape who turns out to have been born with a huge intelligence. They name it Caesar, and all is well, particularly as Lithgow recovers with the same treatment - until Lithgow regresses and is threatened, and Caesar goes...er...ape (OK, we'll stop doing that joke) on the attacker, and is taken away to the evil Brian Cox and his son Tom Felton, necessitating Caesar to rise up and lead an ape revolution.

That's a trite summary of the film, which is actually really, really good. I've always been a fan of Franco, who I thought outshone both Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst in the Spider-Man trilogy, and here he looks fantastic (really fantastic given that the movie takes place over eight years and he doesn't age at all) and delivers a very genuine performance. Lithgow is even better, and in some ways almost makes the film. Brian Cox is his usual self, and Freida Pinto is beautiful but not tremendously memorable as Franco's love interest. The truth is, though, that it's Andy Serkis that steals the movie as Caesar, the intelligent ape. The special effects that bring Caesar to life are amazing, and without equal, allowing a fantastic performance to shine through, while still giving us a completely believable ape. The other apes are just as amazing, but it is definitely Caesar that has the justifiable spotlight.

If you've seen the other Planet of the Apes films, you can pick a constant series of references to the previous films, be it references to the Icarus, Cornilla, Roddy or simply Caesar himself, the film packs in the homages to the series it is reinventing. Tom Felton even gets to utter the iconic "Get your stinking paws off me you damn, dirty ape" line. It's a nice touch for film fans, and hints at areas the series could go to, should it continue beyond this film.

Ultimately, Rise is a really great film, and so good that you overlook the annoyingly limp ending. Definitely interested to see where the series goes to from here.

Review - Torchwood Miracle Day: The Middle Men

2011-08-18T19:39:00.001+10:00

Torchwood has sailed new waters over the past few weeks, giving us a series that is vastly different to its predecessors, but yet still quite enjoyable. New characters have slotted in and been developed, though more often that not it's appeared that some writers have chosen to pursue these areas while others have just completely overlooked them. Indeed if Torchwood: Miracle Day had a primary problem, it would be the lack of coherence between episodes. That, and the fact that after five episodes, nothing seems to have actually been achieved.

The Middle Men, however, is a change of pace for the series, and for the first time we feel like we are actually watching the original Torchwood again. Perhaps the most obvious aspect of this episode was that neither Bill Pullman as the creepy Oswald Danes, or his reluctant offsider, Lauren Ambrose's Jilly, actually put in an appearance. This episode is devoted totally to the Torchwood team, and the fallout from the previous episode; which means we have a most definite coherence.

Jack gives up his obsessive pursuit of Danes for an episode, in order to get to the top of PhiCorp, who turns out to be none other than Ernie Hudson - Stuart Owens, rich philanderer. What's interesting about this side of things is that it turns out that PhiCorp isn't really behind it. The Miracle Day has been bothering Owens who has been launching his own investigation, and turning up unusual things - not that he knows it because whatever it is has driven his agent mad enough to throw himself from the top of a very tall building to be unconscious for the rest of his life. Hudson is great, and his scenes with John Barrowman are really nicely played. Barrowman himself is great, though perhaps the greatest loss of the character is that he is no longer the mad flirt he used to be (or at the very least, not with women). This has mad Jack a slightly more miserable character than he was, and a little less likable, but perhaps, given that he killed his grandson in the last series, this is to be expected.

Gwen and Rhys are busy trying to get Geraint out of the Overflow camp he has been stuck in, which gives Gwen a chance to go moralistic on people's asses, and also to create a very large explosion (though in all seriousness, it's probably best not to think too hard about what Gwen did at the end, becuase, if she just out and out blew up the Overflow camp, then she's killed a lot of people...awkward...). Her actions, of course, lead to the episode cliffhanger which is quite fun, and in truth, you can't help but cheer for Gwen whenever she kicks ass.

Finally, Rex and Esther try to escape the San Pedro Overflow camp they have ended up in; Rex determined to avenge the horrific non-death of Vera and Esther coming to consequences of what it's actually like to be an proper spy. In truth, I think I enjoyed the Rex/Esther storyline the most this episode, and was more than happy to see Esther get the upper hand of the prick, Colin Maloney.

John Shiban has really delivered this episode, writing us a great script that has a nice balance of answers, mystery, action and character; indeed, contrary to popular opinion I think Shiban has a better handle on Torchwood than Jane Espenson does. After five episodes, I think the new Torchwood has given us the best episode to date, and while I love Pullman and Ambrose, I'm almost worried that their return might damage the success of The Midde Men. But that's still to come...

Retrospective: "Blackadder Goes Forth"

2011-08-10T13:34:00.004+10:00

Blackadder Goes Forth sees the Blackadder crew move into the trenches of the first World War; or more accurately sees Captain Edmund Blackadder, his XO Lt George St Colthurst-Barleigh and his batman Private S Baldrick move into the trenches. But Blackadder Goes Forth is, in some ways, a greatest hits collection of Blackadder and so the three cast members of Blackadder the Third are rejoined by two of their Blackadder II co-stars, Stephen Fry and Tim McInerny as General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmany Melchett and Captain Kevin Darling. Reportedly, McInerny was unimpressed with the character of Percy Percy, and this gave rise to his absence from the third season. In order to get him back, McInerny wasn't playing dumb, and he wasn't playing Percy. In fact, this is a great move, and Captain Darling becomes not so much a stupid offsider to Blackadder, but his rival, in a similar way to Melchett was in Blackadder II. McInerny gives a great performance as the nervous, twitching Darling, and his name alone opens up great jokes (my favourite being Melchett's conversation with him about what he will say to his beloved). Melchett is a completely different character to his ancestor, but bears some similarities to the Duke of Wellington, though General Melchett is clearly mad as a broom. The random "baaa"'s that come out of his mouth are more frequent, and Melchett effectively takes the place of the insane royalty that the previous three seasons have had. Unfortunately this gave rise to criticisms of the way Blackadder Goes Forth depicted the officer class in the Royal Army, but it's not so much an attack on officers, as requiring a madman that Blackadder has to answer to.

