Avalard's Cultural Crisis

Bray Studios at Risk

2010-04-19T00:59:00.002+01:00

Bray Studios is at risk of redevelopment as flats, and the existing studio buildings face demolition.

Bray is perhaps best known as the historical home of Hammer films.

Your humble editor isn't prone to these whims, but he feels a campaign is needed to created awareness of the situation. Use the #savebray hashtag on your twitter feed, and check out the Bray Studios blog at www.savebraystudios.com. Please, if you want to contribute articles or ideas, get in touch.

Film: The Wolfman (2010)

2010-02-09T01:48:00.002Z

Even a man who is pure in heart

and says his prayers by night

may become a wolf with the wolfsbane blooms

and the moon is full and bright

Variations of that poem are familiar from nearly all of Universal's werewolf pictures, so it seems like a good place to start...

The nature of previewing a film for me means that I can't go into huge levels of depth about the film. Maybe I'll come back to this in a few months for a general werewolf roundup. For now, I'll dispense a few thoughts about the 're-imagining' of the 1941 Universal classic The Wolf Man, and which I've dubbed An American Werewolf In London: The Prequel.

Lawrence Talbot spent most of his life in America with relatives, but is in London with his theatre troup on tour when word reaches him of his brother's disappearance. He returns to the family home at Blackwood on the moors where he soon encounters tales of werewolves and finds himself fighting to put an end to the curse...

Of all of Universal's classic monsters the werewolf is the one which has been taken to least over the years. Unfairly so I feel, but there is something about the werewolf which has largely been out of vogue. Every so often someone brings them back, but cycles like Underworld and Twilight have done nothing for them. I haven't been properly satisfied with a werewolf movie since The Howling and An American Werewolf In London back in the early 1980s. With all the technological advances the team behind The Wolfman must have been very tempted to do something radical.

Thankfully what we get is a perfectly fine advancement of the Universal horrors (with a rather hefty nod to Hammer thrown in). You see, this has all the opulence and American finance of a 1930s Universal horror. But with an upping of the body and gore count to take account of 70 years of changing attitudes. I jumped several times, something which I'm not prone to doing. So for me at least, there were some delightful shocks and just maybe I had an idea of how audiences must have treated the original horror cycles. Even the palate is stripped of most of the colour, giving a bleak slightly tinted version of the cinemascapes of old. The sets are sumptuous - vast spaces with rich decoration, and costumes are perfect.

Danny Elfman's score is not instantly one of his most memorable, but it fortunately feels very different from anything he's done for Tim Burton, allowing an identity of its own to the film. Joe Johnston's direction is okay, though Shelly Johnson's cinematography is deserving of praise along with Rick Heinrich's production design (not a million miles away from his work on Sleepy Hollow). The script is a different matter. Where it follows Curt Siodmak's original storyline it works perfectly well, but some of the dialogue is unutterable, and the narrative is a little hacked. Either there are gaps caused by the need to bring the film into a manageable 2 hour cut or the executives were lazy when they okayed it (like that would be a surprise in Hollywood?!).

[I've subsequently read that the film had to be recut and there was some extensive reshooting, as well as issues with the score... The score I noticed no problems with, but the other problems are far too evident and attempts to satisfy test audiences and movie executives may well have damaged the film irreparably].

The cast is peppered with nice little blink and you miss em parts, but essentially the focus is on four performances. Emily Blunt is wasted as marginal love interest Gwen, a very underwritten part. Hugo Weaving gives a great performance as the inspector assigned to investigate the deaths, a turn which wouldn't be out of place in a Universal or Hammer film. Anthony Hopkins is fairly unlikeable (intentionally) as Lord Talbot, but his entire performance is marred by a meandering accent which deviates from English gent, through Welsh and several lengthy scenes in a notable Irish twang. Hopkins' part should have been overdubbed or the director ought to have kept a better eye on him during shooting.

Benecio Del Toro is a delightful successor to Lon Chaney Jr. as the ill-fated Lawrence Talbot. An inspired choice of casting, Del Toro delivers the whole piece very subtly and seriously rather than delving into the high camp that the film veers to from time to time (Hopkins is decidedly camp). His soft performance echoes that of Chaney Jr, and visually Del Toro inhabits the same appearance. More than that, there were times I found myself looking at the ghost of not only Chaney Jr but Oliver Reed, who of course took on the mantle of werewolf for Hammer in The Curse of the Werewolf (which was also released by Universal). Its a wondrous fusion which keeps this old horror fan happy. I can't be the only one that hopes that a sequel might be forthcoming, that they'll sort out the writing and bring back Del Toro.

You know, its strange that we seem to be having a new wave of British horror which does very much mirror the situation of the 1930s and 1950s. Just a few weeks ago I was watching Sherlock Holmes, a film which inhabits a very similar London landscape. We've got John Landis shooting Burke and Hare at the moment... Victorian gothic is back. Unlike the Universal of the 30s that brought the British talent and settings to an American studio, here the American studio has brought its American lead to a British studio (Pinewood in this instance) - much more like the Hammer films of the 50s and 60s (ironically at a point when the newly revived Hammer seem to have abandoned the UK for all-American productions in Let Me In and The Resident, and not a Victorian gothic in sight!). The debt to Hammer is felt in the colour shocks, the blood-letting, and even the use of the ubiquitous Black Park as a location (I'd recognise that lake anywhere... goodness knows I've been round it enough).

My jibe about this serving as a prequel to John Landis' brilliant An American Werewolf In London not only comes from the sight of the 'American' Lawrence Talbot running around London in werewolf form, but also from the involvement of Rick Baker in the special effects for both. All werewolf pictures since American Werewolf have borrowed from Baker's transformation scenes, and the same is true here, with the familiar bone crunching and painful elongations. But Baker's make-up is much more traditional here. We see the werewolf run like a wolf, but also stand very much like a man. The facial make up is like that of the classic Universal movies - more man than wolf (supporting the reiterated comment throughout the movie about where you draw the line between a beast and a man). It was also important to distance this picture from the contemporary werewolf pictures which are frankly stuck in a vain rut too.

The Wolfman could be a wonderful picture, nostalgic but shocking, traditional but contemporary. Unfortunately a less than perfect performance from one of the leads, and some flag-waving issues with the script mean this is slightly underwhelming. Maybe that's the point? The Bride of Frankenstein aside, I don't think I've ever been totally satisfied with a Universal horror - this fits right in. I wouldn't be against a follow-up either, but things need tightened up.

I can't bring myself to encourage you to go see this one, but its perfectly entertaining and still more satisfying than most of the horrors to come out of Hollywood in recent years. Toss a coin...

The Wolfman
directed by Joe Johnston
125 mins
released: 12 February 2010 (UK cert 15; US cert R)

Buy WOLFMAN related merchandise in the UK here

Buy WOLFMAN related merchandise in the US here

Film: Invictus (2009)

2010-02-09T00:37:00.000Z

South Africa is in a state of unrest following years of racial persecution under apartheid. Nelson Mandela is elected President, and in a bid to unite the people sets about his goal of making the hated South African rugby team the winners of the 1995 Rugby World Cup...

Just in case anyone thinks I'm too full of praise for films in this column I've run up against a string of disappointments lately. The temptation where something doesn't interest me is usually not to write about it at all, but I'll do my duty and put some thoughts down for many of them from here on.

Clint Eastwood's latest effort is one of those films. A perfectly competent film, with a blend of glaring reality and uplifting narrative (the tried and tested underdog story). In fact all of the performances are first class. Matt Damon is perfectly engaging as the leader of the South African team, and Morgan Freeman's turn as Nelson Mandela is a delight, at times completely inhabiting the part so that you couldn't tell them apart.

But the film itself is something of a mixed bag. I couldn't tell if this was a sporting film about rugby, a film about the post-apartheid climate, or indeed a film about Mandela himself - a figure virtually venerated by the international political scene these days. Had the balanced edged slightly more in any one of the direction it would have been a more satisfying beast.

Eastwood also makes some overly sentimental moments in the film which hammer home the 'whites and blacks don't get along, but Mandela will unite them' ethos in a really obvious way. Some cringe-worthy songs are present in the soundtrack - notably the one which follows the arrival of Mandela's helicopter to the team's training ground. Groan.

I'm sure this story resonates well in countries where the racial boundaries have been more obvious. America is only a little ahead of South Africa's apartheid system, and I have no personal experience, but it should have been handled with more tact.

The story can only end one way, and even that is deeply unsatisfying. You see, this wants to be a Mandela/South Africa film. Ultimately its about a rugby tournament. This one is not deserving of the Academy I'm afraid.

Invictus
directed by Clint Eastwood
133 mins
Released: 11 December 2009 (USA: PG13); 5 February 2010 (UK: 12A)

DVD review: Man At The Top - The Complete First Series (Network, R2, 2010)

2010-01-26T14:09:00.000Z

This has all the potential to be one of what my ex might call my 'old man reviews'. You see once again, I want to extol the virtues of Network for their archive releases of classic British television. Man At The Top has virtually been forgotten - it has remained unreleased on any format since its ITV debut in 1970. Itself a spin off from the 1959 film Room At The Top, it was one of a number of series that Hammer Films adapted for the big screen - and having seen that unusual offering I've been keen to see this for many years.

Man At The Top is all about Joe Lampton (Kenneth Haigh). Described in the press release as an 'anti-hero', he's a hard drinking, womaniser working in his own business as a management consultant in London. He's from the north, and is something of an outsider in the nation's capitol. He has a long-suffering wife (Zena Walker) and two kids.

Something about Lampton never quite rings true, and that's his ability to womanise and bed any beautiful woman he wants. Maybe its just me, but Haigh isn't really attractive enough to pull it off, and management consultancy is hardly an attractive job? But this is the early 1970s. The dress is different. The culture different. Back then everyone works in the pub at lunch. Wining and dining is still very much the done thing. And the amount of drink consumed is tantamount to alcoholism (something I also noticed reviewing Danger Man this week).

Where the appeal lies, is in the craft of the drama. I found myself quickly enjoying the format - the three act structure (made implicit in the advert breaks, a hangover from a more theatrical presentation), the harshness. The strain on the marriage is evident and Lampton quite frankly is a complete bastard. He doesn't love his wife, but he stays with them. I guess this is a kitchen sink drama series with a typically bleak outlook. Its grim up north all right, but its also grim down south. Take 'Too Good For This World' as a fine example of the series - Joe has to investigate one of his neighbours, but also owes him a debt of gratitude after he saves Joe's daughter after she cuts herself on a large knife. All sides are presented, and the episode manages to get in sexual infidelity (a common thread in the series), embezzlement and depression/suicide too. This isn't easy going stuff by any stretch of the imagination.

This first series contains 9 hour long episodes over three discs, and would be a welcome addition to any collection. There's another 14 episodes waiting to be released and I trust Network will do so. Even better would be if they manage to acquire the rights to the Hammer film version too and maybe bundle the whole lot together.

There's nothing really in the way of extra features, but with material this rare that's no big loss.

Quite simply they don't make television like this any more. The pace is so radically different today, scenes are seldom allowed to play out, real moments of tension are a thing or rarity. This isn't theatre either - its snapshots of life. And for many men watching (and it is men that I feel this show was aimed at) what isn't to love about a rogue who looks like a regular 'Joe', and is able to philander and scheme his way to success?

Man At The Top
Released: 18th January 2010, Network DVD
RRP: £29.99
Running time: 500 mins
Ratio: 1.33:1
Number of discs: 3
Cert: 12

Buy Man At The Top on DVD here

Film: Edge of Darkness (2010)

2010-01-26T11:49:00.002Z

Mel Gibson is Thomas Craven, a Boston detective whose life is turned upside down following the brutal murder of his daughter (Bojana Novakovic) on his doorstep. Believing the detective was the target, Craven soon starts digging into his daughter's life and uncovers a frightening conspiracy with international implications...

Its hard to appreciate that Mel Gibson hasn't had a starring role since the mixed bag that is Signs back in 2002. Since then he's been developing his flair as a director and dragging his name through the tabloids thanks to a very unglamorous battle with alcohol. And yet, the trials of the last decade have had a positive affect if Edge of Darkness is anything to go by. It could be the performance of Gibson's career. World-weary, haunted, stark, subtle. Watching you believe he is a man who has lost everything. Its the flip side of the part that brought him fame in the Lethal Weapon series.

Praise should also be given to co-star Ray Winstone, who plays the mysterious government operative (a part originally given to Robert De Niro before he walked out - a decision he may come to rue). Winstone reigns in his tough guy persona, playing a much calmer, gentle version, which compliments and contrasts perfectly with Gibson.

Only Danny Huston as the villainous Bennett and Damien Young as the Senator fail - they're too comic-booky as performances. Maybe that's how these people are in the US, but they slightly undermine what is otherwise a great piece of drama.

This is a taught drama, a reworking of one of the most acclaimed British television drama's ever - a 1985 6 episode series produced by the BBC. And that's something you guys out there claiming this is a rip off of Taken should bear in mind. Reworking classic series is always a risky business, and whilst I've yet to see the original myself (I've ordered the dvd after seeing this), viewers can take solace in knowing that this is also a BBC Films production, and that the director of the film - one Martin Campbell (Casino Royale etc.) was in fact the director of the original serial. He's lived with this story for a quarter of a century, and if anyone should reinterpret it, its him.

Frankly it works anyway. Some stark sumptuous photography, realistic violence, several genuinely shocking moments, a restrained film in all the right ways. The plot itself needs little updating from the 1980s. Nuclear technology is still a horrifying and gripping subject, and government conspiracy's always seem relevant. This is much more than a revenger/avenger film, this is a film which takes its characters to the limits of their experiences, and defies expectations by not wrapping everything up neatly either. Its also worth pointing out that this isn't an action film, its a thriller in the best sense. A drama with tension, suspense and real characters.

