TV

Eurovision Song Contest: Moscow 2009

A year of real change for Eurovision, with a new voting system designed to eradicate the bloc voting that has plagued the contest for the past few years, and popular host Terry Wogan being replaced by (obvious choice) Graham Norton. On top of that, the UK actually took it seriously this year...

and was rewarded with 5th place, a phenomenal achievement after consistently placing last for most of the past decade. This year, our score was up by an incredibly 1,236% on last year! Graham made for a great host too -- he was clearly nervous at the start, but once he settled into it he was brilliant. A bit too chatty for some, and not quite as cynical as old Tel, but very funny nonetheless. Musically it was a relatively strong year too.

That said, I honestly don't see the appeal of winners Norway -- what could possibly beat the Ukraine's entry, an even gayer version of 300?

Films

Dark Floors (2008)
[#26 in 100 Films in a Year 2009]
In honour of Eurovision, this is the horror movie starring 2006's winners, Lordi.

Articles

Anthony Hopkins to reprise Lecter role by Tim Parks
(from Digital Spy)
Considering the only Hannibal Lecter film that's considered to be much cop is Silence of the Lambs -- and there have been three since then -- is this really a good idea? I suppose if they make money no one cares...
(In case anyone points out Manhunter, that's technically a Lecktor film.)

Primeval movie confirmed by Dan French
(from Digital Spy)
So the rumours were true. But will it be a continuation of the series, a reboot of some kind, or a US-set spin off? All viable options, though I'd imagine the second two are most likely.

Rome might not be history, series creator says by James Hibberd
(from Reuters)
I liked Rome, though never got round to the second season. Just bought the whole lot on DVD, so will aim to soon. Anyway, this sounds promising... if it gets made.

new review at 100 Films

Angels & Demons (2009)

It may come as a surprise that Angels & Demons has a subtly different feel to its predecessor, The Da Vinci Code. It still concerns itself with Tom Hanks’ Langdon dashing about trying to solve insanely cryptic clues in a limited timeframe, surrounded by irritating policeman, suspicious friendly characters, and a girl who is almost pointless. However, it’s a lot less talky, more pacey, and, perhaps, aware of its own silliness.

Read the full review at 100 Films.

There are currently 14 new films in the review pipeline at 100 Films, not to mention two shorts, a film I've previously seen, and an alternate cut. As ever, updates here as and when they're posted.

TV

Boy Meets Girl
Part 2 (of 4)
Part 3 (of 4)
Despite being overstretched at four hours, this is occasionally very good, if also a bit random. Fingers crossed next week's final part can tie it all together appropriately.
In the lead role, incidentally, Rachael Stirling is absolutely phenomenal. Hopefully she'll be remembered come the next awards season -- she'd deserve the lot -- but as I doubt the programme will be remembered that far away, her chances must be slim.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

The Graham Norton Show
5x09 (7/5/09 edition, uncut repeat)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

50 Cent and Forest Whitaker are Jekyll and Hyde by Sean
(from Film Junk)
That's certainly some unusual casting. I don't know which should be which though.

Poem of the Week: 'You cannot hope...'

by Humbert Wolfe

A brief one this week and Wolfe's most famous piece, as evidenced by its prominent inclusion on his Wikipedia entry. Though it was first published in 1930, it's decidedly truthful to this day.

You cannot hope
     to bribe or twist,
thank God! the
     British journalist.

But, seeing what
     the man will do
unbribed, there's
     no occasion to.

Discovered in The Nation's Favourite Comic Verse (as will be the next couple of Poem of the Week entries), but originally published in The Uncelestial City.

TV

The Mentalist
1x08 The Thin Red Line
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

The Wire
2x06 All Prologue
Halfway through the season now, but -- a couple of the subplots aside -- so little has happened that it feels like it's barely begun. I'm beginning to see why some were surprised and disappointed when this first aired, and why many still regard it as one of the poorer seasons.

Films

Angels & Demons (2009)
[#25 in 100 Films in a Year 2009]

Saving Private Ryan (1998)
[2nd watch]
This is 11 years old now! Time flies.

Articles

Star Trek In-Jokes
(from Empire)
"All the Trekker references in JJ Abrams' franchise reboot." Though they seem to have missed a couple.