As usual there is little difference between Private S Baldrick and S Baldrick, and in truth there is very little difference between the Prince Regent and Lieutenant George either, both actors playing their parts in the way that made them popular. Rowan Atkinson, on the other hand does again provide a slight difference with Blackadder as while he is similar to his grandfather in temperment, Captain Blackadder is perhaps less nasty and more world weary than any of his ancestors.

As I mentioned, this season feels a little like a "best of" collection, and so while it's not unexpected to see Miranda Richardson return, we also get Rik Mayall, Bill Wallis and Gabrielle Glennister all popping back, but unlike Richardson and Wallis who create new characters, Mayall and Glennister are playing Flasheart and "Bob", both essentially the same characters from Blackadder II. Equally each episode seems to almost have a checklist of things that need to be done, and occasionally this feels like Curtis and Elton are just going through the motions. Equally, Blackadder's famous similies are used almost relentlessly, with virtually everything being compared to something else.

But make no mistake, this is still an extremely funny series, brought to life by absolutely brilliant characters, hilarious situations and great comedy lines. And if that's not enough, there is the ending to the series, which is easily one of the most poignoint and moving ends to any television series, let alone a Blackadder one. Criticise it's depiction of the British officers, but you can't criticise it's sensitive and realistic handling of the actual war.

Captain Cook Blackadder's been sent a new service revolver and the big push seems to be imminent. However, Blackadder's not keen and despite Baldrick's suggestion to become wandering chef's and get a job elsewhere, Blackadder sees General Melchett's search for a cover artist to "King And Country" as his means of getting out of war. One of my favourite episodes of the series, with some great moments, especially when Blackadder takes credit for George's paintings. Mi's favourite moment of this episode is when Blackadder discovers that the search for the artist isn't so they can go to France and do a cover, but is actually to go into No-Man's Land to paint German positions.
Melchett: "We want you, as our top painting bod, to leave the trenches..."
Blackadder: "Good."
Melchett: "...tonight..."
Blackadder: "Suits me."
Melchett: "...and go out into no-man's-land..."
Blackadder: "No-man's-land?"
Melchett & Darling: "Yeeeeeees."
Blackadder: "Not Paris?"
Melchett and Darling: "Noooooooo.".
However...
Favourite line of the episode: "If what happens when you open your mouth is anything like what happens when you open your paintbox, we'd all be drenched in phlegm." or maybe "You're a damn fine chap, not a pen-pushing, desk-sucking, blotter-jotter like Darling here, eh Darling?"

Corporal Punishment Blackadder makes the most of poor communications to stop from going over the top, until he shoots a messenger pigeon who turns out to be General Melchett's childhood pet. Facing court martial and execution, Blackadder is forced to rely on his defense counsel - George. Possibly the weakest episode of the series, and one where it becomes obvious that a laugh track is being used, rather than the studio audience's actual response (though I'm not sure if this was actually shot in front of a studio audience this time). Some of the timing for the lines and the delivery seems a bit odd, notably Atkinson's delivery of the line "I'm dead" which seems very odd in relation to the laughter. I still laugh a lot in this episode, but not as much as other episodes.
Favourite line of the episode: "I don't care if he's been watering the Duke of York with a prize-winning leak! He shot my pigeon!"

Major Star Melchett gets Blackadder to organise a variety music hall, and the lead is George as the traditional drag act. However, Melchett falls in love with Georgina, and Blackadder's opportunity to get out of the war depends on Melchett not shagging George. Kate "Bob" Parkhurst returns to the series in this episode as Melchett's driver and Blackadder's assitant, but it's Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie that steal the episode, showing what great comedians they really are, even though they are rarely on screen together. Atkinson virtually acts as the straight man for the entire episode as madness erupts around him. A brilliant episode.
Favourite line of the episode: "Will you stand still when I'm talking to you! If by a man's works shall you know him, then you were a steaming pile of horse manure."

Private Plane A run in with Captain the Lord Flasheart of the Flying Squadron, convinces Blackadder and George to join up, and soon they are in the air, fighting the Red Baron. Until a tactical manouvre fails, and Blackadder finds himself a German prisoner, facing the penalty of teaching girls at a convent school. Funniest episode of the entire season, this is completely faultless. Rik Mayall is back as Flasheart, and again he steals the episode away from the regular cast, and also, bizarrely, from his own comedy partner Adrian Edmondson, who plays the Red Baron Von Richtoven. Nonetheless, the amount of quotable lines from this episode are immense, the various scenes between characters pay off so well, be it Blackadder and the Red Baron, Blackadder and Flasheart, George and Melchett, Flasheart and Darling...it's almost a series of brilliant two handed sketches, except it's tied together by a hilarious plot.
Favourite line of the episode: "Because, you know, I've always had my doubts about you trenchy-type fellows. Always suspected there might be a bit too much of the battle-dodging, nappy-wearing, I'd-rather-have-a-cup-of-tea-than-charge-stark-naked-at-Jerry about you. But if you're willing to join the Twenty Minuters then you're all right by me and welcome to marry my sister any day."
"Are you sure about this, sir?"
"Certainly, you should hear the noise she makes when she eats a boiled egg. Be glad to get her out of the house."