I loved it.

Edge of Darkness

directed by Martin Campbell

117 mins

released: 29th January 2010 (US cert: R; UK cert: 15)

buy the original Edge of Darkness tv series on dvd here (UK)

buy the original Edge of Darkness tv series on dvd here (US)

DVD review: Danger Man - The Complete First Series (Network, R2, 2010)

2010-01-26T02:24:00.001Z

Undoubtedly the shadow of cult 1960s series The Prisoner starring Patrick McGoohan is still felt looming over television today. US shows like Lost and the recent AMC reimagining of the series bear testament to that. But what of The Prisoner's predecessor? There can be few fans of British television from the 1960s who aren't aware of Danger Man - a stylish drama series about an international troubleshooter called John Drake - which ran intermittently between 1960 and 1968.

This new box set from Network brings together the first series of 39 half-hour episodes on a 6 disc set. Previously available in the UK from Carlton, this new set is supported by a number of extras and a timely release following on from the recent special edition set of The Prisoner. A box set featuring the remaining 50 minute episodes is already available.

Danger Man should be viewed in the context of other similar shows from the era. Initially at least he's almost James Bondian. A man working almost outside of the law, and slightly gung-ho. Significantly he's also American - the later series revised this and made him British. He's not adverse to holding a gun when he has to, although McGoohan's own ideals would become imprinted on the character over time. It also sits alongside The Saint and The Avengers - good grief, you'd think every man in the country was a spy in 1962!

Drake is confident, and prone to providing a narration like some 1940s film noir. Thanks to an ever-changing supporting cast featuring just about anyone who was anyone in British film and television (Patrick Troughton, Warren Mitchell, Honor Blackman, Sarah Lawson, John Le Mesurier, Barbara Shelley etc.) and scripts from the likes of Ian Stuart Black, Michael Pertwee and the great Brian Clemens, there is always something to delight the viewer. Clemens (who basically shaped the unique identity of The Avengers) even penned the pilot episode for Danger Man.

The influences on The Prisoner are also felt very clearly in the early Danger Man episodes with several episodes featuring location work at Portmerion, the Welsh establishment that found fame as 'The Village' in The Prisoner.

If I have any criticism at all, its that the 25 minute format just doesn't give the plot time to breathe. Several episodes feel like they've been arbitrarily ended because time ran out ('Time to Kill' for example). Though its small grumbling, and its an immensely watchable, dynamic and exciting series. Time and time again I found myself struck by a production style that wouldn't be too far removed from today's television. These serials are all lean, with no fat.

Presentation on the discs is first class, with the prints looking sumptuous with rich black and white photography. I only had an incomplete set of review discs, so I can't fully evaluate the extra features, but they include image galleries, mute trailers, various PDF materials, and another essential booklet of programme notes from Andrew Pixley - a star feature on many of Network's sets.

A virtually irresistible set.

Danger Man Series 1

Released: 25th January 2010, Network DVD
RRP: £59.99

Running time: 975 mins
Ratio: 1.33:1
Number of discs: 6
Cert: 12

Buy Danger Man - The Complete First Series on DVD here

Buy Danger Man - The Complete 1964-1968 Series on DVD here

Buy The Prisoner on DVD here

Buy The Prisoner on Blu-Ray here

DVD review: A Choice of Coward (Network, R2, 2010)

2010-01-25T03:58:00.000Z

Network are one of the few DVD labels out there that deserve heaps of praise for almost every title they put out. A seemingly bottomless booty of archive television in particular, which wouldn't see the light of day again if it wasn't for the earnest efforts of the guys and gals at the company.

This week sees the release of the 1964 miniseries from the Granada network - A Choice of Coward - four adaptations of Noel Coward's famed plays, produced for television, complete with introductions from the master himself (presumably from his home in Jamaica).

Personally I've never had the pleasure of seeing a Coward play on the stage, and my experiences of the man's talent depend on a few film roles (including the brilliant Italian Job), and numerous records. Undoubtedly a man of great wit and lyrical dexterity, to watch these 70 minute interpretations gives a much better idea as to why his talents are so vaunted. As Coward himself observes in one of the intros, he has forever been associated with the decadent, fast, frivolous and hedonistic lifestyle that was a PART of society in the jazz era. With the subject matter and characterisations on display, its easy to appreciate just why. Drug abuse, parties, and sexual immorality are at the fore.

The four films gathered together are Present Laughter, Blithe Spirit, The Vortex and Design For Living.

The review copy deprived me of the first disc - which promises performances from Peter Wyngarde, James Bolam, , Helen Cherry and Hattie Jacques amongst others, and is sure to be reason enough for many to purchase. The second disc however, has two starkly different and intriguing plays which highlight the rich pickings on offer.

The Vortex is a deceptively dark piece about the chaotic lifestyles of the upper middle classes in the early 20th century. Florence Lancaster plays an woman defying middle age, living the life of a woman twenty years younger. Caught up in a doomed affair with a much younger man (what today would be thought of as a 'MILF' or 'Cougar'), her fragile hold of reality is ripped apart with the return of her son and the announcement of his engagement.

What starts as a rather grotesque and over-bearing character study develops into something much more interesting, and dark. Nightmarish.

Design for Living is in stark contrast. Out of the chaos is a wonderfully witty, buoyant, vivacious narrative. A peculiar (and very modern) relationship between Gilda (Jill Bennett), Otto (John Wood), and Leo (Daniel Masset). Flitting between Paris, London and New York, a hedonistic alternative to traditional 'family values' is thrust upon the viewer. Its hard not to get caught up in their joie de vivre. Comedy buffs might also thrill to spot Carol Cleveland in a supporting part a few years before finding exposure in the Monty Python series.

The picture and sound are clear and sharp, defying the age of the master tapes. Perhaps surprisingly considering many of Network's television discs, the restoration isn't absolute. There is video drop out and minor sound fluctuations - but these are in keeping with the near-live broadcasts and the immediacy of the theatrical presentation, and are perfect in their flawed nature.

It must be said, that the series succeeds brilliantly in giving a flavour of the live staged nature of the source material. The tele-plays allows a real flavour of a theatrical show, with some adept staging and fluid camerawork giving a dynamism which might have been missing in the hands of a lesser director.

A Choice of Coward

Released: 18 January 2010, Network DVD

RRP: £19.99

Running time: 345 mins

Ratio: 1.33:1

Number of discs: 2

Cert: PG

Buy A Choice of Coward on DVD here

Press Release: New BFI Flipside titles

2010-01-25T03:01:00.001Z

The BFI's new FLIPSIDE DVD range continues this month with the launch of three more titles. We'll be reviewing these this week, but as a taster here's the press release from the BFI....

DVD & Blu-ray press release

Three new BFI Flipside titles released on 25 January:

Privilege, That Kind of Girl & Permissive

The BFI’s Flipside DVD & Blu-ray strand is now firmly established and acclaimed, with a diverse selection of previously 'lost' British films – from 'B' movies to studio pictures and beyond – released during 2009. On 25 January 2010 three more rare and little-seen films are rescued from obscurity and made available to enjoy in high quality editions – Privilege*, That Kind of Girl and Permissive.

Each title is newly-mastered to High Definition from original film elements and presented with previously unavailable short films, documentaries and interviews, some of which are preserved in the BFI National Archive. All volumes come in collectable numbered packaging, accompanied by extensive illustrated booklets with enlightening contributions from special guest writers.

Privilege (Peter Watkins, 1967)

Steve Shorter, the biggest pop star of his day, is loved by millions; his approval or endorsement can guide the choices and actions of the masses. But, in reality, he is a puppet whose popularity is carefully managed by government-backed handlers keen to keep the country’s youth under control. Only an act of complete rebellion can set him free.

Starring Manfred Mann’s lead singer Paul Jones as Shorter, and iconic Sixties supermodel Jean Shrimpton as the girl who tries to help him defy the system, Privilege is the third feature from provocative British director Peter Watkins (The War Game, Culloden), a filmmaker whose unique vérité-style and oppositional themes have continually met with controversy throughout his career.

Now being made available in the UK for the first time since its original cinema release, Privilege is presented here with two of Watkins' earliest film works.

Special features

Original Privilege trailer

The Diary of an Unknown Soldier (Peter Watkins, 1969, 17 mins): a young solider in the trenches of the First World War, preparing for combat, shares his innermost feelings in this compelling short

The Forgotten Faces (Peter Watkins, 1961, 19 mins): a gripping newsreel-style account of the peoples’ uprising in Hungary, 1956, given forceful authenticity by Watkins’ unique approach

Extensive illustrated booklet with new essays by film historian Robert Murphy and Watkins specialist John Cook

*Due to an issue with materials, Privilege will only be released on DVD in January, with a Blu-ray edition to follow later in the year

Buy on DVD here

That Kind of Girl (Gerry O’Hara, 1963)

In 1960s London, a beautiful continental au pair finds herself wrestling with the affections of an earnest peace-protestor, a dashing young toff and a roguish older man. But fun and freedom turn to shame and despair when she finds that her naivety has put the health of her lovers, and their partners – including the well-meaning Janet (played by Big Zapper's Linda Marlowe, in her first role) – at risk.

Stylishly shot in crisp black and white, and set against a backdrop of smoky jazz clubs, ‘Ban the Bomb’ marches, and evocative London locations, this finely-tuned cautionary tale was the directorial debut of Gerry O’Hara (All the Right Noises, The Brute).

Special features

The People at No. 19 (J.B. Holmes, 1948, 17 mins): an intense and effective melodrama which explores the themes of adultery, sexual hygiene and pregnancy from the perspective of an earlier era

No Place to Hide (1959, 10 mins): a snapshot of the ‘Ban the Bomb’ march to Aldermaston

A Sunday in September (1961, 27 mins): a compelling documentary, from the director of Black Beauty, about a nuclear disarmament demonstration in London, with Vanessa Redgrave, Doris Lessing and John Osbourne

Robert Hartford-Davis interview (1968, 14 mins): That Kind of Girl's producer discusses his film career and production methods

Extensive illustrated booklet featuring essays from novelist Cathi Unsworth and director Gerry O’Hara

Buy on DVD here
Buy on Blu-Ray here

Permissive (Lindsay Shonteff, 1970)

When Suzy arrives in London to visit an old school friend, she is unwittingly plunged into the ruthless world of the 'groupie'. Fuelled by sex, drugs and jealousy, her new lifestyle fosters in her a cold, cynical instinct for survival. But tragedy is never far away.

With its effective blend of gritty location work, brooding flash-forward devices, and a soundtrack by cult acid folk and prog rock legends Comus, Forever More – who also star – and Titus Groan, Permissive is a dark British counter-cultural artefact that's shot through with grim authenticity.

As a bonus, this release includes Stanley Long's ultra-rare Bread, a film that explores the same cultural milieu as Permissive (and features its own bona fide cult British rock band, Juicy Lucy), although it takes a somewhat more light-hearted approach to its subject.

Special features

Original Permissive trailer

Bread (Stanley Long, 1971, 68 mins): whilst hitch-hiking back from the Isle of Wight Festival, a group of friends decide to stage their own music event. But how will they afford it?

Bread – mute deleted scenes

’Ave You Got a Male Assistant Please Miss? (1973, 4 mins) an unreservedly ’70s take on the safe sex message

Extensive illustrated booklet with contributions by I Q Hunter and rock singer Lee Dorrian, and Comus band-members’ recollections of working with Lindsay Shonteff

Buy on DVD here
Buy on Blu-Ray here

The DVDs are £17.99 each and the Blu-rays are £22.99 each. The next Flipside titles will be released in May 2010.

- ends -

Technical details

Privilege (Flipside 007): UK / Cert 15 / colour / English subtitles for hearing-impaired

DVD cat no: BFIVD835 / 99 mins / original aspect ratio 1.85:1

That Kind of Girl (Flipside 008): UK / Cert 12 / black & white / English subtitles for hearing-impaired

DVD cat no: BFIVD845 / 74 mins / original aspect ratio 1.33:1

Blu-ray cat no: BFIB1026 / 77 mins / original aspect ratio 1.33:1 / region 0

Permissive (Flipside 009): UK / Cert 18 / English subtitles for hearing-impaired /

DVD cat no: BFIVD858 / 86 mins / original aspect ratio 1.85:1 (16x9 anamorphic)

Blu-ray cat no: BFIB1035 / 90 mins / original aspect ratio 1.33:1 / region 0

About the BFI Flipside strand

Developed from its popular monthly screening slot at BFI Southbank, the BFI’s Flipside series on DVD and Blu-ray is designed to revisit and reappraise British films that have slipped through the cracks of cinema history – films that were overlooked, marginalised, or undervalued at the original time of release, or sit outside the established canon of recognised classics. Much of the material is drawn from the BFI National Archive.

11/09

DVD news: Spike Milligan's 'Curry and Chips' on dvd in March 2010

2010-01-07T01:43:00.002Z

All praise indeed to Network DVD who are bravely releasing what is supposedly the worst sitcom ever made this March. Curry and Chips is the near-the-knuckle satire by Johnny Speight, starring Eric Sykes as a factory forman, and Spike Milligan as the Pakistani Irishman who comes to work for him.

Long talked about, a few of the episodes have been made available via torrent sites in the last couple of years, but if you've never seen the full six episodes (the Cultural Crisis has...) you're either in for an assault or a treat depending on your point of view.

So offensive was the series deemed that it was never repeated, and has a reputation as being deeply racist and offensive.

