Empire slates Transformers 2

Review of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen by Nick de Semlyen
(from Empire)

I quite liked the first Transformers, but it sounds like this sequel might be a typically Bayian step too far.

It all looks good on paper, as does the added-value 150-minute run time. But it’s a case of same meal, bigger portion, with the flaws of the first not only present but accentuated. You’ll be even more hard pressed at the end of this one to remember which robot’s which...

Long before the final minute it’s become a numbing, wearying viewing experience... the novelty factor and some of the charm’s gone.

TV

Have I Got News For You
37x08 (12/6/09 edition; uncut repeat) [season finale]
Though it went by without fanfare, this is apparently the last episode of HIGNFY for now. Shame.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Stephen Tompkinson's African Balloon Adventure
Part 2 (of 3)
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Articles

3:10 to Yuma by Livius
(from Riding the High Country)
Excellent comparative criticism of the 1957 original and 2007 remake of 3:10 to Yuma.

Torchwood has succumbed to the story arc craze by Jonathan Wright
(from TV & Radio Blog at guardian.co.uk)
An hilariously poorly argued and thought-through article. The comments quickly become the best bit, especially when they get on to costume dramas. The ease with which the article's stupidity can be identified almost makes you feel sorry for its author... except, of course, it's his own damn fault.

TV

A lot of Grand Designs and Grand Designs Revisited. I have no idea which episodes, but I wound up sitting through quite a few.

Two snippets of Primeval 'news' though:

New star Jason Flemyng thinks the show is "sort of silly, but after the wedding...needs must!" And, posting on a fan forum, he adds, "guess you guys will be pleased though, its 10 eps....quality is sorta ok...think i just about get away with it... Its a bit silly,but it paid for the wedding!" High opinions there. (Sourced from here.)

Secondly, Ben Miller yesterday mentioned via his twitter that the show had been cancelled. There's been no other confirmation though.

Articles

Stay tuned for the first Transformers 2 review I've seen, at the end of this post...

7 Remakes That Should Be Remade by Sam Ashurst
(from Total Film)
A fairly amusing feature, notable for including the complete 90-minute Turkish Star Wars as an embedded video (on this page).

Neal Purvis, Robert Wade And Peter Morgan To Write Bond 23 by Matt Weston
(from CommanderBond.net)
The first official bit of news about the next Bond film. Hurrah!

Review: Jude Law in Hamlet by Caroline Briggs
(from BBC News)
The BBC's review, plus a summary of the papers'. Consensus seems to be he's not as good as David Tennant -- no surprises there. My favourite comes in the last review quoted however:
"The knives were out for Law from the moment it was announced that he was taking on the title role. Now they can be sheathed... Law's performance is detailed and powerful."
Amusing, because most of the other critics seem to be sticking those knives in...

Review of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen by Mark Samuels
(from Total Film)
"Before a single reel of film had unspooled on the original Transformers, executive producer Steven Spielberg was confident enough to predict there would be “many, many more” adventures for Hasbro’s clanking ensemble of robots in disguise. “But,” he added, “we’re going to make the best one first...” Two years on... Revenge Of The Fallen proves the Beard right."
Keep up with Transformers 2 reviews here.

new review at 100 Films

Another new review at 100 Films today. Only having three FilmJournal links on the DVD Times front page now certainly spurs my posting on.

Solaris (2002)

A slow pace and obtuse storytelling that leaves plenty of gaps for the audience to fill is not the experience implied by an advertising campaign showing a Space Movie starring Movie Star Heartthrob George Clooney. Obviously it doesn’t fulfill these expectations, and will likely have still been too slow and difficult for even more viewers.

Read the full review at 100 Films.

There are currently 16 new films in the review pipeline at 100 Films. As ever, updates here as and when they're posted.

TV

Friday Night With Jonathan Ross
16x18 (5/6/09 edition)
Last week's edition, which caused such a stir on twitter.

Stephen Tompkinson's African Balloon Adventure
Part 1 (of 3)
Never has a title so succinctly summarised a series.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Articles

I Stole Your Images and Now I'm Suing You by Mike Lynch
(from Mike Lynch Cartoons)
Possibly the most ludicrous email you will ever read (and you have to read it, it's brilliant).

Manson: 'Columbine lost me everything' by David Balls
(from Digital Spy)
"Marilyn Manson has insisted that being associated with the Columbine massacre has significantly damaged his career... 'Blaming me for [Columbine] was ridiculous,' he told Kerrang." And he's right, really.

A pair of shorts for summer

Two new reviews of short films have been posted over at 100 Films today...

The Wraith of Cobble Hill (2005)

there’s no reason that any story shouldn’t be told in animated form… but sometimes, you have to wonder if it’s the best choice for the job. The Wraith of Cobble Hill is a perfect example for this debate as its modern, urban story seems to clash with the cartoonish style employed to bring it to the screen.

The Lunch Date (1990)

to attempt to describe the plot would be to give too much away, which would be a mistake because this is a beautifully shot (in grainy black & white) and performed tale with a distinct, yet subtle, character arc and an important, but not over-egged, moral message.

Read the full reviews at 100 Films.

