Films

Hairspray (2007)
[#53 in 100 Films in a Year 2008]

TV

Invincible
Behind-the-Scenes
Free behind-the-scenes video for the 'motion comic' made my MTV. Based on the extended preview at the front of this very light-weight "making of", it has the advantage of a full voice cast, but the actual animation is incredibly minimal. Sort of the inverse of...

Watchmen Motion Comics
Chapter I (of 12)
The first Warner Premiere Motion Comic, available through iTunes in the US (it doesn't seem to have turned up in the UK yet). The original comic is brilliant and, aside from a sometimes-iffy narrator (a full voice cast would've been better) this is an excellent rendition. It's surprisingly animated too -- perhaps not quite up to scratch for a fully-animated show (especially with those speech bubbles floating around), but a lot more than just moving things around within the frame or somesuch.

Films

Superhero Movie (2008)
[#52 in 100 Films in a Year 2008]
A new low, I know.

Back in the UK!

0!

As this is posted, I should be somewhere in the air, flying Business Class from Newark to Bristol. Oo-ooh, I know. However, thanks to horrendous delays, I'll probably be sat in the Business Lounge at Newark waiting for a flight.

For a full explanation, please see the start of the countdown.

TV

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Animated Series
Unreleased Promo
Back in 2001 and 2002, Joss Whedon & co tried to get an animated version of Buffy off the ground. A four-minute promo was completed in 2004, but no network picked up the show. Finally, just a few days ago, that promo leaked online. Hurrah! A must-see for anyone who ever liked Buffy -- it looks great, though the voice actress for Buffy sounds nothing like Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
Acts 1 - 3 (of 3)
"#1 Downloaded TV Season on iTunes 3 WEEKS RUNNING!"
And it's funny. Which is the point. So all is good. Surprisingly few songs though. And Whedon can't resist a tragic twist or two.

Articles

10 Shows You Should Be Watching by Shirley Halperin, Jeff Jensen, Tim Stack, Dan Snierson, Jennifer Armstrong, Lindsay Soll, Ken Tucker & Mandi Bierly
(from Entertainment Weekly #995/996, p.34-35)
List-article of ten low-rated US TV shows that are (allegedly) great. Featuring Breaking Bad, Reaper, Flight of the Conchords, Friday Night Lights, Greek, The Paper, Gossip Girl (in spite of the fuss, it seems few watch it), In Treatment, Brotherhood, and Bones (cos 9.7m average is "no one").

20 fall movies we can't wait to see by Adam Markovitz
(from EW.com)
Pictorial preview of some of the big films still to come in 2008. Includes the great truism, "There's a thin line between ''And the Oscar goes to...'' and ''The Hallmark Channel proudly presents...''"

Be Still My Geeking Heart by Olly Richards
(from Empire Online)
A Joss Whedon Batman film? Let me say that again: a Joss Whedon Batman film?! Sorry, Chris Nolan -- we all love you, but nothing short of Joss in charge of Batman Begins 3 is going to satiate us now.

Mad Men (Summer TV Preview) by Missy Schwartz
(from Entertainment Weekly #995/996, p.26-33)

Days in New York...

1

For a full explanation, please see the start of the countdown.

TV

Doctor Who [new]
4x13 Journey's End [2nd watch; season finale]
See here for my thoughts on this story. [coming soon]

Heroes Season 3 Trailer
A brilliant two-minute trail for the forthcoming third season of Heroes, subtitled "Villains". It looks absolutely fantastic, even if it does use the very tired "Choose a Side" tagline.

Tin Man
Part 3 Conclusion (aka Tin Man) [final episode]
Y'know, one of the worst things about this is that it's packed with the cheap fantasy trick of pointlessly renaming everyday things in the fantasy world, such as "years" being called "annuals". It just draws attention to itself, making otherwise fine bits of dialogue objectionable. Well, actually, there are plenty worse things -- the CGI springs to mind, which would have been much better if they hadn't tried to reach beyond their means with such a large volume of needless or needlessly-long shots. I do find the references to the original stories amusing though, even if they help cement this as nothing more than an interesting curio for The Wizard of Oz than a fully independent piece of drama.