Well yes, there is a fair amount of racial humour. This was a product of the 1970s after all, and anyone familiar with Speight's other creation Alf Garnett, should be half way prepared. It is perhaps the blacking up of Spike Milligan (at a time when we still had the Black and White Minstrels on tv) as Kevin O'Grady which makes many uncomfortable today. Our social mores have changed radically and we've been taught to shout this stuff down. All I say is give it a chance, and try to look beyond the sight gags. For all the cries of 'wog' and the likes, this is a very clever programme, which reflects Spike's own dissatisfaction with the attitude of the Empire.

The workers (including black actor Kenny Lynch) all look down on Kevin because he isn't one of them. He's not English - they see him as an Indian. But Paddy claims he is Irish, confounding expectations and exploring ideas of national identity. He's still shunned and abused, but then Spike himself was and Irish Indian too. Whilst Spike in life was white, he had been born to an Irish father at the tail end of the Great War whilst his father was stationed in India. Thanks to British bureaucracy Spike's family had issues with passports and acknowledgement of the contribution they'd made to the war effort - shunned by the British, Spike adopted Irish nationality. Like Kevin, Spike was an outcast, split between various national identities. Back in the 1960s the Irish were often on a parallel with the persecuted blacks.

Whilst I'm not an apologist, Curry and Chips has been unfairly maligned by people who view it only at the surface. Behind the racism is stark commentary and insightful wisdom, not to mention some loud, surrealist comedy. Whilst some might want to burn Network out of business on this release, they deserve nothing less than heaps of praise.

Now if only they could secure the rights to the BBC's 1975 series The Melting Pot - another Milligan show which went even further and has never been screened - I'd be very happy indeed.

Curry and Chips is released on 22 March 2010, RRP £14.99

Pre-order your copy here.

* We'll hopefully be covering Curry and Chips in an upcoming podcast.

The Cultural Crisis: Year 2!

2010-01-04T17:14:00.000Z

Happy new year!

2010 sees the Cultural Crisis enter its second year, and its time to evaluate what we've done and where we're going for the foreseeable future.

First of all, I fairly successfully failed to complete the 999 Challenge that started this blog going in the first place. But its okay, hardly anyone else did either. I'll continue to add items to the 999 Challenge, but I doubt we'll finish this year even... the nature of this blog means that I can't really plan too far ahead as much is created on a whim and subject to current events.

With that in mind, there's far more happening than I've managed to cover so far. I'm toying with opening the blog up a lot more to other contributors, but with a rethink currently underway for my Podcast, and an invite to work on a very big horror project I don't want to repeat too much of the content. I think its quite likely that there will be overlap between the Cultural Crisis and the Box of Obfuscation podcast, but each will have its own slant.

I get (or at least used to) a fair amount of review material from dvd and book companies. We don't always get to do a thorough review, but I always feel guilty for missing out covering titles which I feel are very important. So, unless I hear objection, we'll be including more copies of press releases from the site alerting readers to forthcoming titles which sound promising. When we're able to secure review copies, or I get to see/read the items in question we'll try and run a review, or perhaps even a monthly round up of new releases. We'll also include older releases from time to time too, as there are always people coming fresh to this peculiar world who appreciate the 'education'. Erm....

So if you have an event, dvd, book or anything else you'd like us to cover feel free to drop me a line or send the material out.

And for the readers - don't worry, if we see a film we hate, we'll let you know. Reviews are subjective and you may disagree, but I'd hate you to think I'm a patsy of the distribution companies.

Robert
(info@avalard.com)

Film: Sherlock Holmes (2009)

2009-12-26T15:42:00.000Z

I can't be the only one to baulk at the notion that the former Mr. Madonna was attempting a new film based on the exploits of the world's most famous consulting detective? Guy Ritchie, a director better known for a series of slick London gangster flicks was daring to take on a challenge that many have risked and few have succeeded with. Then there was the casting... Jude Law as Dr Watson had me wondering, but Robert Downey Jr as Holmes?! An American! Oh dear oh dear oh dear....

In fact 'oh dear' was exactly what I said aloud when I saw the trailer at last just last month. It looked very much like they were throwing everything at the screen and this humble Sherlockian would be most disappointed.

Now I don't make claim to be a Sherlock Holmes expert, but I do make claim to being a fan since childhood. And not just of the films and tv versions, but Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's brilliant prose - the 56 short stories and 4 full length novels have been constant companions since my parents gave the precocious 8 year old me a heavy volume of the short stories published by Chancellor Press. I lugged that thing everywhere in my school bag and devoured it repeatedly, alongside Granada's excellent tv series with Jeremy Brett.

Not that any of this or the rest of my own journey with Holmes actually matters. I just feel it should be said that I did not feel that this was going to be a great film, that Ritchie would let us down, and that Holmes was going to be raped in the way that Lucas did with Indiana Jones in Crystal Skull.

I can now said hand on heart that I was wrong.

Ritchie has defied expectation to bring something which whilst unique and contemporary, holds great reverence for the Conan Doyle source material. Ritchie takes the subtle implications of the Victorian text and brings them slightly to the fore, spurning the risks of a radical reinvention of a much loved character and instead giving us a new Holmes we can delight in.

Robert Downey Jr turns out to be a brilliant piece of casting. Perhaps some of that is informed by our knowledge of his own personal struggles - his brushes with the law and drug abuse aren't too far removed from the canonical Holmes. He's also able to move from solemn reflective mode to bold adventurer with ease. Downey has proved himself to be a superb actor time and time again, and perhaps only his American nationality had me worried. Whilst the accent does occasionally slip a little, it is nothing too distracting and Downey can stand proud alongside the best of the screen Holmes... Basil Rathbone, Peter Cushing, Robert Stephens and Jeremy Brett.

Jude Law is a much younger Watson than we are used to, but thankfully Ritchie allows Watson to be an intelligent, able, retainer - far removed from the bumbler that Nigel Bruce forced upon us back in the 1940s.

Law is more muted than usual, and this is a good thing. Allowing us an insight into his troubled marriage is a welcome portion of the narrative.

This Holmes and Watson are not gay lovers, but rather the best of friends, constantly thrown together by the thrill of the chase, and precious of their special bond. A perfect coupling.

Praise also to Rachel McAdams who gives a splendidly seductive side to Irene Adler - the only woman Holmes ever showed any interest in. Here its plain to see the attractions.

The story itself does indeed have a mystery at its heart, and Holmes will be forced to use all his powers of deductive reasoning, and physical prowess. That doesn't stop us from being treated to a complex narrative which transcends all of London society, from Irish dockworkers through to the aristocratic House of Lords. A tale of sex, drugs, and political power struggles with a healthy dash of occultish overtones. Mark Strong plays the sinister Lord Blackwood - a Crowley-esque figure at the centre of a black magic cult. The inclusion of Moriarty in several aside scenes nicely set the film up for the already announced sequel, but rather undermine the central threat. Holmes needs his Moriarty, yes... but not as a constant.

Visually, this is a beautiful film. The gothic Victorian landscape beautifully recreated, and a colour palate which keeps the dankness of the city alongside the vivid colour of fleshtones (too often people look unreal in these sort of films thanks to over-zealous grading). The production design is first class, and attention to detail second to none. I'm sure some followers will hate the film on principle, but Holmes is the sort of character that can withstand the occasional revival.

I look forward to further instalments in the series and seeing exactly where things will go. Here's hoping that Downey and Law will be allowed to run for as long as Rathbone and Bruce. How long till The Hound of the Baskervilles gets a treatment in their hands?

Sherlock Holmes
directed by Guy Ritchie
128 mins
released in USA: 25th December 2009 (cert: PG13)
released in UK: 26th December 2009 (cert: 12A)

Buy the original Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the UK

Buy the original Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the US

Film: Nowhere Boy (2009)

2009-12-19T02:04:00.000Z

There have been numerous attempts to tell the story of the Beatles on film before (my favourite is still The Rutles -a cheat I know, but brilliant!), but this seems to be the first to focus completely on the pre-Fab Four origin story, and John Lennon's difficult teenage years.

Despite a background in video for galleries, director Sam Taylor-Wood presents us with a fairly typical biopic, presented with great attention to detail, and some delightful cinematography. Aaron Johnson has the daunting task of donning Lennon's shoes, something which he does with mixed success. We see Lennon out of place, living with his aunt and uncle until his uncle's sudden death provokes a descent into mild anarchy and rebellion. An opportunity to re-establish contact with his long-absent mother coincides with a sexual awakening and desire to be a rock 'n' roll performer - like Elvis.

The crux of the film is giving reason to Lennon's future direction and underlying anger - putting it down to absent parentage and a confused and torturous truth behind the family lies. His mother's other family and 1950s secrets are more than the talented Lennon can cope with.

Disturbingly, Anne-Marie Duff plays Lennon's mother as a sexually active and mentally unstable woman - who is almost predatory towards her own son. Scenes with a visit to Blackpool and a Kiss-me-quick hat; a charged dance in a cafe; and a session listening to records at home with her estranged son are deeply uncomfortable. It casts the lyrics of Lennon's 'Mother' which plays on the soundtrack in a particular light 'You had me | But I never had you.' Yes...

It is a tragic story though, and one which I was unfamiliar with. How a family can live just minutes apart and yet be separated by circumstance and stubbornness.

Livepool landmarks are featured, but no overly touristy. A glimpse of Strawberry Fields in the opening and a lovely ironic nod to the Cavern club are two of the highlights for Beatles fans. The costumes and looks are almost pefect, with scenes and dress familiar from the old photographs of the young Beatle.

Johnson gives some good raw energy in the role, but is marred by a meandering accent - something which seems to befall most of the cast including Thomas Sangster as Paul McCartney (a far too weedy McCartney for this reviewer). No-one seems to be particularly Scouse. Kristin Scott Thomas is however brilliant as Lennon's aunt Mimi.

Rather brilliantly for a Beatles film, there are no Beatles tracks on the soundtrack. Instead we get treated to a plethora of rock 'n' roll standards and a smattering of Alma Cogan. Its authentic and a richer film for it.

A competent biopic let down by accents.

Nowhere Boy

directed by Sam Taylor-Wood

98 mins, 15 cert.
UK release: 26 December 2009

Film: Avatar (2009)

2009-12-18T11:25:00.000Z

James Cameron's long awaited science fiction epic Avatar finally hits cinemas this month. A $237 million feature that's been dividing the critics long before it saw release. Shot in 3D (though also being screened in 2D) its the first real 3D epic of the new wave of 3D cinema, something which demands watching regardless of the actual substance of the film itself.

In short, this is a visually beautiful film. If you enjoy aesthetically beautiful films, or have the horn for anorexic naked blue aliens then you'll quite probably love Avatar.

Frankly - I didn't hate it. Having caught a couple of comments from other journalists before the press screening this week I expected it to be a real train wreck that simply wouldn't engage. My viewing partner found it a very calming and relaxing experience. At over 2 1/2 hours though, I'm not really sure that that is the feeling that Cameron was hoping to induce.

The plot is fairly standard science fiction with an element of anthropological comment. Sam Worthington plays Jake Sully, a young ex-marine who has lost the ability to use his legs, and who ends up taking a position on a scientific research team on the planet Pandora. There, the scientists are in control of Avatars - genetically engineered hybrids that look like the large blue Na'vi people that live on the planet. Jake soon finds himself torn between his work for Dr Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) and growing affection for Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) - a Na'vi girl, and the encroaching human mining corporation that ultimately employs him.

This is a very long film, and could easily have been shorn of 40 minutes to bring something tighter, slicker and more dramatic. Too often Cameron allows his camera to move through digitally realised vistas and landscape - sequences and montages push the patience of the viewer repeatedly. Arguably the relative calm of the anthropological sequences is in stark contrast to the violent and traditional human vs alien confrontation that makes up the bulk of the second half. Arguably...

The alien world itself is full of vivid dayglow colours, but the sets lit with blacklight and fluorescent paints also have the slightest hint of cheapness about them. I'm a sucker for bright colours, and the changing lights and light ropes are lovely, but I kept being taken out of the experience by my own awareness of the technique. The 3D itself is also used in a very limited sense, despite the fact that this epic is going to earn many of its viewers simply because of the 3D technique. There aren't really any gimmick moments, but there are some lovely vistas, and interactions. Where it really works well is with things like glass and computer screens, where screens divide planes - then it really comes alive.

The cast are uniformly good - Worthington gives a suitably naturalistic performance, and the support all have something to offer. Its always good to see Weaver - though as my friend rightly pointed out, there's echoes of her storyline in Gorillas in the Mist here. Michelle Rodriquez is wasted in another hardened military stereotype. Thrilled to see her in 3D, disappointed to see her largely behind the glass of a helicopter...

Also slightly grating me is the commentary on 9/11 which seems to be part of the subtext. I can't quite work out the nuances, but there is certainly a critique of globalisation and of industrial world powers (its fitting that the miners are essentially American military) looking to rip a nation of its resources. Perhaps something about the destruction of the rainforests, but also the invasion of Iraq, and before the film it through you'll be seeing echoes of the destruction of the World Trade Centre too. Just strikes me that a lot of US cinema at the moment is caught up on that moment, but then all fiction draws parallel to the real world.

Seen in 2D the film should be fine - but without the novelty of 3D becomes a slightly overlong ramble. Not sci-fi enough for sci-fi buffs, and without any real tension. Oh, and an ending that seems inevitable from before the half way point. Next time Mr. Cameron, keep me guessing.