General Hospital Blackadder is sent to hospital to seek out the German spy who's passing information to the Hun. Faced with the choice between the beautiful nurse and the man with a thick German accent, Blackadder decides to shag the nurse and tie Darling to a chair. Miranda Richardson gets her fourth season appearance here, playing Nurse Mary Brown, while Bill Wallis plays Smith, the man with the accent. Both are great, but actually this is Atkinson and McInerny's episode as the former searches for the spy and gets a bit on the side, while the latter tries to foil Blackadder at every turn. The resolution is still slightly confusing, though - clearly the Germans are getting their informaton from George, so was Mary actually a spy?
Favourite line of the episode: "No, thank you. I only smoke cigarettes after making love. So, back in England, I'm a twenty-a-day man."

Goodbyeee The order has been given, it's time to go over the top. Blackadder goes temporarily mad in order to get out of it, but when that fails, he has no choice but to call in a favour from Field Marshall Haig to get him out of the war. Unfortunately, Haig's suggestion is to go temporarily mad. Private Plane might be the funniest episode of the season, but Goobyeee is the best Blackadder episode ever. Hilarious lines go hand in hand with the depressing truth of the situation that the characters are in. At the beginning of the episode we have a hilarious scene where we discover just what Baldrick has been using for his cooking - and Darling's coffee is more gross than can be described. But as we move on we learn about Blackadder's past and how he came to be fighting in the way ("back in the old days when the prerequisite of a British campaign was that the enemy should under no circumstances carry guns...No, when I joined up, we never imagined anything as awful as this war") - indeed we discover how George and Baldrick found themselves there as well - and the scene where Darling is sent to the front line is surprisingly one of the saddest you'll see. The incomparable Geoffrey Palmer guest stars as Field Marshal Haig, and once again we get a military chief who has little thought about anything outside of his own intererests; when Blackadder calls he is sweeping toy soldiers around, standing one up again when he offers Blackadder a solution. But it is the final few minutes of the episode that are absolutely compelling. No laughter at all, as Blackadder, Darling, George and Baldrick go into the trenches for the final push, and no credits at all as they are ruthless gunned down in their final push. It's a beautiful episode, and a perfect way to end Blackadder.
Favourite line of the episode: "The guns have stopped because we're about to attack. Not even our generals are mad enough to shell their own men. They think it's far more sporting to let the Germans do it."

And that was that. The end of Blackadder. For years there were rumours of a fifth season - indeed The Blackadder Five was a long talked about series which would have seen Blackadder either part of, or managing a sixties rock group. But for some reason it never eventuated; most probably due to the success of Mr Bean which kept Atkinson busy for a number of years, and also the success of Fry & Laurie as their different projects moved along. Seemingly, Blackadder was over...until, it turned out, 1999...

Review - Torchwood Miracle Day: The Categories Of Life

2011-08-10T13:20:00.002+10:00

I'm not sure about this series of Torchwood. We're now at the half way point and we still don't seem to be going anywhere or, more accurately, Torchwood don't seem to be achieving anything. More than that, it seems that the writers aren't communicating with each other, as each episode tends to feel very standalone and often doesn't reference anything that happened in the one before. Nobody, for instance, in this episode mentions Ellis Hartley Monroe, and aside from some visual references, nobody mentions the Dead is Dead campaign. It's almost as though the directors are trying to provide the continuity that the writers are choosing not to.

That said, I'm enjoying the episodes alone, and certainly The Categories Of Life had a lot of nice things going for it. We see Torchwood infiltrating the Overflow camps as people are being categorised depending on how alive they are. Rex realises that he has changed from category 1 to category 2, while Gwen is concerned that her father is going to go the other way. Esther (having completely forgotten about her sister and neices) discovers that the Overflow camps have "Modules", and that's what Torchwood sets off to find; Gwen, Rhys and Andy in Wales, Rex, Esther and Vera in the US, while Jack continues his obsession with Oswald Danes, in the hopes of getting his help (strangely...clearly having forgotten that hardcore beating Oswald ordered on him the other week).

The episode is lots of fun, with some great dialogue and great moments, particularly between Esther and Jack, who seem to be forming a nice connection, while it's always great to see Andy Davidson return, and even he has a nice moment where he attempts to assert police authority over the army. The nature of the Overflow camps, and the revealtion of the Modules is deeply disturbing, but it's poor Vera who you have to feel sorry for, having to spend the entire episode dealing with Colin Maloney, a sexist, incompetent Overflow director who loses control and ends up shooting Vera twice, before putting her in a module. It's a shocking end to the episode, on par with the ending of the previous episode, and just as disturbing if you actually think about it in any detail.

Bill Pulman and Lauren Ambrose continue to delight and impress in the episode, and I was pleasantly surprised to see Teddy Sears turn up as the mysterious "Blue Eyed Man" - he's an actor who I've sen before, and do enjoy his performances.