Films

Body of Lies Trailer (#2A)
It's better than the crappy one they showed before The Dark Knight, but I still have no bloody idea what it's actually about (other than, y'know, the War on Terror -- so what else is new?)

Articles

Empire Essay: Rififi by Kim Newman
(from Empire Online)
Effectively an extended review, but an interesting article-like one -- though be warned that it's spoiler-packed.

Reviews from Empire Online of:

The 39 Steps by Ian Freer
"the most satisfying of Hitchcock’s Brit period, a thrilling, rollercoaster romp, made before the phrase ‘rollercoaster romp’ existed."


The 39 Steps by Kim Newman
"After the curtain has fallen, you'll be happy for a week."


Le Cercle Rouge DVD by David Parkinson
"noir-ish urban Western"


The Lady Vanishes by Alan Morrison
"a fun romp celebrating the stiff-upper-lippedness of our great nation."


The Lady Vanishes DVD by David Parkinson
"Hitchcock was the master of confined spaces and he makes splendid use of the train's compartments and corridors... However, it's the dialogue and characterisation that make [it] so mischievously gratifying."


The Passion of Joan of Arc by David Parkinson
"so humblingly powerful or so purely cinematic. One of the most inspired and inspiring films ever made."


Rififi DVD by Michael Hayden
"A masterful piece of genre filmmaking. Dassin's direction raises this textbook French film noir to crime classic status."


Le Samourai by Kim Newman
"Keeping the dialogue minimal and the action high on the agenda, life in Paris' underworld proves to be surprisingly yet suitably violent and threatening."

Days in New York...

2

For a full explanation, please see the start of the countdown.

TV

Damages
1x11 I Hate These People [2nd watch]
1x12 There's No 'We' Anymore [2nd watch]
1x13 Because I Know Patty [2nd watch; season finale]
Damages is utterly brilliant, and certainly stands up to a second viewing -- in fact, it might even better, because the whole thing's clearly been planned out and well executed from the start (either that, or they've done a damn fine job of bluffing that it was!) I can't wait for season two.

Doctor Who [classic]
Trailer for The War Machines
These new(-ish) 'Coming Soon' trailers for Who DVDs can be a bit of a mixed bag -- certainly, I've never seen a Hartnell one that works. Until now! This War Machines one is utterly brilliant, so it's typical that it won't see the light of day on a proper DVD. It's available for free online at least, but it deserves a full-res DVD release.

Films

The Golden Compass (2007)
[#51 in 100 Films in a Year 2008]

My Best Friend's Girl 'Red Band' Trailer
Of moderate funniness. The poster (which star Dane Cook has had a good old rant about) certainly doesn't seem to represent the film accurately: it makes it look like Bridget Jones' Diary, when (based on this trailer) it's more like Wedding Crashers.

For the first time ever (in this history of this blog), you can see this trailer right here:

Theatre

The 39 Steps
(at the Cort Theatre, New York)
"Hitchcock Meets Hilarious" proudly proclaim the posters and website for this originally-British comedy, and they're right on the money. Four cast members play dozens of characters in this wittily-staged comedy spy thriller, with a plot as Hitchcockian as they come. In fact, the title "Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps" -- which is bandied about on the posters and everywhere else, but not (it would seem) technically the title -- would be a better full moniker, as the play is adapted from that version more than the original novel (I gather) and is stuffed with references to other famous Hitchcock films. Recommended.

Articles

Can Knight Beat Titanic?
(from Studio Briefing)
As noted on Monday, The Dark Knight is going to beat Star Wars -- so what's new? Well, chiefly of note here is this quote from "Warner Bros. distribution chief" Dan Fellman: "Titanic was once in a lifetime, and I don't think we'll ever have another gross like that in the history of the industry". There are so many things wrong with that it's hard to know where to start, but... Titanic was "once in a lifetime", so it will happen again... but we'll never see its like again... in history... So, in the past, we will never see its like again, apart from in another lifetime. Yeah, well done Dan.