Avatar
written and directed by James Cameron
161 mins
UK release: 17 December 2009 (cert 12A)
US release: 18 December 2009 (cert PG13)

Britcom: Up Pompeii (1970)

2009-12-08T17:19:00.004Z

I blame Benny Hill, Frankie Howerd, Kenny Everett and their like for shaping my sense of humour. For the reputation it has amongst my closest friends... Throughout my youth all three were prominent presences on the television, and left to my own devices of an evening I grew to love them and more. Yes, I really hadn't the foggiest notion about the level of innuendo, but the seeds were planted and escape became impossible. Frankie Howerd's particular brand of camp innuendo lives on in the likes of David Walliams, but nothing quite compares to Howerd's best known series...

"It may sound tame with a Latin name, but Ohhh...."

Up Pompeii first launched onto screens with a pilot episode as part of the BBC's Comedy Playhouse series in 1969, with two series in 1970, a sequel in 1975 and an ITV sequel in 1991, not to mention a string of films based on the franchise. The formula would be mirrored for two further Howerd series - Whoops Bagdad and Then Churchill Said To Me.

Howerd plays Lurcio - the humble slave and narrator. Each week he attempts to tell the audience a story - the prologue - only to be interrupted by Sena the Soothsayer and the escapades of his master Ludicrus Sextus and his sex-obsessed family (well they are Romans after all) - wife Ammonia, daughter Erotica, and the rather wet son Nauseous.

The prologue itself, is really a McGuffin for the series. This is a series which has only the loosest possible structure. The episodes invariably feature a manic situation which Lurcio is thrust unwittingly into - usually involving one or more shenanigans of the bed-hopping family. Highlights are undoubtedly the abundance of cleavage on display, Nauseous's woeful odes, and star attraction Howerd's wonderful delivery.

The fourth wall is constantly broken and Lurcio talks directly to the camera. Constantly making asides about the rest of the performances, the state of the script, and with just enough or a roll of the eyes or a flexing of the mouth to encourage the dirty minded audience to read the smut in every possible line. In the hands of a lesser man it wouldn't work, but Howerd is the master of the art. You can't help but be caught up in the madness. After a season's worth of episode, I challenge you not to be twisting every conversation into sexual innuendo...

"Shut yer gob..."

Buy The Frankie Howerd Collection (including the complete Up Pompeii) on dvd here

Buy Up Pompeii the movie on dvd here

Film: Where The Wild Things Are (2009)

2009-12-08T01:45:00.005Z

[Warning: Possible spoilers ahead]

Max is a young boy with a fertile imagination. He lives in a world of his own creation, ignored by his sister, and overlooked by his mother and absent father he plays by himself creating playmates from everyday objects.

One night after rowing with his mother he runs away from home dressed in a wolf costume, and into the woods and out into the world to another land where he meets the wild things. A group of huge, strange creatures who he befriends and who make him their king. With his new friends Max tries to eradicate unhappiness from their world...

Where The Wild Things Are is a beautifully challenging film about childhood from director Spike Jonze - a man who more than proved his ability to tune into childlike behaviour from his work on Jackass - based on the 1963 illustrated children's story by Maurice Sendak.

I don't remember reading Sendak's story, but the illustrations are so strikingly familiar I feel I must have done. Its a story which has resonated through the generations with children, darker than much children's fiction, and wickedly canny - like the best Roald Dahl stories. This adaptation has had more than its share of problems, and I first spotted a poster for it early in 2008 in the local cinema. Well over a year later it surfaces, and despite talk of potentially reshooting the film because of its dark overtones, I'm delighted to see that the film remains challenging for viewers of all ages.

Max Records (playing the lead boy, also called Max) gives a stunning performance. His naturalistic delivery, conviction and sincerity in his fantasies is a spot-on mirror to many childhoods. Certainly I spotted more than a little of my younger self in the manipulating tantrums, the games with forts (especially the lava!), and the ability to make inanimate objects appear real in the context of the imagination.

The gentle nod to an absent father might suggest that Max is either lacking a father figure for grounding or is neglected, but we see that there is love and attention in his family, and the crux of the story is a little boy who seems to have retreated into himself and his difficulties in accepting the adult world around him.

Yes, life can be lonely when you're small... But that escapism needs to be kept in check - I can't help but feel a bit of discipline rather than indulgence would have prevented the fight escalating the way it does.

Like all boys, Max likes a bit of rough play (according to his rules at least), and his destructive capabilities are balanced on a knife edge with his creative flair and imagination. Never before have I seen childhood so acutely observed...

The strange creatures are a delight. Developed by the Jim Henson Creature Workshop (who created The Muppets, Dark Crystal, the creatures from Labyrinth etc.) their real life presence (accented by cgi manipulation of the faces) ensures that we accept them as part of the world in a way we would perhaps not had they been pure animation. Max interacts and fuses with them, strange outsiders, rowing with loved ones, destructive, creative, imaginative.

Most brilliant of all is that if the creatures are part of his imagination, they talk in a very adult way and their understanding of relationships and the world is much more advanced than anyone gives Max credit for. It is here that we see how Jonze understands children. They may be small, and love escapism, but they are capable of great awareness and emotional and intellectual depth.

This is NOT typical child fare, but this has all the potential to become an intelligent modern classic that will last for decades. Its a simple, still film. But a clever, thinking film. Like Lost in Translation for kids...

Where the Wild Things Are
was released in the USA on 16th October,
and in the UK on 11 December 2009.

Directed by Spike Jonze

101 mins

Official US Website

Buy the original book Where the Wild Things Are in the UK here

Buy the original book Where the Wild Things Are in the US here

"I Am Not A Number" - The Prisoner (2009)

2009-11-17T02:07:00.005Z

Much anticipated (and first announced as far back as 2005), the remake of cult 1967 series The Prisoner has finally made its debut on AMC in the US with the screening of the first two episodes of the series.

The original is hailed as a brilliant piece of television drama by the consensus of most critics. A taught 17 part series co-created by star Patrick McGoohan as a follow up to spy series Danger Man. The Prisoner is often lumped in with science fiction series, and with its political allegory and surrealist presentation has made a lasting impact in conspiracy dramas and the like ever since. McGoohan's Prisoner is a British agent who has resigned and is taken to a mysterious place known as The Village where his captors assign him the number "6" and attempt to wear him down in the hunt for "information." Numbers indicate a chain of command and the crucial Number 2 is ever-changing.

For the new series, Jim Caviezel takes on the role of Number 6 - and here is an analyst for a CCTV company who resigns his post, and seemingly is taken by his employers to The Village. Ian McKellan plays the controlling and omnipresent Number 2 (in a change from the original, being the only actor in the new series to take the role rather than the ensemble cast of the original).

The new series is coming in for a fair bit of praise amongst television critics, though being an admirer of the original run I find it incredibly difficult to warm to this one. The AMC/ITV co-production lacks something of the Englishness which is so attractive in the ITC version - the contemporary editing, and slick visuals are a little bland, and the music is completely underwhelming for the most. Some of the narrative and editing choices make the storyline a little more obscure too. Whilst we have a much better idea of Number 6's past life by the end of "Harmony" (episode 2), there's rather too much jumping between events in the past and in The Village.

That said there are some rather nice touches. Certain elements of the original series are hinted at and mirrored. The shot of 6 walking through the bunker, lit by light from a door in the title credits of the original does turn up in a modern form briefly in episode 1 ("Arrival"); the escapee 93 dons the outfit of the original prisoners in the opening scenes; the Rovers are still an ever-present threat; and the decision to set The Village in a sort of 1960s retro America is a nice touch and nod back to the project's inspiration.

There seems to be a lot more overt politics in the show this time round too - perhaps most strikingly with the (foolhardy) decision to feature two glimmering towers as an object for 6 to focus on and aim for. With the American influence, its impossible to read these as anything other than a reference to 9/11 and elements of terrorism. I'm also confused as to the purpose of The Village when the whole object seems to be forgetting the past life - 6's acceptance of this just seems to be a bizarre goal, whereas information makes much more sense.

The choice of episodes is a little unusual too. The mini-series gives us 6 episodes based loosely on episodes from the original. The list isn't McGoohan's approved list of the 7 essential episodes, and that might have been a more satisfying focus.

On the whole, despite some nice performances and a healthy dose of mysterious ambiguity, there's too much uncertainty and confusion to really be satisfied. Possibly the dynamic will increase over the next couple of episodes, but after two hours I'd be tempted to give up were I not so intrigued to see how they handle remaking one of the finest pieces of original programming ever to be produced in the UK.

The Prisoner is on AMC from 15 November in the USA

it airs on ITV early in 2010.

Buy The Prisoner (1967) on DVD here

Buy The Prisoner (1967) on BluRay here

New name...

2009-10-13T22:54:00.003+01:00

Welcome back to Avalard's Cultural Crisis...

Just to let you know, you can now find the blog at www.culturalcrisis.com. I figured that should make it easier than trying to recall the rather longer blogspot address, and will allow us to shift the site relatively painlessly in future should we decide to do that.

We still have our RSS feed and you can add us to your blog reader as before... if there's any problems please do let me know.

We've had a lull for a few months, but expect lots more between now and Christmas.

Barry Letts

2009-10-13T01:14:00.005+01:00

One-time actor, writer, director and producer Barry Letts passed away at the weekend at the age of 84, and with him a huge chunk of British television history.

Alongside prolific writer Terrence Dicks, Barry Letts was responsible for reshaping cult British science fiction series Doctor Who at the end of the 1960s. Rather than simply regenerate Patrick Troughton into Jon Pertwee, Letts regenerated the entire show ushering in an era of excess, gadgets, eccentric fashions, and the earth bound battles between aliens and the forces of UNIT. Letts' version of Doctor Who became the blueprint future versions of the show would work from right through to Russell T Davies' revamp in 2004 and spin-off show Torchwood. Letts was also responsible for the creation of Sarah Jane Smith - a character that continues to entertain a new generation of kids thanks to the creation of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Whilst Letts had a prolific career in television including a long stint helming classic serials for the BBC, it is his Doctor Who work that will be most remembered. In the 1990s he wrote two radio serials The Paradise of Death and The Ghosts of N-Space which saw the return of Jon Pertwee to the iconic role, and he was a regular guest at Who conventions and contributor to dvd documentaries and commentaries.

My own dealings with Letts were very very limited, but he left an indelible impression on me. Back in the mid 1990s I founded a little Doctor Who Society at school, back when it wasn't cool to love Doctor Who I might add. We decided we wanted to make a film based on Doctor Who for the society. I duly set about writing a sequel of sorts to one of my favourite Who stories, The Daemons. I wrote to Letts via the BBC for a blessing to continue with the project. A couple of months passed before I received a perfectly worded reply. He was courteous and considerate and understood just how important it was to encourage a budding teenage filmmaker, but at the same time stress the realities of the business. He personally had no issue with us making a sequel to The Daemons for our own use within the society, but a commercial venture would be a different matter... I wasn't yet aware of copyright law, of the importance of protecting intellectual property, but I was thrilled to have his blessing. I can't remember if I ever wrote a thank you letter, but damn I should have.

The lengthy script was developed (down to featuring a mysterious Doctor-like character), cast and we rehearsed and read for weeks and months. We never made it though - all became rather big and beyond our abilities then, and we made something else with the same set up instead. The story was rather too much like his Who original, and I dread to think what he'd have made of it. But thanks to Barry Letts I wrote my first (unproduced) script. The first of many. Eventually I made my first film too... We never met, but his work kept me entertained for years and connected with me in a way nothing had before.

Like many in the world of Who fandom I mourn the loss of a talent we felt we knew thanks to his ceaseless promotion of the show and reissues of his work. But I'm glad we had that experience and enrichment.

Now all that's left is to look forward to the publication of his autobiograph Who and Me by Fantom Films next month, a poignant final chapter in Lett's association with the show (and oddly mirroring his friend Jon Pertwee, whose memoir I Am The Doctor came out shortly after his death in 1996).

Barry Letts - 26 March 1925 - 9 October 2009.

Who And Me by Barry Letts
Foreword by Terrence Dicks, Afterword by Katy Manning.
published by Fantom Films, 9 November 2009.
£12.99.

Buy Who and Me here.

Buy Who and Me audiobook here.

Film: Triangle (2009)

2009-10-13T00:17:00.004+01:00

Well, that's my brain fried folks. I can have little doubt that most reviewers will sum Triangle up as the horror version of Groundhog Day, only it rather lacks the satisfactory resolution, and three hours later I'm still working the plotting around and around in my head.

Triangle tells the story of a group of thirty somethings who take a trip sailing in the Atlantic ocean aboard the yacht 'Triangle' only to encounter a deadly storm and find themselves marooned aboard a mysterious liner, seemingly drifting abandoned...

Despite the seemingly American setting this is very much an Australian film, and just occasionally it comes through in the actors accents. Christopher Smith is fast proving himself to be a competent director of contemporary low-budget(ish) horror following on from Creep and Severance. As writer-director he knows how he wants the picture and allows real menace and tension to build and successfully twists the narrative back on itself time and time again until the viewer is left knotted. A simultaneously frustrating and brilliant move.

The whole piece hangs on the performance of Melissa George as Jess. She delivers a tense, taught and multi-textured study, supported ably by the rest of the cast. Viewers expecting a nautical shocker set in the Bermuda Triangle might be disappointed, though the allusion is clear...

FAIR WARNING

You might want to look away now before I go into any detail about the substance of the film (spoiler light, but may include discussion viewed as spoiler)... needless to say at this point I recommend Triangle.

Triangle looks stunning, and its such a joy to see a horror film which is largely set in the daylight for a change. Smith gives us a fair share of skulking in shadows, lovingly lit in greens and reds, but he also gives us an abundance of Australasian sun. There's some lovely visual gimmicks as well, and these are largely gentle old-fashioned edits rather than bombarding the screen with computer wizardry (though there's a bit of that too).

