Saturday 4 April 2009

TV

Primeval
3x01 Episode 1
ITV's Doctor Who rival is still nothing like as good, packed to bursting with cliches in both its action and its dialogue (there are whole sequences that go by without a single non-cliched line being uttered). It can be passable entertainment at times, but the sheer volume of niggling flaws have me literally shouting at the TV.
And I can't let a Primeval comment go by without mentioning Cutter's ridiculous new haircut -- or, rather, lack thereof. Someone fetch the trimmers!
Also, scheduling it against Robin Hood wasn't such a good idea, at least as far as I'm concerned (hence why I'm a week behind -- yep, it's Demons all over again).
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Robin Hood
3x02 Cause and Effect
Sword fights for no reason? Utterly implausible escapes? Action, action, action? Yep, Robin Hood has finally got it right! This is what I've wanted from the series from day one, and only rarely got before now. Hopefully it can keep it up.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Total Wipeout
1x09 The Total Wipeout Awards
I caught glimpses of Total Wipeout throughout its run. Essentially, it's people trying to run hard obstacles courses, failing and falling into water. And it's much funnier than it has any right to be. This is just a "best of" presented in a slightly different format -- don't worry, you don't have to suffer illiterate acceptance speeches if you choose to watch it.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Music

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl by Klaus Badelt
and
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End by Hans Zimmer

The scores for the Pirates trilogy provide great music for writing big action-adventure blockbusters to. My personal preference lies with the first film's score -- yes, it can be repetitive, but the bit it repeats is brilliant. The albums for two and three have their moments, but they're more scattered.

Articles

BBC Charged £150,000 Over Sachsgate. Fine? No, Not Really… by RedJolt
(from FaceJolt)
"They’ve taken £150,000 away from the BBC, which means we can have £150,000 less good programming in the near future, and given it to Ofcom."

Metrodome in April by Dave Foster
(from DVD Times)
Remember Lordi, that crazy Finnish rock band who won Eurovision a few years back? Well, they're now starring in a horror film. No, really. Have a look about it here.

Personal web data to be stored for a year by Robert Verkaik
(from The Independent)
"Bloody Europe again," you might think, but you'd only be half right. So I'm told, Brown thought it would be too controversial here (too right) and so had it pushed through in Europe. (And let's not forget, we still haven't elected this man.)

Student submits worst application ever? by Sarah Rollo
(from Digital Spy)
"A horticulture student was left red-faced after sending a job application to a Welsh attraction from the email address 'atleastimnotwelsh'."

Click to enlarge

Virgin1 launches Dr Hoo, a year-round online only drama by Matt Warman
(from Telegraph.co.uk)
My various travels around the web led me to uncover this series on IMDb, an intriguingly-named entity starring some moderately well-known names (Ian Hart, Elaine Cassidy, someone who used to be in EastEnders) about which there was next to no info.
A little more digging unearthed this article. Turns out, it's some webseries that supposedly runs year round, though Virgin seem to have uploaded 10 three-minute episodes and left it be for the time being. Connections to a certain immensely popular sci-fi show referenced by the title seem to be minimal, although I haven't actually watched it yet so can't say for certain.
If you're interested, you can watch it for yourself here.

new reviews at 100 Films

A couple of new reviews have been posted over at 100 Films since my last update, and they are...

Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943)
once again more a spy thriller than a traditional detective tale. That’s not to say Holmes’ abilities as a detective aren’t present — in fact, he does a very reasonable amount — but if you switched him for a generic British Intelligence agent the plot would be unlikely to suffer

Some Like It Hot (1959)
a very funny film even 50 years on. It rattles from situation to situation at an occasionally surprising pace, literally without a dull moment. Not that there’s anything wrong with slower old films, but its certainly spritely for its age.

There are currently 10 new films in the review pipeline at 100 Films, not to mention two shorts and another review of something previously seen. Updates as and when they're posted.