Star Trek: warp factor sex by Sady Doyle
(from guardian.co.uk)
It feels like flogging a dead horse to still be mentioning Star Trek -- and after only a week on release too -- but this article/review is both accurate and brilliant, and therefore deserves your attention (whatever you thought of the film).

“You stinky!” - Hong Kong’s funniest subtitles
and
“Damn you, Fatty!” - More funny subtitles from Hong Kong movies by Cal
(from Heroes of the East)
Unendingly hilarious. To quote any here would be to spoil the fun.

TV

Broken Saints
Chapter 24 Truth [finale episode]
See here for my thoughts on this chapter.

The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency
1x04 Problems in Moral Philosophy
For a programme that's so perfect for Sunday night -- genteel, funny, nice -- the episodes seem to go by awfully quickly. Which is a good thing -- Lark Rise..., for example, does drag so.

The Wire
2x05 Undertow
The Wire hasn't gone totally off the ball, but some scenes in this season lack the could-be-a-documentary realism of the first. And I'm not talking some shaky handheld style thing here (thankfully, the makers of The Wire seem to know about tripods and Steadicams -- perhaps they could lend some to J.J. Abrams), but the dialogue and performances. It's not throughout, but just occasionally it feels much more 'fictional' than before -- no problem in much shows, but it belies what made this series so different and so good.

Articles

Cannes 2009: Up first reaction! by Jamie Graham
(from Total Film)
"Pixar's latest opens Cannes to eye-popping effect" say Total Film. Sounds more promising than it looks.

How To Cheat A Reboot: Star Trek's Kobayashi Maru Solution by Dan Jolin
(from the Empire Blog)
Far too much has been written about Star Trek now, but this article's different perspective makes it worth bothering with.

Review of Fast & Furious by gproject
(from Slate Scrawl)
Sounds about as good as I hoped (I say hoped -- I wasn't actively wishing it would be any good), which does increase my chances of seeing it as I thought it would probably be worse.

Vindictive Movie Studio Threatens To Make Coyote Ugly Sequel
(from the Onion)
Don't worry, it's a spoof. (To all teenage boys thinking, "what do you mean 'don't worry'?! I'm upset it's not real", you can just go watch the DVD of the first one again. Or try Bring It On.)

Broken Saints - Chapter 24: Truth

24 episodes, 10½ hours, 5 months of my time -- I've finally reach the end of "The Animated Comic Epic"!

The final certainly has a lot to live up to, especially as it makes up about 13% of the series' length. It does its best, tying together a lot of complex plot strands and information to round off the plot and offer some deeper meaning -- or at least, try to. Some of it is borrowed heavily from elsewhere -- most obviously Watchmen, from which several elements are taken -- and this can be distracting. A sympathetic eye can easily easy to see why those bits were selected however.

Some of the usual flaws are still evident -- an over technical bit of hacking from Raimi is particularly irritating, slowing the otherwise well constructed pace (a welcome change). On the other hand, he pretentiousness finally seems grounded in something worth listening to -- some of it, anyway.

It's difficult to say if Broken Saints is worth all the effort. Some will love it, especially wannabe-philosophers, whereas others will unquestionably hate it. I'm somewhere in between, as usual, but can say that I will at some point watch it again, and see how much more (if anything) can be gained from watching it all knowing how it ends.

For all my posts related to Broken Saints, please look here.

TV

Broken Saints
Chapter 23 Ascent
See here for my thoughts on this chapter.

The Omid Djalili Show
2x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Wire
2x04 Hard Cases
The Wire's second season seems to be suffering under the same problems that seem to blight most second seasons these days: a lack of focus and struggling to retain or recreate the elements that made the first so great. Still, we're only a third of the way in, there's plenty of time yet.

Articles

Sam Mendes Says Preacher Script Is Half-Done, ‘Plenty Left Over’ For Sequels by Silas Lesnick
(from MTV Splash Page)
There's way too much in Preacher for just one film, but it sounds Mendes has the right handle on how to bring this to the screen: make one excellent standalone film and hope it does well enough to allow for more. Though considering Preacher's overarching story, some of that may be tricky. It's an excellent series though, so fingers crossed.