The script is very good, but perhaps too clever. If anything I can see audiences baffled and confused and tempted to walk out (as my viewing partner was this evening). There's a crucial point which involves a jarring jump. Except it isn't. Except it is. At any rate it jars. I found myself out of the film temporarily and wondering if I'd fallen asleep for half an hour and just woken up. Of course, that's exactly how the characters feel too... From there Triangle is temporarily marred by a semblance to a slasher film before coming back to something more intelligent and sophisticated.

There's something of Roeg's Don't Look Now about this film too, and a rather clumsy line of dialogue rather gives the game away early on (Smith, you should have left the reference in and the line out... would have been a nice little nod for the clever clogs in the audience), but that doesn't stop the film being gripping and inventive and equally frustrating.

Ultimately its a rather bleak and hopeless conclusion that presents as many questions as it asks. But it is one of the better horror films on offer this Halloween, so track it down if you can and join the debate...

Triangle
Directed by Christopher Smith
99 mins, 18 cert.
Released: 16th October 2009 (UK)

Official Website

Competition: Thirst poster giveaway

2009-10-06T23:56:00.001+01:00

A priest becomes a vampire... another man's wife is coveted... a deadly seduction triggers murder...

Courtesy of the lovely folks at Metrodome we've got some exclusive limited edition posters for new horror film THIRST.

Thirst was joint winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes this year and is an intriguing vampire melodrama from Park Chan-wook, director of Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. Excitement is already building for the release of this prime cut of Korean cinema, which also marks the first time a Korean picture has had investment from the US.

Thirst is released on 16th October in the UK, with an 18 certificate.

Running time: 133 mins.

To win a copy of the poster, send an email marked "THIRST giveaway" in the subject line to thirstcomp@avalard.com including your name, age, and postal address. Entries should be received by midnight on 25th October 2009. After which we'll draw the winners names from a hat.

Multiple entries will be deleted, and don't worry, we'll not share your details with anyone else.

Entrants must be based in the UK for this competition please.

DVD / Blu-Ray: Penny Points to Paradise (1951)

2009-09-17T00:02:00.009+01:00

The BFI has dusted off its shelves for a new slate of dvd releases as part of the Adelphi Film Collection - promising a batch of curios from the catalogues of the long-forgotten British film company. Together with the current Flipside label, the BFI are firmly reawakening interest and spreading awareness in British cinema of the 50s and 60s. For me its a thrill to be able to see beautiful restorations and rare films I wondered if I'd ever catch - films I'm familiar with by name (or by advertising) from my own research on cinema of the period.

Penny Points To Paradise is a particular treat, effectively a Goon Show film without the presence of Michael Bentine (Bentine would be on hand for 1952's Down Among The Z Men). Any screen appearance with Milligan, Sellers and Secombe is essential watching for Goon fans, and whilst probably quite dated to audiences today, are essential viewing for anyone looking into the history of British comedy. The Goons are the forerunners of Vic and Bob, League of Gentlemen, Monty Python... comedy today would be very different.

Penny Points doesn't quite bring the zaniness of the Goons over to film (not even The Telegoons really managed that) but there's something of the stock in trade of Goon plots as Harry plays the halfwit lead, enriched by a win on the pools accompanied by Spike in a B&B in Brighton. There they are faced with criminals set on stealing the money from them as well as various other well-doers (Sellers amongst them).

The film has been largely forgotten, and only available in an edited version until the BFI's restoration this year. The glimpses of a bygone Britain sit well with the releases of Primitive London and London In The Raw (also by BFI this summer). Sellers rather steals the show with his proto-Bloodnock.

In fact the entire release is a celebration of Sellers as the BFI have also issued two additional features as special features on the disc.

Alongside the 68 minute Penny Points, is the short 31 minute Let's Go Crazy. A truly bizarre little filler with Milligan in some straight supporting parts, and Sellers in a variety of guises (including Groucho Marx) in Goon-like sketches, broken up with musical numbers from the likes of Freddie Mirfield and his Garbage Men (a truly wonderful comedy-musical troupe). There's little plot, other than the whole thing takes place at dinner in a club. Sellers works his ass off here in a variety of personas, and something of his talent is evident. There's a strange dance routine too between a peculiar middle-aged couple which sticks in the memory long after viewing is through.

The restoration work on Let's Go Crazy is first class. Both this and Penny Points have been sourced from a variety of 16mm and 35mm sources. This leaves for inconsistency in picture, but when it provides an intact film who can complain?!

The surprise delight though is the inclusion of The Slappiest Days of Our Lives, a 73 minute compilation of classic Hollywood comedy put together in 1953. It seems to be a French compilation that Adelphi re-dubbed for the English market, bringing together disparate films from Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy. Sellers voices most of the actors, with narration in the guise of Stan Laurel (which he has spot-on). Graham Stark may be one of the other voice artists according to the BFI Film & TV Database.

The 50s saw a wave of these re-issues and new compilations, allowing the silent stars a rediscovery in the cinemas as opposed to on the new tiny television screens. Few have made their way to dvd so the BFI should be congratulated on including this.

Rounding off the package on both DVD and Blu-Ray is a comprehensive and informative booklet detailing the history of the films, restoration and of Adelphi itself.

A mixed bag entertainment wise, but a crucial purchase all the same.

Buy Penny Points to Paradise on DVD here

Buy Penny Points to Paradise on Blu-ray here

Penny Points to Paradise

BFI Release - 3 August 2009

DVD RRP £17.99 / cat. no. BFIVD843 / 172 mins / DVD-9

Blu-ray RRP £22.99 / cat. no. BFIB1028 / 182 mins / BD50 / region free

UK / 1951 / PG / black and white / English, optional hard-of-hearing subtitles / original aspect ratio 1.33:1

Keith Floyd

2009-09-16T22:52:00.007+01:00

I wasn't actually aware that the documentary Keith Meets Keith was on Channel 4 on Monday night, but I'd been reading a bit about Keith Floyd again lately and enjoying the serialisation of his forthcoming autobiography Stirred But Not Shaken in the Mail online (I wouldn't pay money for that rag!). I knew Floyd was ill and waiting news on his cancer, and I knew the years had caught up on him.

And so on Tuesday I learned that the great television cook had died at the age of 65, whilst waiting at his partner's home to watch the Keith Meets Keith programme.

Television and British popular culture has lost an icon and a gem this week. Floyd was unmatchable, a real one-off. Keith Allen's documentary feels like an obituary, and its a mixed bag. Floyd is much frailer than I'd like to remember, but he's pin-sharp, hiding behind the onscreen persona and the alcohol. The clips from his classic shows only hint at the greatness that any Floyd show has.

Allen put Floyd's style as brilliantly deconstructing the television medium - a very apt description.

To me Keith Floyd was the most engaging, most passionate and most entertaining cook on television. His personality sat alongside the food rather than override it. I doubt very much that his show was scripted, and the fact that he incorporated the screw-ups, the insults, the carnage, only made him better. We could trust his honesty. Sometimes things go wrong in the kitchen and Floyd embraced that. He longed for old-fashioned Heinz canned soups and beans whilst travelling around the world - the honest desire of a real human being. Simple foods (as Allen admirably demonstrated this week) brought him as much pleasure as a gourmand feast.

He didn't seem to care for sensibilities, but rather indulged in local customs wherever in the world he was. He combined the travelogue with culinary documentary, and he wasn't afraid to shove the camera towards the food cooking rather than his face. He was a celebrity, but a humble one.

Floyd always gets me fired up, wanting to cook, and diving back into the kitchen, and to embrace the occasional error. Few tv cooks have managed this since - only Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Rick Stein seem to have that same passion, and a willingness to embrace everything, and to ensure that the food remains the real star.

The obituaries this week have spent too long on the more salubrious aspects of Floyd, of the stuff that sells tabloids. Forget it all. Floyd could cook, and he encouraged a generation to get back into the kitchen. Our televisions were brightened, and our bellies filled.

- Keith Floyd, 28 December 1943 - 14 September 2009 -

Buy Shaken But Not Stirred: The Autobiography by Keith Floyd

Buy The Keith Floyd Cookery Collection DVD boxset

film: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

2009-06-23T17:26:00.004+01:00

Confession time. As a kid I loved Transformers. Watched the cartoon religiously and loved the toys, though as far as recall I only ever had an Optimus Prime (which disintegrated over many years). I didn't see the first of the Michael Bay films, so this was new territory for me. Had no expectations.

And yet the film itself sort of defies any sustained analysis. So please excuse the review....

Explosions. Guns. Huge robots disguised as cars. Godzilla-like parody.
Shia LaBeouf - off to college (yawn). Megan Fox's arse and a motorbike. More explosions. Super-cute ikle robot. Megan Fox hot hot hot. College. More robots. Egypt. Explosions. Inept US government officials. Robots.

Erm... I think that about sums it up. All strangely good fun. I was told before that Megan Fox is regarded as the new Angelina Jolie, but this isn't fair. Megan Fox is the new Megan Fox. Eye candy par excellence, but with an ability to act.

Enjoy.

Box of Obfuscation podcast: Dracula On Film

2009-05-28T12:49:00.005+01:00

Another addition for the 999 Challenge - a recording of the panel discussion held at the Irish Film Institute in Dublin during the One City One Book festival in April.

Dracula experts Brian J. Showers, Paul Murray, Kim Newman, Sorcha Ni Fhlainn, and Robert J.E. Simpson (yours truly!) disucss the legacy of Bram Stoker's novel and its impact on vampire cinema.

To find out more and listen to the podcast click here.

Film: Tormented (2009)

2009-05-26T21:11:00.008+01:00

Why waste space and time reviewing a film that didn't particularly impress? I've done it often enough before, as readers of this column would probably attest! However I fear I might not manage more than a couple of dozen words on this.

Tormented is a new British horror film, a debut from writer Stephen Prentice, and a passable effort from director Jon Wright (whose biggest claim to fame thus far must be as co-writer of the new Hammer's online serial Beyond the Rave) . Set within a modern English comprehensive somewhere in London, it centres on a group of rather self-centred individuals who bullied obsese student Darren Mullet to the point where he killed himself.

Like Mean Girls we have a group of plastics (the bullies), some weirdo goth/emo kids, and the nice girl who doesn't quite fit in but is so self-absorbed anyway she turns her back on her friends and...oh, well, you can probably guess...

There's plenty of violence, rather graphic gore, which is largely comedic. There's some sex - an oh, what a novelty, the presence of condoms before the dirty act itself... not something I've noticed too often before. The kids are all ridiculous - most of them look too old to be sixth formers, and most far too photogenic either. Darren Mullet is two-dimensional with his obese Billy Bunter-esque physique ancient short-hand for bully.

The script is bland, any decent plotlines are wasted in acres of trash. How does stuff like this get funded? Its like an old man's idea of what the kids find cool, and is badly misjudged. Had they actually got the cast of Skins to perform we'd probably have had a much more engaging film (those kids can at least act).

Kudos though to the filmmakers for getting a film with a budget of under £1million released through a major distributor (Pathe)... maybe there's hope for the rest of the young filmmakers yet?! Tormented is co-funded by BBC Films, so wait for the inevitable broadcast...

Tormented
directed by Jon Wright
91 mins.
released 22 May 2009 (UK)

official website here: www.tormentedthemovie.co.uk

Novel: Songs for the Butchers Daughter by Peter Manseau (2008)

2009-05-26T21:05:00.000+01:00

Manseau's intelligent novel is a construction of two equal parts. He adopts the persona of a young Catholic historian, who presents us with an English translation of the Yiddish memoirs of poet Itsik Malpesh (another fictional character). The narration paralels the translator's story (presented through a series of extended 'translator's notes' with that of Malpesh's life story.

Malpesh is a young Jew in Russia, born in the middle of a period of uprising and anti-semitism, Malpesh's ambition and life is driven forward by a story about his birth and the girl who he believes saved the lives of him and his mother. From earliest childhood he obsesses about a girl he knows only from a story and a photograph, and she becomes his muse as he begins writing poetry, believing himself to be the last Yiddish poet.

Ostensibly (at least according to the blurb), the book tells the story of a bizarre friendship between the young translator and the aging Yiddish-speaking poet. But in fact the book really centres on the supposed memoirs of the older poet. His bold, striking and adventure-packed life working on a factory floor clearing up the shit from the geese his father has plucked to provide down for duvets, mattresses and the like; his escape from persecution following an attack on authority figures through the Yiddish press, to Odessa and the mother of his muse; through to his successes and failures in the sewing and publishing industries, marriage, infedility and more.

There is an adventure here, an adventure of decades, a life of Jewish culture filtered through the pen of the translator (here borrowing elements of the novel's author's own life). By presenting a "Yiddish" story in translation, on the one hand I feel we rob the essence out of the Jewish narrative, but simultaneously we open up the narrative to a much wider audience. It isn't just the language which allows the story to breathe, but the narration of the story itself.

Some commentators have picked up on the thriller element of the story - but for me, the thriller punchline is a Maguffin - an intriguing angle, but detracting from the beauty of the narration itself.

Everything is layered with false memory, perception and the poet's spin.

A novel with much more to it than the jacket would suggest - mirroring the tale and the act of narration.

Song's For the Butcher's Daughter
by Peter Manseau

published 27 October 2008 by Simon & Schuster (UK).
9 September 2008 (USA)

Buy in the UK here.

Buy in the US here.

Box of Obfuscation podcast - Dan Brown Angel or Demon?