In all, another good episode, but by now I would like to have a little more of the threads tied together than we've got. Perhaps this is all going to lead to an enormously wonderful payoff in the last few episodes, but it's a little frustrating getting there.

Comic Book Movie News

2011-08-10T13:17:00.001+10:00

If you haven't seen them already, there are tonnes of photos circulating on the interweb featuring Christian Bale as Batman (presumably when he's busy not abusing the production crew), Tom Hardy as Bane and Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. I have to say that I'm not tremendously piqued by The Dark Knight Rises, and certainly the costume for Bane fails to impress. However, I love Anne Hathaway so I'll be giving it a chance.

Similarly in pictorial news, the first pictures of Henry Cavill have been released as Superman from Man Of Steel (I see that DC comic movies no longer use the character name as a title...). I have to admit to liking the look of it, though I'm not sure if the Pierce Brosnan haircut is quite right...

In other DC news, it appears that Green Lantern, aside from being a critical failure, is also a commercial failure. Let me briefly explain how this works - an American film is perceived as a success if it recuperates its production costs in America. What this means is, a $100 million dollar movie may make $350 million worldwide, but if it only makes $75 million in the States it's a failure - like Van Helsing, for instance. As a consequence no sequel. Conversely if that movie made $40 million worldwide and $125 million in the States you'd get a success and a sequel. So, we have Green Lantern which, unfortunately, hasn't scored well on either side - the $200 million dollar movie has made $114 in the States (fail) and $40 million worldwide - $154 in total (epic fail - though there are still countries it hasn't opened in, to be fair). However, it appears that Warner Bros and DC are reviewing the terms of success slightly, and with a respectable $53 million dollar opening weekend, the sequel does seem to be going ahead. However, the blame for the first movie has to be laid somewhere, and it seems Martin Campbell is shouldering it. He won't be back for a sequel if it happens, though given the choice between a over-stuffed story and silly costumes, and the man who reinvented the James Bond franchise successfully twice, I know who I'd be firing...

Meanwhile, Marvel continues to push ahead with its schedule in all forms. Sony have announced that May, 2014 will see The Amazing Spider-Man sequel (which we hope is called either The Spectacular Spider-Man or The Web Of Spider-Man), but Marvel Studios is the one that's pushing its films, with The Avengers in 2012, and both Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 on track for 2013 (both the latter films have new directors, of course; Shane Black helming Iron Man 3 and rumours have it that television director Brian Kirk will be looking at Thor 2). Marvel have also said that there will be two films in 2014, though they have kept quiet about what those films actually are. Either way, it seems Marvel and Kevin Feige in particular will be very busy over the next few years...

Review - Wonder Woman 2011 Pilot

2011-08-03T22:04:00.003+10:00

So you might be wondering, have we missed out by David E Kelley's new Wonder Woman series not being picked up for a series, and the answer to that question is...well, sort of. A copy of the pilot episode has turned up at the Enterprise and so now's a good time for a review and a judgement on whether the best has happened.

In terms of plot we get Wonder Woman, a person known to all and known to many also as Diana Themyscira who is the head of a company that publicly sells Wonder Woman merchandise in order to ensure Wonder Woman has all the crime fighting tools at her disposal. She is assisted by Tracie Thoms as her personal assistant Etta Candy, and Cary Elwes as Henry Detmer, the CEO of her company and she moons over Steve Trevor (Justin Bruening) whom she abandoned in order to go to Los Angeles to fight crime. We join Wonder Woman as she is in the middle of a slight obsession about one Veronica Cale (Elizabeth Hurley) who appears to be creating a new form of steroid that is killing those that she tests it on. Wonder Woman's one woman campaign is sort of helped by Detective Ed Indelicato (Pedro Pascal), but there are those that are convinced she is acting as an agent for the police and this could create legal problems. In fact, there seems to be a lot of legal problems being bandied about, and at times they seem to be more of a threat than Cale, who, when the final battle takes place, is really no threat at all. On top of all of this, Diana Prince - Diana Themyscira's alter ego - is trying to get a real life, except she has no life. Curiously, she seems to be taking the Clark Kent approach to disguise, and wears glasses to hide the fact she is really Themyscira. Whether it works or not is largely irrelevent, as it seems Diana Prince doesn't actually have any friends anyway.

The plot is a bit messy, to be honest, and after you watch it, coupled with the dialogue, you can't help but realise that the writing of the episode is not great. Strangely enough, in a time when we are bombarded by super hero origin stories, I actually wished that we had got Diana's origin explained. She lays claim to being Amazon, but that's never actually confirmed, and as I've never really read any Wonder Woman comics, I don't know her origin, so for me it would have been nice to have seen how she became Wonder Woman. Instead we are launched into a story where it seems we should know what is going on, but we really don't. There are other examples of poor writing - and not just the often inane dialogue - but perhaps the one that stands out the most is when we are told about the lassoo of truth, but then when Wonder Woman questions a suspect, rather than use said lassoo, it appears she tortures him. Not really the most heroic of characters.
But you have to bear in mind that this is a pilot. And sadly, the way studio executives view pilots these days is different to how they used to. Now, they watch the episode and think: do I want to watch 24 episodes of that? In the past, they would watch it, and think: could this be tweaked enough to make me want to watch 24 episodes of it? If Babylon 5's pilot had been shown today, it wouldn't have got made, but there was enough potential in that, so that with a bit of tweaking you could get a good series out of it. And watching Wonder Woman, I get pretty much the same feeling. There's a lot of bollocks here, but there's enough good that makes you think, this could make a good series. Slot this episode down the line - maybe around episode seventeen - and start with an origin, lead up to what you've got, and you could have a good series on your hands.

