Saturday 14 November 2009

TV

Argumental
2x11 (10/11/09 edition)
Rather good edition, including a nice debate on religion and a funny bit on old people.

Charley Boorman: By Any Means - Sydney to Tokyo
Part 3 (of 6)
Part 4 (of 6)
Bit of a rush to catch up, as all six episodes disappear from iPlayer at 10pm tomorrow.
[Watch parts three and four (again) on iPlayer.]

Magazines

Doctor Who Magazine #415

Russell T Davies' Production Notes column has been a mainstay of DWM for over six years now, and the final edition will be in next month's mag. It's disappointing that a once-great column, often the highlight of the mag thanks to all the next-series teasers it would share, has limped to a weak finish, filled with nothingy columns about post-production schedules and unrelated topics, when we should have been reveling in Steven Moffat's next-series teasers. Next month's finale has the feel, less of a grand goodbye, more of having a beloved but now critically ill pet put down. Hopefully Moffat's new pup will be suitably entertaining.

Little else to say about this issue. Despite a Waters of Mars preview and Lindsay Duncan interview, it's clear that the real meat is to come in the next two bumper-length issues. DWM leaves us twiddling our collective thumbs again, then.

Articles

Brand says Sachs row was 'funny'
(from BBC News)
The headline is slightly misleading, I think, because Brand does have a point:
"I apologise for the thing I did wrong to the person I did it to but the whole subsequent scandal was funny," he said.

new review at 100 Films

Ashes of Time Redux (1994/2008)
Despite apparently being an Eastern action movie — it’s in the wuxia genre, which, for the uninitiated, also covers the likes of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and House of Flying DaggersAshes of Time isn’t what one would typically expect from such a billing. Reviews talk about it being a confusingly-plotted art film — and those are the positive ones — which, coupled with my relative dislike of Chungking Express, meant I didn’t really expect to like it a great deal. But I found myself surprised, because I really enjoyed it.

Read the full review at 100 Films.

Film4 are showing Ashes of Time Redux tonight at 1:05am.

There are currently 17 feature films and one short in the review pipeline at 100 Films. As ever, updates here as and when they're posted.