2009-05-15T22:59:00.005+01:00

Another addition for the 999 Challenge - the second Box of Obfuscation podcast this month (well, this week in fact!) is a conversational discussion on the merits of Dan Brown and Ron Howard's cinematic adaptation of Angels and Demons....

To find out more and listen to the podcast click here.

New Box of Obfuscation podcast

2009-05-14T22:20:00.000+01:00

A shameless bit of cross-promotion (as its in my list of 999 Challenges...), as the first in the new series of my Box of Obfuscation podcast launches.

Possibly only available for a limited time, is a podcast version of the on stage conversation between critic Tony Earnshaw, and actress Jenny Agutter at last years' Fantastic Films Weekend in Bradford.

For more information and to download or subscribe, check out http://avalard.blogspot.com

Film: Star Trek (2009)

2009-05-07T12:39:00.005+01:00

I've held off on this one for the last week simply because I didn't think it fair to tease all the Trek fans out there who have to wait until previews tonight or opening tomorrow. Apologies for those who have been kept waiting.

I'm a kid of the 1980s, so for me Star Trek was shaped by BBC2 re-runs of the original series starring Shatner, Nimoy et al. To put into context, I thrived on a diet of 1960s television shows from the US including Trek, Land of the Giants, The Invaders, The Man From Uncle etc. I was always more of a Star Wars man than a Trek man, and more of a Doctor Who man than a Star Wars fan... But I always enjoyed the movies, and later on tasted the later tv versions (Next Generation was okay, Deep Space Nine was tedious and dull, Voyager was at times brilliant, and Enterprise I missed completely).

But importantly I'm not a hardened fan, so I can take the possibility of a rethink of Star Trek within my stride and without weeping about any changes. JJ. Abrams' Lost is perhaps one of the most striking US fantasy dramas of recent years, but I remained somewhat dubious about the prospect of a hard reset. I'm already weary of resets on things like Superman or Batman. Despite any fears, Abrams does indeed pull off something very difficult and manages to start the entire Trek franchise off again without too much of the baggage of the past, and yet blend the prequel fairly seemlessly into the existing mythology of the series.

Basically the plot concerns the recruitment of the original Enterprise crew and their first rather impromptu mission to prevent an alien race from destroying the Federation - a conglomerate of intergalactic nations who have agreed a military peace. Spock (Zachary Quinto) takes centre stage as we get to see a rather more human element to the character than the one we are most familiar with. Chris Pine takes on William Shatner's alter-ego as James Tiberius Kirk, a rebellious individual who is co-erced to enlist. As much as anything, this is the beginning of a life-long friendship.

Trek introduces us to all the characters from the original series, in their rebooted form. Zoe Zaldana is a particularly fine Uhuru (though not with the love interest you might expect); John Cho's Sulu actually seems to have slipped off my radar already; Anton Yelchin's Chekov carries on the familiar Eastern-European pronounciations but with youthful eagerness and humour; Simon Pegg makes for a fresh Scotty (and doesn't appear in the first half of the film, but does provide some welcome laughs); Karl Urban's 'Bones' McCoy is perhaps closest to the original, capturing many of Deforest Kelly's mannerisms and yet revising the performance for a new audience; I found Quinto utterly boring as Spock - too emotive perhaps and not as distinctive as Nimoy (my friends at the preview utterly disagreed with me); and Pine steps into Shatner's ego well - he has some nice touches, in body language in particular, which mimic Shatner, but largely is refreshing and something of a revelation.

Eric Bana's villain is maybe a little comic-book, but a good foil, and Bruce Greenwood as Capt. Pike is first class too (more of him please!).

The story isn't too hard to follow, and from the off (a la Lost) Abrams thrusts us into a battleground, which never relents. There's enough action and emotion to please everyone.

Trek fans will no doubt be most excited about the appearance of Leonard Nimoy as the older Spock. I did wonder how they'd work around this, particularly with the idea of this being a reset of the series, but Nimoy's role ensures that the new series can sit alongside the existing mythology without any problem whatsoever (and by implication could leave the way open for future cameos from Shatner and co.). I don't want to spoil it for you - but it works.

Nimoy is much older now, and it shows, but his appearance is a seal of approval from the series originators, and a touch of class.

All in all, Star Trek is a welcome diversion. Much better than I expected, and might even tempt a few non-Trekkies out into the cinema. Simon Pegg's own line from Spaced is disproven here, the 11th film in the series proves wrong the suggestion that "every odd numbered Star Trek film is shit."

Star Trek

directed by J.J. Abrams

126 mins

on general release in UK and USA from 8 May 2009

Christopher Lee coming back to Hammer?

2009-05-07T00:24:00.004+01:00

Its not often I plug my other site here, but I'll want to blog about this at length later - once we've had official confirmation from Hammer itself.

It appears that veteran actor Christopher Lee has been cast in the upcoming Hammer thriller Invasion of Privacy (according to reports, the new name for The Resident starring Hilary Swank and Jeffrey Dean Morgan), due for release in 2010. Hugely important news for Hammer fans of old, and may well give the company a little leveridge with hardcore fans who refuse to accept the company in its current guise. Shy of Jimmy Sangster writing a screenplay, this is the closest we are likely to get to the essence of a classic Hammer film in today's age.

I've gone into more detail about the project and source for the story at the Unofficialhammerfilms site here:

http://www.unofficialhammerfilms.com/news/2009/May06_01.html

If and when Hammer confirm the story I'll update this posting and the article on the Unofficial site.

Film: Let the Right One In (2008)

2009-04-28T21:35:00.000+01:00

I've held off watching and reviewing this film for a while now, but with it now available on dvd in the US (though there's an issue with translation in the subtitles so I won't be recommending it just yet) and in the cinemas here in the UK it seems like a good time.

I first heard about Let the Right One In (or to give it the original Swedish title, Låt den rätte komma in) early last year when Hammer Films picked up the remake rights for an English language version and announced Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) as director. As more have come to know the Swedish original the mooted remake is starting to stir up controversy, a needless and thankless task whenever there already exists an excellent original. A debate, which I'll leave for another post...

Let the Right One In centres on Oskar, a 12 year old boy who is bullied at school and plotting revenge. He befriends Eli, the very peculiar girl who has moved in next door, who doesn't feel the cold, smells odd and never appears to eat. She's accompanied by Hakan, who embarks on a bumbling series of murders in order to acquire blood to feed Eli's vampiric needs. Oskar starts to fall in love with Eli as her true nature is slowly revealled, and the investigation into the murders comes ever closer...

Thomas Alfredson directs a script by John Ajvide Lindqvist based on his own novel. Pairing it down for the silver screen, much of the more salacious and controversial elements are stripped away, presumably as they would be too much for censors and audiences around the world. With the author in control of the adaptation it is much easier to respect his decisions and view this as an authoratitive text.

Curiously this is a period film, set in the 1980s in Blackeberg on the outskirts of Stockholm, a bleak and empty landscape - eerily draped in a blanket of snow throughout. For some reason vampire films work best when they're set in period, and the attention to detail here is superb. The snowy landscape is almost alien, and combined with Oskar's bizarre (but no doubt authentic) look really sets the viewer on edge...

Much of the excitement amongst the viewing community and critics alike centres on the reinvention of the vampire mythology with the piece. Gone are the traditions of cinematic mythology spawned by Lugosi and his hundreds of immitators. Unsusually the vampire at the centre of the story is a 12 year old girl rather than a 30+ year old man.

For me the brilliance of the film is in the use of silence. This is a film which allows atmosphere to build without pounding our ears with a relentless over-produced dramatic score. The best use of this sort of atmosphere since Shindo's Omnibaba (Japan, 1964) in fact.

Brilliantly executed, knowing the novel beforehand did leave me a little disatisfied. The adult characters are never developed enough, the predatory nature of Eli's guardian (another kind of vampirism), the private investigation by the winos into several of the deaths, and Oskar's own alienation through being the victim of bullies. That said, this is so refreshing in the wake of tawdry shite like Twilight [see previous entry here] that it is sure to get genre fans talking and enthusing about vampires once again.

Expect a wave of rip-offs over the coming months before the cycle repeats itself all over!

Let the Right One In
written by John Ajvide Lindqvist

directed by Thomas Alfredson
115 mins
general release Sweden/USA: 24 October 2008
general release UK: 10 April 2009

Buy the original novel of Let the Right One In in the UK here
Buy the original novel of Let the Right One In in the US here

Food: Walker's new crisp flavours 2009

2009-04-27T22:42:00.002+01:00

The humble British crisp. Slivers of potato fried up, smothered in artifical flavouring, bundled together in 30 gram bags and popped into vending machines, newsagents and the mouths of the populus up and down the country.

I imagine them as a great equaliser, but only in as much as everyone, rich and poor alike, will indulge in them at some point.

Walker's new promotion of six new flavours is part of a campaign which has been running for months now, following on from suggestions via a website for new flavours, they've drawn up a shortlist and are looking for us to decide which are going to stay. Quite frankly, I think Walker's have a fair idea of which two are staying as most of the flavours are either "samey" or in fact rather bland efforts. There's little to get excited about, and aside from some headline grabbing names, this is a fairly inoccuous affair. I braved a packet of each of the new flavours, ignoring the hefty warnings of the amount of calories I was consuming, and giving each equal opportunity by insisting on eating the entire product, even when it was unappealing.

The original intention was to wax lyrical about the subtleties of each flavour and just how successful I thought they'd be. In reality, this is such an uninspiring lot I don't see the point. However, I've suffered for you this time, so here's what I thought:

Chilli & Chocolate
Surely chocolate flavoured crisps is a mistake? Well, I disagree. I loved the old chocolate covered pretzels that you used to be able to get here, so mixing savoury with sweet isn't as bad as you'd think. The combination works well, but with most of the new flavours it takes a good mouthful or two to bring out what is a very subtle combination. The chocolate is kind of warm, the chilli kind of harsh. Surprisingly palatable, but I'm hardly likely to pick this when I need comforting.

Onion Bhaji
Surprisingly, these do taste rather like real Bhajis, but without the moisture that one associates with the real thing. Again a little harsh, maybe stale is the right word...

Fish and Chips
Now I have no complaints with the idea of these, I used to love crisps like this when I was a kid. But these are like a bag of fish and chips you've left sitting for a couple of hours... the chips are obscured with tangs of vinegar. Come on Walkers, chips are made from potatoes, the same thing as crisps, and you do a nice bag of salt and vinegar! So what about the fish... well, unlike scampi fries, the fish is acidic and unpleasant. Don't bother. Maybe this flavour (actually most of them in fact) would work better on a maize-based snack. As a crisp, is painful.

Cajun Squirrel
Slightly meaty, less obnoxious than the others, but doubt it tastes like a squirrel. When in doubt, all meat tastes like chicken. This doesn't really.

Builder's Breakfast
I think this one might actually make it through. They've had Tomato Sauce flavour before, and the builder's breakfast (like one of Willy Wonka's Everlasting Gobstoppers) does actually bring out all manner of flavours in gentle waves. There is bacon, sausage, egg, tomato all drowned in tomato sauce. I wouldn't eat them everyday, but once in a while certainly.

Crispy Duck & Hoison
I'm seeing more and more Asian-food-themed crisps on the market, so this seems obvious. McCoys do a great range which are heavy in flavour on those delicious ridges... Walker's version is fine, not really strong enough with the flavour though. So it ends up being quite like Cajun Squirrel, and Onion Bhaji. With three samey flavours I wonder if any will get through...

So, for my money I wouldn't really bother with any. They're all quite bland, hardly classics and will probably be phased out in a matter of months. What a lot of fuss over nothing.

The crisp can survive reinvention, new flavours, and new formats. In the drive for healthier options, low-calorie, high-flavour crisps, companies are finding exciting new ways to bring our crispy delights. This one, is just a damp squid. And worse, the packets are bigger than normal, so that's a whole heap more calories for not very nice crisps. Tell you what, go eat some fruit...

But, if you want to, don't take my word for it, you can join the Walkers "fun" at www.walkers.co.uk/flavours

[note: started this piece back in February just after the launch. I know the fuss is dying down now, but seemed a shame to waste it. Did anyone else try the new Walkers flavours? Feel free to comment below...]

Competition: Dark Floors on DVD

2009-04-25T14:11:00.002+01:00

Courtesy of Metrodome Entertainment we have three copies of the brand new Region 2 dvd of DARK FLOORS to give away.

DARK FLOORS is a terrifying supernatural horror in the vein of Resident Evil and The Devil's Rejects, written by and starring the infamous hard rock band LORDI.

To win a copy, all you have to do is send an email to darkfloorscomp@avalard.com.

Include your Name, Age, and Postal Address (so we know where to send the dvd if you win).

The competition closes at 5pm (GMT) on 12th May, after which we'll draw three names from a hat.

You can buy DARK FLOORS on dvd in the UK by clicking here.

Watch the trailer below

DARK FLOORS

WRITTEN BY AND FEATURING INFAMOUS EUROVISION WINNING MONSTER HARD ROCK BAND

DVD & Blu Ray Release date: 20^th April 2009
Running time: 81 minutes
DVD RRP: £12.99
Cert: 18

Sarah is an autistic little girl whose father is worried about her health. Concerned for her, the father sees her removal from the hospital by force as the only option. An elevator breakdown prevents a smooth exit and leaves them trapped with a group of others.

Yet the incident is only the beginning of a descent into nightmare. As the doors open the hospital appears mysteriously deserted. When mutilated bodies are found, creatures from a dark world start a frightening attack. It soon becomes clear that the survival of the group may rest solely on the little girl.