Adrianne Palicki - the woman who is the new Wonder Woman - is actually fantastic. Not only does she look the part - a tall, gorgeous brunette strutting her stuff and looking great while kicking arse - but she actually manages to make the character likable and even makes some of the terrible lines she has bearable (though making a decision on which costume she's going to wear would be a good idea - the seventies one may be sexier but it's a little sillier). Elizabeth Hurley is awful but tolerable for one episode. The rest of (whom I assume would be) the regular cast are likable enough, and you can see there is some room for interesting character development.

Ultimately, when you view the dross that does get made, you have to wonder why they studio executives have been quite so hard on Wonder Woman. It's great to see a television show with a female lead (and indeed, balanced female cast), something that is still relatively rare in popular television, and I can't help thinking this could have developed into something special. Certainly it's not a great pilot, but the potential is there, and given that it's not in so many other television shows, this is perhaps a missed opportunity.

Review - DVD: Doctor Who - Paradise Towers

2011-08-03T22:02:00.002+10:00

When I was becoming more and more interested in Doctor Who, Sylvester McCoy was taking on the role of the Doctor, and so I suppose in many ways he was "my" Doctor. Sure, endless repeats of Tom Baker and Jon Pertwee meant I knew them very well, and I had seen Peter Davison and Colin Baker, but Sylvester was the Doctor when I was 11 and it's often said that that is the perfect age for Doctor Who fans, which is probably true. I remember watching Paradise Towers when it was first broadcast and it completely enthralled me. Gangs of feral girls, killer robot cleaners, cannabilistic old women and the Doctor's companion in a swimming costume. What's not to get sucked in by?

The TARDIS arrives in Paradise Towers - the Doctor and Mel seeking out a swimming pool because the TARDIS' has sprung a leak. However, the nasty something lurking in the basement of Paradise Towers is ready to come out, and it uses the silent robotic cleaners to do it's bidding. While Mel joins forces with the only young male around - an incompentent hero named Pex - in order to reach the swimming pool on the top floor, the Doctor finds himself on the run from the beauracratic Caretakers, and everybody is targeted by the cleaners.

It's a simple story, but Paradise Towers is such a rich television event. The sets are nasty, dark and dirty, and really quite well done, allowing director Nicholas Mallett to film the story from some unusual angles. The costumes are extremely well designed, and it's worth noting how McCoy's costume is beginning to evolve into what will become the one we are all familiar with. The acting...well, that's where it gets a bit funny. The actresses who play the elderly Rezzies are all very well cast and are quite sinister as they change from caring old biddies to hunter cannibals. They are probably the highlight of the story. Howard Cooke is passable as Pex, while most of the women who play the female Kangs all deliver the lines wihout the any particular embarrassment. But the Caretakers...well, there's the big problem. For reasons that are, it seems, unclear to many (including script writer and script editor), the Caretakers are all around mid 20's to mid 40's and mostly quite fit, which, given much is made of the fact that every able-bodied man left to fight a war, begs the question why these guys are here. Writer Stephen Wyatt wanted older, fat men to be the Caretakers, and this would make a lot more sense. As it is, we have a group that are very much out of place. Clive Merrison plays the Deputy Chief Caretaker really well, but doesn't look the part (and really shouldn't have said "Chiefy"), while Richard Briers gives a masterclass in over the top acting. On one of the documentaries, he reveals that producer John Nathan-Turner wasn't happy with Briers' performance, but Briers disagreed with him and ignored everything Nathan-Turner had to say. He probably shouldn't have, especially when he becomes the zombie version in the final episode. It's something that has to be seen to be believed, and not in a good way.

But still, I love this story, and if you can get past the dodgy caretakers, you will discover that there's quite a gem to be had here.

The audio commentary is a bit flat for this story, not helped by the fact that it is made up of a relatively minor character and the sound effects man, and is moderated by Mark Ayres who struggles to generate much excitement for anything. Writer Stephen Wyatt is the most interesting of the commentators, but it would have been great to have Sylvester McCoy or Bonnie Langford on board for some more information. The accompanying documentary, though again guided by Ayres, is considerably better, and as there is a lot more varied imput, makes for much more interesting viewing. A short interview with Clive Doig as he chats about how he helped cast Sylvester McCoy is somewhat enlightening (though not really essential), while the second in the Girls! Girls! Girls! series is very interesting. I was a bit worried when I read it was essentially a conversation between Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding and Sophie Aldred, given Fielding's tendency to get on her soapbox about female companions, but she is actually quite restrained and when she gets a little bolshie about it, both Sutton and Aldred give her some perspective which is quite interesting. Easily my favourite extra on the disc.

Of course there is also the usual Radio Times pdfs, photo gallery, production subtitles and trailers. Interestingly you can also view this with the original score that was ultimately dumped by Nathan-Turner.

All in all, I'm telling you to get out and buy this one. If not for the nostalgia value, then for the fact it's actually a great little story.