Warner Bros. And Facebook Team Up For Watchmen Blu-Ray Feature by Josh Wigler
(from MTV Splash Page)
This sounds decidedly odd, but potentially interesting. The full announcement for the US DVD/Blu-ray release can be found here. It'll be interesting to see how much more will be found on the eventual Ultimate Edition (which will include an even longer cut of the film).

The William Shatner Kirk Cameo that was cut from the Script
(from GeekTyrant)
Of the new Star Trek, of course. He really would've been shoehorned in, just like J.J. Abrams said. A wise cut to have made.

Broken Saints - Chapter 23: Ascent

No series has ever been worse for spouting endless irrelevant technical jargon than Broken Saints. Along with the rambling pretension, you have to wonder how much shorter the 12-hour series would've been if they'd had a decent script editor involved.

Despite that, this penultimate part manages to further the plot a decent amount, and even bring in a handful of twists and revelations (some blatant, some perhaps surprising). There's still plenty left to be revealed however, and it pulls off an ending that made me anxious to see the final feature-length episode -- though quite how there's enough story left to fill almost an hour and a half will be interesting to see.

It's around these final few chapters that one also realises that, while it seems as if almost nothing has happened over the preceding 10 hours, there's actually been quite a lot of rather complex plot tucked away under all the time wasting. In fact, some of that time wasting (by no means all, but some) wasn't actually time wasting at all, just elements whose meaning would be revealed later. Much later.

It's this kind of thing that makes me think Broken Saints will benefit from a second viewing, once I've seen the ending. But certainly not straight away.

TV

Argumental
2x06 (4/5/09 edition)
Theoretically there are another six or seven episodes scheduled for this series of Argumental, though it's not listed this week. Perhaps Dave are playing at ITV's game and making two series out of one.

Ashes to Ashes
2x04 Episode Four
A surprise mid-series conclusion for what looked to be this year's story arc. I do love it when series wrongfoot the viewer in this way, especially when it means things aren't dragged out interminably.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Broken Saints
Chapter 22 Revelation
Pretentious and complicated this episode, but there are some nice ideas and good plot twists buried among the waffle.
Though in episode terms only 8% remains, there's still nearly two hours of it -- 17% -- to go (i.e. a fair bit).

Damages
2x12 Look What He Dug Up This Time
Another round of twists. It's still not close to being as good as the first season, but it has its moments. Maybe the finale will have something more to offer.

Articles

The 25 Greatest Sci-Fi Shows Ever! by Jake Rossen
(from Wizard)
A very unusual and consequently intriguing list. By far the correct choice for #1 though.

Weekend Report: Star Trek Prospers by Brandon Gray
(from Box Office Mojo)
BOM are usually quite clinical in their reports. Nothing wrong with that -- they're reporting box office numbers and all we want are the facts. But the veil slips in this one, as author Gray takes the chance to have a several paragraph rant about Star Trek's fanbase-alienating ad campaign and the public perception of it as an unpopular geek niche. Clearly a disgruntled fan then. Comes across a bit like the scene where Kirk and Scotty first arrive on the bridge if you ask me, with Gray as Spock -- if you've seen it I'm sure you'll get what I mean.

new review at 100 Films

For your lunch hour reading:

Star Trek (2009)

“These are the voyages of the Apple iEnterprise.” ...the over-zealous critical reception is Star Trek’s biggest problem: while it is certainly satisfying in some areas it’s also lacking in others, but it seems most of the world’s critics are closet Trekkies, able to seize upon an above-average film and hail it as the Second Coming. It will come as no surprise when I say it isn’t.

Read the full review at 100 Films.

There are currently 14 new films in the review pipeline at 100 Films, not to mention two shorts, a film I've previously seen, and an alternate cut. As ever, updates here as and when they're posted.

new review at 100 Films

Airplane! (1980)

The main problem with watching Airplane! for the first time now is that it occasionally suffers from its own popularity... [It] combats these almost-faults in two ways: one, it is irrepressibly silly, which in this case is a very good thing; and two, it has an incredibly high joke rate.

Read the full review at 100 Films.

There are currently 15 new films in the review pipeline at 100 Films, not to mention two shorts, a film I've previously seen, and an alternate cut. As ever, updates here as and when they're posted.