Dane Cook Rips Best Friend's Girl Poster by Chris Hewitt
(from Empire Online)
As in slags it off big-time, not tears it up. Bad article title, Empire. Funny story though, and Cook seems to have a point. See my thoughts on the trailer for more.

O'Brien anger over Rocky remake
(from BBC News)
Translation: "Richard O'Brien isn't happy that Sky One & MTV are remaking The Rocky Horror Picture Show". Except that's still not quite the case, as this quote shows: "It was announced on Wednesday that the new version... would be co-produced by O'Brien. But he told the BBC he would not be involved "in any way". "I have no view on whether it should be remade but it doesn't have my blessing," he added." Chalk up yet another misleading headline for BBC News.

Three New Articles From the Doctor Who Restoration Team
I always look forward to new articles from the Restoration Team, as I find the work they do quite astounding and interesting. Today, we're treated to articles on three forthcoming classic Who DVDs; namely...
- The War Machines (+ two articles on the story's VHS restoration, here and here)
- Four to Doomsday
- The Trial of a Time Lord
That said, the only one of those with very much detail is The War Machines. Trial has an incredible extras package though.

Universal Buys Wheel Of Time by Helen O'Hara
(from Empire Online)
But what are the chances of them actually making a film / film series out of Robert Jordan's long series of massive novels? (The average page count for each book is 850 -- a total of 9,353 pages across the 11 so far published!) Very very slim, I should imagine. Unlike the books. (Ho ho!)

Days in New York...

3

For a full explanation, please see the start of the countdown.

TV

Damages
1x09 Do You Regret What We Did? [2nd watch]
1x10 Sort of Like a Family [2nd watch]

Tin Man
Part 2 Search for the Emerald
An improvement on the first part, as it breaks away from slavishly re-imagining the original story, but it still suffers from a cookie-cutter fantasy plot, low production values, a turgid pace and hammy acting.

Films

Trailers for:

Ashes of Time: Redux

Babylon A.D.
Exciting near-future action flick, or just a Children of Men rip off?

Bangkok Dangerous
Surprisingly exciting trailer for the new Nic Cage actioner. He's looking a bit old for that haircut though.

Choke
Adaptation of the new Chuck Palahniuk novel. Looks very good.

City of Ember
Could-be-fun kiddy post-apocalypse sci-fi.

Cthulhu
Looks like a cheap fan film to me.

Death Race
Provided there's not too much plot and plenty of cool car action, this could actually be pretty cool. Then again, it is directed by Paul W.S. Anderson.

Defiance
Promising new work from the director of Blood Diamond.

Hamlet 2
It has no right to look any good, but this looks hilarious.

Igor
Was looking forward to this. Not at all now. Disappointing for me, "oh dear" for whoever edited the trailer.

Righteous Kill
Conversely, this looks brilliant. Maybe it can even live up to the hype its pairing of stars brings.

Twilight
I'm sure fans of the books will love it, but it looks just as crappy as it sounds.

W.
"Odd" is just about the best word to describe this. Fitting, I suppose. But since when was Tony Blair blond?

Articles

Hollywood feels the crunch by Peter Bowes
(from BBC News)

iPhone Software Sales Take Off: Apple's Jobs by Nick Wingfield
(from The Wall Street Journal)
Brief interview with Steve Jobs about the stunning success of the new iPhone App Store.

Zak Penn Writes The Argonauts by Helen O'Hara
(from Empire Online)
"Zak Penn is to write and produce a new take on The Argonauts, the crew who accompanied the Greek hero Jason in his search for the Golden Fleece. Penn's story will be an "original take" on the legend... But this is just one of a wave of Greek-themed projects in Hollywood at the moment... there's Louis Leterrier working on Clash of the Titans; Warners is planning a 300 sequel... Relativity Media is making War of Gods about Theseus; Brett Ratner's mulling God of War (don't confuse those two; this one's based on a game); and there are at least three Hercules projects in development, including Peter Berg's Hercules: The Thracian Wars (based on a comic). Oh, and DreamWorks is making a different film called The Argonauts, about modern treasure-hunters thrown back through time when they find the original Argo."

Days in New York...

4

For a full explanation, please see the start of the countdown.