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

Poem of the Week: Limerick

by Roger McGough

Apologies for missing Poem of the Week last week. We're back on track with this:

Back in April I featured a poem from McGough's latest collection, Slapstick, called Gateway to the Atlantic. Here's another from that collection, which in part provided the inspiration for a couple of poems in my recently-submitted-for-assessment collection. I may share those here when the marks come back.

Anyway, back to McGough:

A poet passing through Limerick
Determined to write a fine limerick
He worked day and night
But try as he might
He never got the hang of the limerick.

Clever, eh? Though some won't be impressed. Just wait 'til you see mine...

As mentioned above, Limerick is taken from Slapstick (aka Slapstick Poems), McGough's 2008 collection published by Puffin.

TV

Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire
1x01 Wench Trouble
1x02 Golden Powers
As with Hugh Laurie last Friday, this has become another twitter trend to cause confusion amongst Americans. Bless 'em.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Mentalist
1x12 Red Rum
I've just twigged that Patrick Jane's grin of glee when he encounters something interestingly unusual reminds me very much of a certain Time Lord.
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

Music

Blackbud by Blackbud

Articles

The Call of Cthulhu: A Genuine H.P. Lovecraft Adaptation by David Austin
(from Cinema Strikes Back)
This sounds great, kind of in the vein of La Antena. I think I shall have to acquire it.

TV

Ashes to Ashes
2x08 Episode Eight [season finale]
A decent finale, mainly notable for its audacious final twist. Can't wait for the third series -- and all the answers!
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Futurama Returns
(from WENN)
"Fox have now ordered a revival of Futurama, commissioning 26 new episodes which are due to be screened in 2010."

See What A Live-Action Simpsons Movie Would Look Like by Erik Davis
(from Cinematical)
Not half as good as the article seems to think it is.

Lovecraft’s Dagon (2001) by ghostof82
(from Musings of the Ghost Of 82)
As well as a review of this particular adaptation, there's a broader perspective on film adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft tales. To summarise, "they're not very good".

new review at 100 Films

This is showing on BBC One tonight at 10:45, so just in time for that...

Insomnia (2002)

Despite the early plot and stylistic conventions, this is not a “whodunnit”: the killer’s identity is revealed around the halfway mark (assuming you haven’t already guessed it from the opening credits) and from then on the film gradually moves into murky moral territory, quickly leaving behind those early trappings for a set of more complex noir-ish moral conundrums.

Read the full review at 100 Films.

There are currently 17 new films in the review pipeline at 100 Films, plus two shorts. As ever, updates here as and when they're posted.

TV

Robin Hood
3x10 Bad Blood
A good idea for an episode, as much as anything for the change of pace, but it was seriously flawed by an overuse of cliches and thoroughly implausible plot twists, not to mention some dodgy dialogue and accents. Just to round it off, one also has to wonder if it was a tad too dark for the series' primary audience. Try harder next time, eh?
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Insomnia (2002)
[#33 in 100 Films in a Year 2009]
Being the only Chris Nolan film I've not seen. It's on BBC One tomorrow night, so I aim to get a review up at 100 Films before then. We'll see...

Music

Battle For the Sun by Placebo
This is the first time I've consciously set out to buy the new Placebo album by pre-ordering it. Normally I wouldn't, but I'd bought their last two (respectively, a re-release of Sleeping With Ghosts bundled with a second disc of Covers in a sale, and a good deal on a +DVD version of Meds) and enjoyed them both much more than I'd actually expected to.
Sadly my faith was slightly misplaced as, on a first listen, Battle For the Sun is tracks that sound like Placebo-by-numbers and so didn't really grab me. There's nothing really wrong with them, but not a huge amount right either. For What It's Worth, The Never-Ending Why and Julien are worthwhile listens, as is the title track, but I'm not sure any will remain as memorable as The Bitter End, Every You Every Me, or even Meds.

Articles

Lots, again, but today it's all film news/views...

Boyle and Beaufoy Return to Mumbai by Owen Williams
(from Empire)
"Maximum City to be Slumdog 2?" Has potential: "The book actually features several stories, taking in gangsters, cops, right-wing Hindus, Bollywood and strippers, so it's possible a portmanteau approach could work, or even a sprawling multi-character narrative a la Magnolia or Robert Altman's Short Cuts."

Is Harvey Weinstein asking Tarantino to cut 40 minutes from Inglourious Basterds? by Russ Fischer
(from /film)
Though the Cannes reviews were variable, I do hope this isn't true. The article certainly implies it isn't, and has a couple of other interesting points on the Tarantino/Weinstein partnership.

James Cameron Goes Heavy Metal by Owen Williams
(from Empire)
A portmanteau movie directed by Cameron, David Fincher, Zack Snyder, Gore Verbinski and Kung Fu Panda's Mark Osborne? Please yes please.

The McTiernan Run by Chris Hewitt
(from the Empire Blog)
An interesting hypothesis, though, as many commenters point out, there are other more apt names for it.

Pixar Sequels Are Go! by Owen Williams
(from Empire)
Namely, Monsters, Inc. 2. So Pixar are making sequels to two of their weakest pictures? (The other being Cars.) At least it's not Another Bug's Life I guess.

Transformers: Bigger And Longer On Imax by Helen O'Hara
(from Empire)
Well that's lovely if you have a convenient IMAX. I don't.