Retrospective: "Blackadder's Christmas Carol"

2011-08-03T22:01:00.002+10:00

The grandson of Mr Edmund Blackadder (or the new Prince Regent, take your pick), was Mr Ebenezer Blackadder, reknown as the nicest man in all of England. At Christmas time, he gave everything he had to his niece, the fat orphans and Mrs Scratchit. Queen Victoria and her husband are on their way to reward the nicest man in England, but first he must pass a little test, which he does with flying colours. So the following day they will present their reward. However, that night, Ebenezer is visited by the Spirit of Christmas and at Ebenezer's request he shows him some of the exploits of Lord Edmund Blackadder and Mr Edmund Blackadder. And it's then when Blackadder wonders what the future will hold if he decides to become nasty, like his predecessor's...

Blackadder's Christmas Carol is nothing short of a Christmas romp, which is really what it's supposed to be. It's a celebration of Blackadder (though the original series is conspicuous by its absence) and gives Rowan Atkinson the opportunity to play four different Blackadders - two we are familar with, and two new ones. Tony Robinson, of course, gets to do the same thing with Baldrick, though you do notice that there is not really any difference in the Baldricks, while there is some subtle difference between the Blackadders (though it's notable that Atkinson tends to play the Georgian Blackadder in much the same way as the Elizabethan one this time round).

And, of course, it's a chance for other actors to get in on the fun and play different versions of their characters as well. Stephen Fry plays Lord Melchett in Elizabethan times and the future, Hugh Laurie is Prince George and a future version, Patsy Byrne is back as nursie and a future version, and Miranda Richardson is Queen Elizabeth and Queen Asphyxia. Favourite guests Jim Broadbent and Miriam Margoyles return as a double act (the only nod to the original series), as Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, and even Dennis Lill pops up as the orphan's guardian, Mr Beadle. In amongst all of this (particularly the Elizabethan Blackadder segment), Tim McInerney's non appearance is very obvious.

But this is a great episode, with some brilliant moments (I never stop laughing at Admiral Nelson waking up, panicking he's gone blind, and Blackadder moving his eyepatch over to the other eye), and a fantastic, if predictable ending. But it's Christmas and that's probably the way it should be.

Favourite line of the episode: "I fear, Mr Baldrick, that the only way you're likely to get a big wet kiss at Christmas -- or, indeed, any other time -- is to make a pass at a water closet."

Review - Captain America

2011-08-02T18:33:00.002+10:00

It astonishes me slightly that Captain America is being judged unfavourably against Thor and Iron Man. Now, don't get me wrong here, I loved Thor and Iron Man remains - to my mind - the best comic book movie adaption made, but for me Captain America comes pretty damned close, and I'm a little shocked at the negative comments directed towards it.

I would imagine the idea of Captain America is something of a difficult sell, particularly if you want to do the character justice. It would be relatively easy to have Steve Rogers wanting to go to Iraq, failing the medical and being "super-soldiered" by Dr Erskine but that would mean ignoring one of the great aspects of the character that is often over-looked, but is essential in The Ultimates - and that is a man out of time (it's interesting to note that The Ultimates creators, Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch both get thanked in the credits, and there's certainly a fair bit of a nod to Hitch's Captain America costume design in the movie). And that's what makes Captain America more than just a watered down Superman clone. Against a World War II setting, he's perfect - a super soldier fighting Nazis and their villainous tech officer Johann Schmidt (no, David & Margaret, not a nod to the Matrix movies - The Red Skull has been Schmidt for about sixty years...). In modern day setting he has the potential to be a generically boring character, but with the "man out of time" dimension, he becomes something far more interesting. Marvel was brave in deciding to make a period comic book movie, but it pays off.

As does director Joe Johnston. When I first heard that Marvel had committed to doing a World War II Captain America I was put in mind of The Rocketeer - another period comic book hero that was brought to screen in his proper time period. I should not have been surprised, therefore, when I looked up Joe Johnston's directing credits and found - aside from Jumanji and Jurassic Park III - The Rocketeer. I loved that movie, and it's clear that Johnston is comfortable doing movies that are set in the past. It's a fantastical past, of course, as the Red Skull and Howard Stark have given it a technology that we could only dream of having, but it's still definitely World War II. Johnston gives some great character depth to the whole piece, and I found myself saddened at the end when Cap was about to crash his jet into the ice, even though I knew that he wasn't going to die (he's coming back for The Avengers after all), but Johnston has guided his actors well, setting up some genuine chemistry between Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell, and forcing you to become invested in their relationship. The fact that the movie ends on the line "I had a date..." shows what Johnston thought was the most important aspect of the film.

But as usual, if there is one area that Marvel movies excel over all others, it's their casting. Chris Evans - so brilliant as Johnny Storm, the Human Torch in The Fantastic Four (and nice little in-joke of having Evans walk past the costume of the 1940's Human Torch) - worried me that he wouldn't have the gravitas to play Captain America. He's brilliant in Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, but again it was a light jokey character. So, it's to Evans credit, that I was totally sold on him as Steve Rogers. Not for one moment did I think of him as Johnny Storm. Instead, I saw the earnest Steve Rogers throughout the entire film. Steve Rogers is a hard character to get right, potentially a po-faced character with little humour and an annoying boy scout attitude, but Evans gives him a thorough likability and there is a twinkle in his eyes that does suggest the Cap has a sense of humour. it's a great portrayal, though I still remain mildly worried that both he and Chris Hemsworth will be overpowered by Robert Downey Jnr in The Avengers.