In the same vein as ‘The Ruins’, ‘The Devil’s Rejects’ and ‘Resident Evil’, ‘Dark Floors’ is set to be the one of the most terrifyingly bloody monster horror films of our time.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Behind The Scenes of Dark Floors
Cast & Crew Interviews
Dark Floors World Premiere featurette including:
Q&A with Lordi
Cast and Crew and live Lordi performance

Peter Rogers (1914-2009)

2009-04-15T13:42:00.003+01:00

Farewell then Mr. Peter Rogers, the producer who brought us the Carry On movies which helped shape several generation of innuendo loving schoolboys, including myself.

With a career in film and television going right back to the 1940s, it will always be the exploits of the Carry On team that will be remembered. The arrival of Carry On Sergeant in 1958 (a big-screen spin off from sitcom The Army Game) would unexpectedly launch a series which poked fun at cab drivers, spies, teachers and doctors before deviating into parodies of popular classics, genres and eventually itself. Bunched together in many people's eyes with the likes of Benny Hill, Carry On was more than smut. Certainly tapping into a British seaside postcard heritage but providing a rich array of actors, performances and various levels of innuendo.

Its the early films in the series that I find most attractive - the performances are more subtle and of a higher standard. Brilliant comedy performers tackling well-written scripts without having to resort to base humour all the time.

Regardless, I grew up watching them on tv in the 1980s endlessly and must be one of the few people on the planet for whom the 1992 revival Carry On Columbus is actually enjoyable, and I've been fairly open to the possibility of a return to the series with the much delayed Carry On London (production still pending...).

Researching the Hammer Films from the 50s and 60s over the last couple of years the rise and fall of the Carry On films seems to run in parallel to Hammer's horror exploits and perhaps the British film industry generally. Eventually their product just grew out of touch with the mainstream, but Rogers continued to work into his 90s at Pinewood determined to (ehem) carry on!

In ill health for the last while, Rogers died on 14th April 2009 just a short while into his 95th year. Peter Rogers, I thank you. On behalf of the nation, for creating one of the most iconic cinematic brands of the 20th century, for bringing a smile to our faces, and for never giving up.

I dare say, if there's an afterlife Rogers is gathering up the troops once again and getting ready to start afresh... maybe the next one shouldn't be Carry On London, but rather Carry On Haunting?

Book review: Worst Nightmares by Shane Briant (2009)

2009-04-02T11:14:00.001+01:00

Worst Nightmares is being billed by publishers Vanguard as the debut novel by Shane Briant, and promises chills and thrills in a horrifying text which will tap into your darkest psyche.

Briant is the British born, Irish educated ex-pat, actor now eeking a living writing prose in his adopted home of Australia. Many readers of this blog will remember him from a number of appearances for Hammer films in the 1970s, but Briant has an extensive acting cv which continues. His American debut is in fact the latest in a series of novels, but before now he's had little chance to be read outside of Australia. A screenplay for the short film Message to Fallujah resulted in an Oscar nomination a few years ago and produced a fine tense piece of drama which dealt with the complexities of the ongoing war in the Middle East.

Worst Nightmares tells the story of award-winning writer Dermot Nolan, a man with a severe case of writer's block. That is until a tramp thrusts a grotty manuscript into his hands - a diary proporting to tell the innermost secrets of a serial killer. When the author suddenly dies Dermot decides on the unthinkable - to adapt the manuscript as if it was his own.

But there's more to it than that. The manuscript is a lurid narrative describing the activities of the "Dream Healer", a sadistic individual who picks his victims via his website worstnightmares.net, and then throws their fears back on them. Is the Dream Healer real? Dermot's researches take him to his personal ethical and physical limits...

Worst Nightmares is a graphic tale of horror which owes much stylistically to the Saw film franchise, but which also alludes to classic tales of psychopathic killers such as Bloch's Psycho and Harris' Hannibal Lecter. It is not a novel for the light reader nor the squeamish (or maybe it is... those of feint heart should see if they can brave the finale!). The vivid quality of the text is begging for a film adaptation, and I can see it making a spine-chilling mini-series on television. Without much modification this could run and run...

But I'm getting ahead of myself. To the book in hand...

Books about writers are problematic in that to a large extent you sort of have to be a writer to appreciate the problems associated with the creative process. Thankfully Briant builds up his protagonist with a merry band of cohorts which hold the interest and enrich proceedings. The author also seems to be putting a good deal of his own experience into the text, with a writer who comes from Britain, lives in the US and decides to set his own novel in Australia. A gentle nod to Briant's wandering existence which serves to further complicate how we should read the text. Dermot after all is writing a novel called "Worst Nightmares" which is also the title of the book we as an audience are reading. In it he bases everything on the sordid text he finds in a diary manuscript, and refers to a website which seems to come and go online.

I'm not saying he has, but could Briant have in fact taken this very conceit for his own book? And the website worstnightmares.net has been registered for some time, but so far has yet to appear online? Is it mirroring the website in the book, or is it being held back for a marketing drive once the book is about to hit the shelves?!

A worrying thought...

We're introduced to the Dream Healer from the off, and the cutting between past, present, the Healer and Dermot, fact and fiction can be a little disorientating, but serves to present us with a rich multi-layered mystery. We should question everything, and we should ask ourselves the same questions. Is it appropriate that Dermot should steal the text and pass it off as his own work, whether the diary is true or not?

I can see accusations of the novel being formulaic, and certainly it derives some of its style and tone from other films and texts, but this is something fresh and quite unlike anything I've read before. I did find it took me a little while to completely get into it, but once I had I was gripped and couldn't set the book down (which actually, was much the same way I felt reading Dracula for the first time). As the narrative pushes towards its crescendo lies, deceit, obfuscation and overriding sense of karma are piled up. That the horrific murders within seem to have no modus operandi is all the more chilling. Truly any of us could be victims.

Briant's debut novel for the US market (and I hope it gets picked up around the world quickly) is a complex, thrilling, macabre masterpiece of horror. Some great meta-fiction and the conceit about the book within a book within a book should keep the grey cells cranking away. Worst Nightmares has best-seller written all over it, and don't be suprised if you hear more about him in the months and years to come.

***

I'll be posting an interview with the author of Worst Nightmares, Shane Briant, in the next couple of weeks.

***

Worst Nightmares

by Shane Briant

published by Vanguard Press (USA)

May 2009

ISBN 159315514X

$23.95 US · $27.95 CAN

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER FROM OUR US SHOP

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER FROM OUR UK SHOP (free postage)

DVD review: Woman Times Seven (1967)

2009-03-27T11:04:00.007Z

Vittorio de Sica is probably best remembered for having directed The Bicycle Theives and is generally regarded as one of the great directors of Italian neo-realist cinema. Woman Times Seven which is released on dvd this month by Optimum Home Entertainment, takes some of that Italian wit and fuses it with an English-speaking cast.

Woman Times Seven is essentially a vehicle for Shirley MacLaine (The Appartment), as she plays seven different women entangled in strange adultrous love affairs in and around the city of Paris. The supporting cast includes many iconic figures of the 1960s including Peter Sellers, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin and on paper has everything to go for it.

Certainly the location work in Paris is great, and the general aesthetic is that so particular to the era, but as for the stories themselves... Well, for me MacLaine just doesn't do it, she's not really tested enough with the material and is occasionally irritating. I have to single out the segment with Alan Arkin as two suicidal lovers in a shabby hotel room as being particularly grating. Arking reminds me of why he was so unsuited in the title role of Inspector Clouseau and MacLaine is equally loud.

The opening segment with Peter Sellers as the friend of MacLaine's recently deceased husband, trying to lure her away with him is quite nice, but there's not enough of it. Elsewhere MacLaine gets to play an irate wife who discovers her husband's infedility and attempts to get her own back by working the Bois de Boulogne as a prostitute (quite good); a vacuous segment in which she plays a star disgruntled because her "exclusive" dress is being worn by someone else at the opera (terribly tedious); a woman who tries to win back the attention of her novelist husband by making herself more like the women he writes about (sad and fun); a free-spirited translator seduced by two suitors aiming to break her purity (overlong); and finally a woman dallying with the idea of being pursued despite her jealous husband (probably the best segment, with Michael Caine as the mute stalker).

Perhaps if it had been more of a stream-of-conciousness narrative, or was even more screwball (like What's New Pussycat for example) it would be a more memorable film. As an Italian film, it doesn't equal the brilliance of Fellini, and looses much of the national identity by setting it in Paris (this isn't even on a par with Renoir) and giving a largely British cast. Perhaps by trying to be something for everyone it fails.

It is only the coda "Snow" with Michael Caine as the pursuant that has real soul and is perhaps more in keeping with the neo-realism movement as a whole.

Ultimately for me though, a disappointment and for completists only.

About the dvd

Transfer and sound is fine, very vivid colours with only a little damage evident. Presented in anamorphic 16x9. Completely lacking in extras.

Woman Times Seven

released: 16 March 2009

Region 2 dvd, Optimum Home Entertainment

Cert: 12
RRP: £17.79

104 mins

Buy Woman Times Seven on dvd in the UK here.

(US release of the film on dvd available here)

Competition: Manhunt on DVD

2009-03-27T09:00:00.000Z

Courtesy of Metrodome Entertainment we have three copies of the brand new Region 2 dvd of MANHUNT to give away.

Inspired the popular video game, MANHUNT is bloody, violent, dark, gore-infected horror, and unleashed uncut on 30th March.

To win a copy, all you have to do is send an email to manhuntcomp@avalard.com.

Include your Name, Age, and Postal Address (so we know where to send the dvd if you win).

The competition closes at 5pm (GMT) on 18th April, after which we'll draw three names from a hat.

You can buy MANHUNT on dvd in the UK by clicking here.

Watch the trailer below:

If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure for a nasty surprise…

DVD Release date: 30th March 2009
Running time: 80 minutes

DVD RRP: £17.99

Cert: 18 TBC

“Genuinely scary… Lean and mean” – EatMyBrains.com

“Vicious and visceral” – Ain’t It Cool News

One of the most shocking and talked about horror films of the last decade is unleashed in all its bloody, visceral UNCUT glory.

Summer 1974: and four friends have planned a weekend hiking and camping in the remote forests of northern Europe. At an innocuous truck stop they pick up an anxious-looking hitchhiker. Almost instantly, it’s clear that she’s more than simply unnerved. She’s terrified of something…or someone.

Without warning the group is brutally ambushed and when the survivors come too, deep in the secluded forest, miles from civilisation the first thing they hear is the sound of a hunting horn.

Their nightmare is far from over. In fact it has only just begun. The game is on and they realise to their absolute horror that they are the prey…

Film: The Boat that Rocked (2009)

2009-03-26T00:17:00.016Z

The Boat that Rocked is Richard Curtis' directorial follow up to Love Actually (2003) and is quite simply the best work he's produced in years.

Whilst I loved Blackadder and the Mr. Bean television series (the second film of which at least tapped into that slapstick patter which made the character such a success first time around), I've found most of his film work to be overly mawkish and soppy. Hugh Grant's performance aside, I can't really stand Four Weddings and a Funeral or Notting Hill, never mind the abominable Brigid Jone's Diary. But with here, Curtis proves a fine helmsman, writing and directing The Boat that Rocked and steering the ship to shore with ease.

The Boat that Rocked is loosely based around the history of pirate radio stations in the UK, and specifically that of the famous Radio Caroline. Its 1966 and the BBC only broadcasts a couple of hours of rock and pop music a week, despite the fact that its one of the most fertile periods in British popular music. The pirate radio stations take advantage of this to illicitly broadcast rock n roll 24 hours a day.

The teenage Carl (Tom Sturridge) is sent to get some life experience on board his god-father's (Bill Nighy) ship and radio enterprise, after being expelled from school. On board he's introduced to a manic world of radio DJ's including big Dave (Nick Frost), The Count (Philip Seymour Hoffman), mad Angus (Rhys Darby), Simple Simon (Chris O'Dowd) and Gavin (Rhys Ifans). Whilst the nation's youth tunes in to the latest sounds courtesy of the pirates, the government is attempting to bring an abrupt end to proceeding through the taskforce led by Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh)...

There's not a huge amount I can say without giving away key plot elements, but this is a great ensemble piece, with a first class cast featuring most of the Curtis regulars and the up and coming faces of British comedy. It's a delight to see both Chris O'Dowd (who gets served up with a fine scene of real tragedy) and Katherine Parkinson (playing the lesbian chef Felicity) from The IT Crowd and New Zealand's very own Rhys Darby (the erstwhile manager of The Flight of the Conchords) alongside the surprisingly restrained Philip Seymour Hoffman and a first class turn from Nighy.

The women are somewhat wasted it has to be said, this is very much a boy's club film (Felicity, being a lesbian is viewed as one of the guys and not prone to the same rules governing the presence of women on board ship - which is usually only once a month). January Jones' cameo is just that, and the georgeous Gemma Arterton who's star continues to rise is given very little to do beyond eye candy.

Acutely observed stereotypes of 1960s DJ's (Bob is like a cross between "Whispering" Bob Harris and Gerry Garcia) give this a rose-tinted air of nostalgia for those old enough to remember the era first time around. For younger bucks like myself, its the psycadelic way we imagine it probably was.

Curtis peppers proceedings with lots of very positive scenes of people living their lives around the UK listening to Radio Rock at work, at home, in public and secret. A bit like those montages from Love Actually with all the loving couples. A little forced perhaps but it works just fine. Contrasting the atmosphere of fun on board the ship just outside of British waters is Kenneth Branagh's Hitler-esque Minister. Despite playing it so straight, he's hilarious, and praise must be singled out for Francesca Longrigg in a tiny but oh so super couple of scenes as his bewildered wife.

