Monday 17 November 2008

TV

Clone
1x01 Alive
Oh dear, what's with all that poorly-dubbed laughter? Especially as it isn't even put on all the gags. Most of which were distinctly over-written, it must be said; and most of those that weren't were underwritten. It's almost good, at times, though never as good as it could be. Fingers crossed for improvement.

Heroes
3x07 Eris Quod Sum

Lead Balloon
3x01 Gas

Spooks
7x05 On the Brink
This week's plot is partially borrowed from the news, partially borrowed from Casino Royale. Also, I watched it when it was on! Hurrah! Though, it was on BBC Three last week, so...

Non-Fiction

Story by Robert McKee
Chapters 17 - 19
Fade Out
[the end]
A damn useful book. Highly recommended for anyone attempting or interested in screenwriting.

Articles

Final Secret Crisis Invasion - But at What Cost? by Newsarama Staff
(from Newsarama.com)
Comics can be seriously ludicrous. This year, the two major publishers have each had major 'events', spanning new titles, miniseries, and issues in existing books: Secret Invasion for Marvel and Final Crisis (what's the betting that'll turn out to be a misnomer?) for DC. Obviously buying all the various issues would be very costly, but as they're doled out month by month over a year (or more) it can be easy to miss just how much one is spending. And the totals it would cost a dedicated comic fan to buy all of the relevant stuff? $378.78 for Secret Invasion, $135.08 for Final Crisis (or up to $317.56 if you include relevant prequel series published in 2007). It's because of things like this that I don't buy comics.

Getting Into The Graveyard Book With Neil Gaiman by Zack Smith
(from Newsarama.com)
Neil Gaiman discuss this & that, including why we won't learn much about his forthcoming two-issue Batman story -- titled Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? in tribute to the famous Alan Moore Superman story -- until it hits shelves.

Quantum of Solace Sets Bond Box Office Record With $70.4 Million Debut by Devin Zydel
and
James Bond Finds Solace At International Box Office For Third Straight Weekend by Devin Zydel
(from CommanderBond.net)
Quelle surprise. And it's expected to continue to do very well, even in the UK, where despite a lot of negative reaction it's only dropped 41% of business into its third week (while that might sound a lot, it really isn't).
The focus on the US by Bond fansites amuses or annoys me alternately, considering Bond is a British character in fairly British films who's always done a lot better in the rest of the world than he has in the US -- when most films were getting 50% of their total from the US and 50% the rest of the world, Bond was doing more like 40/60 (respectively), if not higher. Ah well, you can never escape the Americans' overdeveloped sense of self importance.

SFX 177 Preview: Red Dwarf News by Dave Golder
(from SFX)
Teeny tiny snippets of new info on the forthcoming Red Dwarf specials. The new issue of SFX (which this is obviously taken from) is out on Wednesday, so there may be more then. (It also has some form of huge Watchmen feature. Yay!)

Watchmen – First Look by Jayne Nelson
(from SFX)
Absolutely bursting with spoilers -- including about changes they've made, so even people who've read the book may wish to skip this one.

Websites

A highly amusing exchange on IMDb's Yes Man boards. Here's a direct link to the relevant three posts, but I'll quote them here for the sake of ease (slightly edited for clarity and linkage):

bobthegrinch:
This is actually based on the book Yes Man by Danny Wallace... It really is an excellent book, I highly recommend it, but this film looks like typical Hollywood comedy garbage.

amc001:
The Hollywood movie machine produced Trading Places, Groundhog Day, The Big Lebowski. All good comedies. But I agree that the typical Hollywood comedy is garbage.

bobthegrinch:
That's why I used the word "typical".

"lol".

100 Films update

It is, once again, over a month since I last posted an update from my other blog, 100 Films in a Year. There have been numerous reviews posted there since then -- including one of Quantum of Solace, just 17 days after I actually saw it -- so here's a summary of them:

from 2008...
  • After the Sunset (2004)
  • Batman: Gotham Knight (2008)
  • Casino Royale (2006)
  • The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
  • Hitman: Unrated (2007)
  • The Invasion (2007)
  • Quantum of Solace (2008)
  • Shoot 'Em Up (2007)
  • St. Trinian's (2007)
  • Stay (2005)
  • Zodiac (2007)


  • Also...
  • Inside-Out (a short)


  • Quantum of Solace also means that I finally have a "Q" in my collection (unlike the film! Haha!) Only "X" and "Y" to fill now -- damn having seen all the X-Men films! (Well, I suppose there's the unwieldily-titled X-Men Origins: Wolverine to look forward to next year.)

    from 2007...
  • 300 (2006)
  • Before Sunrise (1995)
  • Before Sunset (2005)
  • The Black Dahlia (2006)
  • Citizen Kane (1941)
  • Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005)
  • Great Expectations (1946)
  • Miracles (1989)
  • Starter For Ten (2006)
  • Transporter 2 (2005)


  • There's still more to come from both years.

    Poem of the Day: A Martian Goes to the Cinema

    by Richard Nelson

    Today's poem is by me!

    Tasked with writing a poem in the genre of Martian poetry (see last Monday), I initially struggled for a topic before alighting on one I had plenty of ideas for. Much redrafting later, I'm pretty pleased with the result. The only bit that seriously bothers me is the title -- it completely gives the game away. I don't think it's hard to guess the subject, but the title ruins even that little piece of ambiguity. If anyone has any better suggestions they're most welcome.

    In the dark, strangers sit
    in forced silence, except
    for the crunch of card balls.
    The crowd fill their stomachs
    for the endurance test:
    avoid waste disposal
    for two, or three, or more
    turns, under assault from
    loud sound and moving light.

    Super-powered people --
    who can change size at will
    from moment to moment,
    travel from place to place
    in an instant -- compel
    these silent endurers
    to suffer emotions
    they avoid, at all cost,
    in life outside this room:
    fear and violence and
    death and pain and true love.

    They can craft, from nightmare,
    with silicon numbers,
    impossible creatures;
    mis-remember the past;
    mis-predict the future;
    and say Martians are green,
    though clearly we are not.

    And when the names of their
    torturers scroll by -- so
    slow, so many -- they rush
    to the waste disposal,
    to the safety of home,
    in discussion of all
    they endured, together.

    For the observant (or, rather, the unobservant, as I'm pointing it out), the piece is written in trimeter -- i.e. three syllabic pairs per line. Much English speech naturally falls into pentameter -- i.e. five pairs per 'line' -- which may or may not having anything to do with us having five digits on each hand & foot, but I've decided that's why, and so as Martians only have three digits (of course) they would (semi-)logically speak with a deference to trimeter instead of pentameter. It's somewhat thin logic, I know, but good enough for me.

    Tomorrow, poetry by someone who isn't me; or 'real poetry', some might say.

    Watchmen full trailer!

    Yes, yes, yes, and yes again. This looks nigh-on perfect.

    Two wonderances:

    In the comic, the group of heroes don't have a name -- the "Watchmen" of the title is more a concept and a reference to the famous quote, not the name of an actual group. So either the audio for the trailer has been cleverly edited to help ease selling the film (most people who haven't read it assume the title does refer to the group, which isn't unreasonable as most comics' titles do), or they've changed it so the group is called that. Personally, that's a change I can live with, but it'll annoy some.

    Secondly, is it really wise to be releasing the full trailer for a film out in March now? That's three-and-a-half months away. Unless they've got a big plan up their sleeves, aren't the General Public either going to get tired of it or forget all about it long before the film itself arrives? Maybe they should learn some lessons from Doctor Who's publicity department.

    Anyway, those points aside, it's absolutely brilliant. And it uses a Muse song. So go watch it here.