But it's the supporting characters that are all perfect in this film as well. Tommy Lee Jones as Colonel Phillips seems born to play military officials, while Hayley Atwell - aside from being gorgeous - gives a great performance as Peggy Carter. There is a nice relationship developed between her and Rogers that isn't fully developed but strongly hinted at. The biggest shame about a Captain America modern sequel is that Atwell won't be in it. Stanley Tucci - one of my all time favourite actors - is outstanding as Dr Erskine and Dominic Cooper gives us Howard Stark, probably in the way he would have played Tony. Most of the humour comes from witty little one liners delivered by these characters and there is a lot of humour in this film; again Marvel stopping any chance of their superheroes being po-faced and boring.

The villains are made up of two - Toby Jones as Dr Arnim Zola (with a neat reference to the future when we first see him) is great, but is completely blown away by Hugo Weaving's performance as Johann Schmidt - the Red Skull. I was concerned that we might get a Superman style Lex Luthor situation (ie constantly wearing a wig because Gene Hackman didn't want to play bald) with the Skull and we'd rarely see his Red Skull, but happily (and much to David & Margaret's dismay - clearly two people this movie was not aimed at) once the mask comes off, it's off for good, and the Red Skull is who we see for the later part of the movie. I pretty much love every part Hugo Weaving's ever played, but he's a tour de force as the Red Skull (though Mi was critical of his accent).

The story, though, is relatively straightforward, but in many ways that's probably for the best. Opening in the present, flashbacking to the past, dealing with the super soldier project and Rogers/Carter's relationship, before finishing in the present again, doesn't really give time for a hugely complex plot. We have the cosmic cube, we have the Red Skull's ambition to overthrow Hitler and we have Roger's need to prove himself as Captain America. It's enough plot to get us through the ... minutes of the film, and rarely does it seem to let up. There's never a sense of boredom, and the film coasts along at a really good pace. The closing credits, incidentally, look awesome as well - very 1940's. And, of course, the post-credits sequence is something special.

In essence, this is probably the best comic book movie I've seen this year, and once again shows that Marvel really do understand how to make a great movie adaptation.

The Avengers Assembled!

2011-07-31T23:37:00.002+10:00

If you haven't seen it yet, here's the posters that are advertising The Avengers. Damn they look cool...

Retrospective: "Blackadder the Third"

2011-07-31T23:30:00.003+10:00

The third series of Blackadder takes a different turn to the previous series, softening the character of Blackadder ever so slightly and actually giving this Blackadder a happier ending than his predecessors. Curtis, Atkinson and Elton make Edmund Blackadder, esq, a less volatile character than Lord Blackadder, but one that is still, at the end of the day, a prick. Indeed, while he retains his standard (barely) tolerance of Baldrick, he has no liking at all for Blackadder's new master - Prince George.

Continuing the trend of having mad royalty, Prince George is, as he himself says, "as thick as a whale omelette". And it is here, more than anywhere, that the changes from the previous series can be seen. Gone is Tim McInerny, Stephen Fry, Miranda Richardson and Patsy Byrne (though the first three all make an appearance in the series at some point), all now replaced by Fry's comedy partner, Hugh Laurie. After two performances in the last series, he makes the leap to series regular as the extremely likable, but very stupid George. Ironically, given his dislike of the Prince, Blackadder spends a lot of time protecting his master and ensuring that his life is pleasant - after all, George's happiness directly leads to Blackadder's own. But when Blackadder is forced to choose between his life and his master's, there is no competition.

And that essentially is the regular cast, which means that for the first time the cast is cut down from six to three. Well, I say three, but despite not being credited in the opening titles (which, incidentally, sees a new version of Goodall's theme over a fantastic title sequence of Blackadder going through his family chronicles and seeking out a dirty book concealed in one of them), Helen Atkinson-Wood plays Mrs Miggins, the owner of the coffee shop. She is slightly less mad than George, but makes an entertaining addition to the cast.

What is perhaps the most notable difference with this new series is that there is a sense of self-awareness about the series. Political commentator Vincent Hanna makes an appearance as his own ancestor, while Elton puts in an appearance at one point, Blackadder drops a tray in shock, which leaps back to his hands when it transpires everything is all right, and most notably, Blackadder describes one of the landscape sets as unconvincing. It's a strange leap for the series to make, but one that seems to work.

Dish And Dihonesty kicks the series off with a satire of the British electoral system, taking into account the time it is set in. When Pitt the Younger gets elected as Prime Minister and wants George kicked off the civil list, Blackadder sets out to make Baldrick a member of parliament to ensure George remains getting paid for nothing, and Blackadder is able to sell his socks (yes you read that correctly). The episode is fantastic, with some great lines and some truly bizarre ones (George responds to Blackadder's revelation that Dunny-On-The-Wold is a rotten borough by doing chicken impression because he didn't want to hurt Blackadder's feelings), and the plot sets the scene for how Blackadder's schemes end up working well for everyone except him.
Favourite line of the episode: "I care not a jot that you are the son of a certified sauerkraut-sucking loon!"
"Ah, thank you, sir."
"It minds not me that you dress like a mad parrot and talk like a plate of beans negotiating their way out of a cow's digestive system. It is no skin off my rosy nose that there are bits of lemon peel floating down the Thames that would make better Regents than you."

Ink And Incapability sees the first appearance of many comic cameos in this series. The major guest is Robbie Coltrane as Samuel Johnson, the writer of the first dictionary, but Lee Cornes, Jim Sweeney and Steve Steen all pop up as Byron, Shelley and Coleridge, Johnson's great supporters, and complete junkies. For George, concerned people may consider him an idiot, has decided to patronise the dictionary, much to the disgust of Blackadder who sent him his own book and was rejected. But when Baldrick burns the dictionary and Johnson reveals that he wants George to also patronise Blackadder's book, Blackadder sets about rewriting the dictionary. Again, countless classic lines, and Coltrane comes close to stealing the show, though this time Atkinson is at the top of his game and is absolutely hilarous thoughout the entire episode.
Favourite Line of the episode: "Well, yes, you see, only the other day, Prime Minister Pitt called me an idle scrounger, and it wasn't until ages later that I thought how clever it would've been to have said, 'Oh, bugger off, you old fart!'"

Nob And Nobility is Tim McInerny's return to Blackadder, joining young one Nigel Planer as one of the two people who are actually the Scarlett Pimpernel. Chris Barrie also turns up to play L'Ambassador, and it's another clever little performance that often goes unnoticed. Indeed he has a line which cracks me up everytime I hear it. The plot concerns Blackadder, permanently annoyed about the Scarlet Pimpernel's popularity, try to prove he is just as good as the Pimpernel by going to France and rescuing a French aristocrat. In truth he pops down to Mrs Miggin's and makes a deal with a French noble to pretend he was rescued. However, when they go to the Ambassador's ball, they find the revolution has already taken place and Blackadder and his associates are now prisoners, awaiting Madame Guillotine.
Favourite line of the episode: "I hate you English with your boring trousers and your shiny toilet paper, and your ridiculous preconception that Frenchmen are great lovers. I'm French, and I'm hung like a baby carrot and a couple of petit-pois."

Sense And Senility (and obviously you've worked out by now that the titles for this series are spoofs of Emily Bronte's style of titles) centers around the Prince's worry that there will be an uprising by the working class (Baldrick in particular) and so he hires two actors to teach him how to deliver a speech, pissing off Blackadder in the process. This is a chance for Blackadder to get his own back at the Prince as well as torture the two actors by constantly saying "MacBeth" whenever they're around). The two actors are played by the very established actors Hugh Paddick (known for his British comedy associations) and Kenneth Connor (of the Carry On films), and are on great form as they ridicule their own profession. It's another hilarious episode, though possibly the weakest in the season for me.
Favourite line of the episode: "Baldrick, I would like to say how much I will miss your honest and friendly companionship. But as we both know, it'll be an utter lie. I will therefore confine myself to saying simply, Sod off, and if I ever meet you again, it'll be twenty billion years too soon."

Amy And Amiability Miranda Richardson gets her chance to appear in the series, playing the very sweet Amy who, it turns out as the episode progresses, is actually Baldrick's hero, the villainous highwayman, The Shadow. Short on cash due to his gambling, the Prince asks Blackadder for help, and he arranges a marriage with an industralist's daughter, though as the two are radically different, Blackadder finds getting them together may be harder than it seems. Actor Warren Clarke, probably best known for Daziel And Pascoe, but having appeared in the comic relief special Blackadder: The Cavalier Years appears as Amy's father, but it is Richardson's episode, playing the bonkers Amy who hates squirrels and has a deadly secret.
Favourite line of the episode: "I shall take off my belt and by thunder me trousers will fall down!"

Duel And Duality is easily my favourite episode of the series. Firstly, Stephen Fry returns, this time playing the Duke of Wellington, in a performance that is mostly about bellowing and hitting, but has elements of the way he would eventually play Melchett in the following season (most notably the "baaaaa!" he exclaims for no reason). Miss Miggins gets to have a relationship (though who knows how it will end), while Rowan Atkinson gets to play both Blackadder and his mad cousin MacAdder. MacAdder is a competely over the top character, vastly different to the quiet and controlled Blackadder, but Atkinson is obviously having a ball playing both. In the final moments, the Prince Regent's father even makes an appearance, completely insane and carrying a rose bush. The episode is about the Prince desperately getting Blackadder to find a way to stop Wellington from killing him after he has sex with Wellington's nieces. However, as hilarious as it all is (and it really is) I can't help but feel Fry steals the show. As an example, there is a priceless moment where he meets Blackadder (disguised as the Prince) for the first time and says: "I am informed that your royal father grows ever more eccentric and at present believes himself to be a small village in Lincolnshire, commanding spectacular views of the Nene valley." However, as he delivers the description of the King, he reads from a report he has been sent. It takes a brilliant joke one step further and shows exactly what the episode is all about.
Favourite line of the episode: "A man may fight for many things: his country, his principles, his friends, the glistening tear on the cheek of a golden child. But personally I'd mud wrestle my own mother for a ton of cash, an amusing clock, and a sack of French porn."

And so the era of Blackadder the Third comes to an end. The series is possibly not as good as it's predecessor, but only possibly. It is six episodes of brilliant comedy and Hugh Laurie is a spectacularly brilliant addition to the cast. However, the final series was just around the corner - though there was one thing that would separate Mr Edmund Blackadder, esq and Captain Edmund Blackadder - Mr Ebenezer Blackadder.