Aside from a great attention to period detail (I'll swear they raided my wardrobe for some of it), the soundtrack is the best I've ever heard. Packed with period rock 'n' roll from both sides of the Atlantic, along with some soul and everything you could ever want. Mind you, any film that opens with a Kinks track is just dandy by me. My only regret is that they won't be releasing the complete soundtrack - but the cd release looks to contain most of the major tracks. One small grumble is the use of The Who track from the 1971 album Who's Next (I think from memory... "Won't Get Fooled Again") in a scene set in January 1967 - there's probably a few other examples which marginally ruin the period feel, but nevermind.

The end could come a good half hour before it does, but the final act is a bold one which unites the group onboard once more and leads into the slightly sentimental but rousing coda. No mention is made of course of the onset of Radio 1 and the transition of the pirates to the state, but clearly rock didn't die.

The Boat that Rocked is a rousing, heart-warming, piece of nostalgia. Brilliantly executed, and undeniably funny.

You'll find it hard not to be dancing in the aisles...

The Boat that Rocked

written and directed by Richard Curtis

129 mins

released in the UK on 1st April 2009

released in New Zealand and Australia on 9th April 2009

released in the USA on 28th August 2009 (sorry guys!)

Buy the Official Soundtrack album in the UK here.

See the official trailer below:

Film: Monsters Vs Aliens (3D) (2009)

2009-03-24T23:37:00.002Z

Monsters Vs Aliens is apparantly Dreamworks' first 3d movie, completely conceived, executed and delivered in the new digital format. With the promise of numerous films in the format this year, its time to get used to it and paying the extra couple of quid for the privilage of a 3d screening, where the technology allows.

After years in the duldrums, several cinemas in Belfast have invested in the digital technology and are taking full advantage of the format. We went to see this yesterday at a preview in the new Odeon in Victoria Square - a perfectly likeable cinema with a pricing structure that strikes me as more like that of the old cinemas back in the 50s. Though frankly, the seating itself is that we've come to expect in the auditoriums of new multiplexes.

The very idea of a 3d movie reminds me of the attempts in exploitation cinema in the 40s and 50s - things like House of Wax or The Creature From The Black Lagoon. How fitting then that they should borrow elements from some of the best loved exploitation films of the past and bring them both up to date and to a much younger/family audience. Monsters Vs Aliens lovingly borrows from the likes of Creature From the Black Lagoon, Attack of the 50ft Woman, Godzilla, The Fly, The Blob as well as Dr. Strangelove and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Thankfully there's more than enough in the storyline to keep audiences entertained whether you're familiar with the originals or not.

Reese Witherspoon lends her vocal talents to Susan, a woman about to marry tv anchor Derek (Paul Rudd) when she gets struck by a meteor which makes her grow to an enormous height and is captured by the US military. Inside the bunker she discovers she's part of a menagerie of monsters which have been gathered over the last 50 years, including a mad scientist (Hugh Laurie), amorphous blob (Seth Rogan), missing link (Will Arnett) and a giant insect. They're kept safely away from the public until the evil alien Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) launches an attack in San Francisco and the war between Monsters and Aliens begins.

Unlike the version of Nightmare Before Christmas I saw in December (see here), this film has been made completely in 3d. There's a couple of typical 3d gimmicks early on, but largely the 3d is used to enhance the effects (some of which are simply stunning) and to give this a level of reality previously unexperienced in cinema. Is this enough? Well, frankly I don't know. If you can only catch this in a 2d screening, you'll still enjoy the animation, the story and the characters (brilliantly observed.... Bob and Dr. Cockroach are firm favourites... I want to see more of their adventures).

But in 3d, well its just better. The technology is now here to give us a real 3d experience, and I only hope that it will transfer in due course to dvd/blu-ray in the same way. Maybe a little more should have been done with the gimmicks, some further nods to the original Creature for example, but overall this is classic Dreamworks, blending childish and adult humour almost seamlessly.

Go see now! (in 3d).

Monsters Vs Aliens is released in 2d and 3d

27th March 2009 (USA)

3rd April 2009 (UK)

For more visit: www.monstersvsaliens.com

Comedy: Horne and Cordon (BBC3, 2009)

2009-03-18T14:03:00.004Z

I've heard many good things about Matt Horne and James Cordon, and from the few episodes of popular sitcom Gavin And Stacey that I've caught, there's plenty of comic ability there. With their first film about to hit UK cinemas, a cheeky Hammer horror tribute Lesbian Vampire Killers, the arrival of their BBC3 sketch show has been quite hotly anticipated.

I decided to catch up on the first episode on BBC's iplayer service this morning.

Unfortunately, despite some good comic timing and ability to play characters the overall reaction is simply that it isn't good enough. There's a good idea in having Spiderman and Superman encounter each other in the changing rooms at a gym, and the take on Ricky Gervais' persona in a scene from Karate Kid 14 is quite apt, but too much depends on an abundance of crude homo-erotic puns, and James Cordon's willingness to strip off every five minutes. This certainly hasn't put them up with legendary comedy double acts like Morecambe and Wise, or the Two Ronnies or even Cannon and Ball, or Hale and Pace. Possibly Horne and Cordon have been given too much creative control over the series - Eric and Ernie were brilliant but much of their material was scripted by others, and was all the better for it. The show needs a good script editor and some distance.

The biggest pleasure for me was the usual spotting of Black Park lake as a filming location... sad I know.

So tepid was the first episode I doubt I'll voluntarily watch any more. It was like seeing Harry Enfield's woeful Sky1 series rather than the much better recent Harry and Paul. Mind you, I'll still drag my ass to the cinema this week to see the vampire flick. From the sound of it, I just don't know why Hammer weren't involved themselves?

Novel: Black Butterfly by Mark Gatiss (2008)

2009-03-16T12:52:00.006Z

Black Butterfly is the third (and presumably last) in the series of stories featuring super-spy Lucifer Box, following on from The Vesuvious Club and The Devil In Amber, created by Mark Gatiss. Over the series Box has played homage to the likes of Sherlock Holmes and James Bond and following a youthful introduction with Box in full fighting form we are presented with a story set many years later with Box on the verge of retirement.

A number of high-profile ministers have gone off the rails in a youthful spirit of abandon before dying. On the eve of his retirement Lucifer Box embarks on one last case to uncover the truth behind these strange activities and to avenge the death of his friend Christopher Miracle. The story moves around the globe as Box becomes embroiled in the strange Black Butterfly. Oh, and he has a son... a strange little boy who has thrown himself totally into the scouting movement...

Black Butterfly doesn't seem to have been as well received by fans as the previous two instalments, with the heavy lashings of James Bond-inspired setups and structure taking much of the blame. And yet I found myself completely engrossed and enjoying the book for those very reasons. Black Butterfly is laced with cynicism and weariness - a man reluctant to age and yet creeping closer to the grave, living on the memories of his own past. It is perhaps a truer vision of Bond by the end of Roger Moore's time - this is the creaking Bond of A View to a Kill rather than that of Live and Let Die. As a piece of commentary and satire it works well.

Setting events in the 1950s also allows for a certain distance where political incorrectness, and bizarre diabolical plans with mind-altering drugs and cackling patomime villians seem completely appropriate. Half the fun is Box's particular Englishness and the conflicts between that and the other cultures. Of course, Box is also openly bi-sexual, which seems incongrous with our vision of the era and gives potential for titilation to all sides of the readership.

Where Black Butterfly does let itself down is the proposterous subplot with the boy scouts - alusions to the Hitler youth may be behind this, but Box is completely blind to their activities and the rather obvious twist despite being one of the best in the business.

With Lucifer Box we are fortunate in that Gatiss has opted to show us snapshots from three distinct eras in the character's life. This was certainly Gatiss plan all along, and gives us a unique perspective we haven't had on other similar characters. Maybe some day Gatiss will pen a fourth volume, truly showing us the great Lucifer Box at the end of his career - for I can't see him retiring without much of a struggle.

Black Butterfly
by Mark Gatiss

published 3 November 2008 by Simon & Schuster (UK).

Buy in the UK here.

Buy in the US here.

Read my interview with Mark Gatiss from 2005 here.

Novel: "The Magic Cottage" by James Herbert (1986)

2009-03-08T19:48:00.002Z

I really can't seem to escape the lure of Herbert's prose - so incredibly easy to read, and captivating the imagination in his world of occult trappings.

The Magic Cottage is slightly unusual in Herbert's oeuvre for its narrative in the first person. A sensible enough choice though as it allows a very individual persepective of a mystifying series of events - giving us perhaps a little bias, but also giving a strange objectivity for the protagonist allows the story to be told without too much hindsight (despite alluding to the severity of what is to come).

Mike is a successful songwriter and musician, coupled up with Midge, a tallented and succesful illustrator, primarily of children's books. Tired of city life Midge spots a listing in the newspaper for a cottage in the country and after viewing they move in. A strange place called Gramarye, whose previous inhabitant had been an old woman with a reputation as some sort of witch in the community who died suddenly, but with strict (and secret) instructions as to the choice of her successors in the cottage.

On arriving, the place is rather run down and they set about getting some builders in to repair the house, but the builders report it needs rather less work than expected. There's an atmosphere about Gramarye which can't be explained, and it takes on a fairy-tale quality with the woodland animals frequent visitors (and very friendly ones too). The only downside is the mysterious too-friendly members of the Synergist cult who live in the big house down the road...

Herbert weaves another entertaining fable, although one which is deceptively pleasant for much of the book. Its warnings and sinsiter air had me expecting a rather different outcome for the majority of the text before the truth clicked (thankfully before it did with the protagonists). Despite the house's magical enhancing qualities Herbert unusually leaves out the graphic sex (which is bound to disappoint some) which he alludes too - but then that would have sounded like bragging told in the first person.

Particularly satisfying is the interaction between Mike and Midge and the Synergists, who appear to have many of the traits of Scientologists (at least from an outsider's point of view). Certainly anxieties about the mysteries of cults, and their seemingly unstoppable ability to "brainwash" are brought to the fore.

Fans of Herbert's earlier work will be pleased to see the return of Rumbo, the lead character from Fluke (1977), reincarnated as a red squirrel.

Hardly the most original or the most gripping of Herbert's texts, with a hocus-pocus finale that struck me as cliched and perhaps even Disney-like, but entertaining nonetheless.

The Magic Cottage

by James Herbert

published 1986 by Hodder and Stoughton.

Buy in the UK here.

Buy in the US here.

Film: The Steel Bayonet (1957)

2009-02-25T23:12:00.005Z

The first of Hammer's war films is this above average effort, which also (according to legend at any rate) features a very young Michael Caine in an uncredited bit-part. I haven't spotted him in it yet, but hardly surprising. He could be one of the many German soldiers, or one of the unlucky Brits early on...

Michael Carreras took the directorial helm for his first feature, and he fares well producing a more solid and engrossing picture than some of his later efforts (Prehistoric Women... cough...). His beloved scope (a Hammerscope picture...) and stark black and white photography give this an oppressive atmosphere. The vastness of the landscape opens up, and the unit of British soldiers fighting to take control of a farmstead as a strategic post within the Tunisian countryside are dwarfed and isolated by its space. The black and white photography and location work lend a feeling of authenticity reminding us of newsreel footage and photo-journalism from the War.

The Steel Bayonet is also one of the most brutal of Hammer's films from the period. It takes its title from the bayonets which the amunition-sparse soldiers must use in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy on the battlefield to avoid drawing unwanted attention through gunfire.

Cast is uniformly strong, including Leo Genn, Kieron Moore, Michael Medwin and the ever-brilliant Michael Ripper. That the film isn't legally available and is seldom shown on television is a crime...

For more about Hammer films visit: www.unofficialhammerfilms.com

A fuller article on Steel Bayonet will appear in my forthcoming book on Hammer

Art: Sim Bodies & Nobodies by Christine Borland (Ormeau Baths Gallery, 2009)

2009-02-25T23:06:00.003Z

Borland is a Turner prize nominess, and according to the leaflet that accompanies the exhibition, here "the artist continues her exploration of medical practice, proposing new relationships with the systems and processes that shape our society and define our lives and deaths."

I'm fairly open minded when it comes to art, but I can't help but feel that if you have to labour on explanations about what you're doing, then it isn't really working. And so I try to approach all exhibitions without prejudice and record my gut feelings and emotional responses rather than listen to the artist and go with whatever is said critically. Let's be honest, if you try, anyone can find justification for a piece of artwork with a little effort, and many worthless pieces have been vindicated in this fashion.

Firstly, I have to comment that Borland's exhibition is the latest to fail to use the space at the OBG properly - too much space and white which reveals (for me at least) the paucity of the collection on show. The exhibit could easily have used half the space and allowed for something else to be shown simultaneously. As much of Borland's material involved plaster casts and duplications, simple addition of more could have achieved something more visually arresting.

The first room features a cast of "The Unknown Girl", a woman allegedly a suicide victim and dragged out of the Seine in the 1880s whose face was cast and used on the resuscitation dummies of the period. We see this in relief and inverted form. Whilst indeed recalling the wax effigies of the past, the head is just that, a replication in plaster of an existing plaster cast. So what?

More interesting is the video installation on this floor which features a mannequin of a baby, with an eerie blue light eminating from its mouth. The camera sweeps into the darkened theatre and closes in on the baby. We hear its mechanical breathing, and watch the rise and fall of its chest. There's something deeply sinister about this, and yet hypnotic. A blurring of the lines between life and artificiality - this respirator-cum-child.

Upstairs the first room, a rather empty white space, features a variety of deformed plaster cast busts in brand new bell jars. Echoes of a mad scientist's laboratory and I can't help but think of Frankenstein. The pile of moulds sitting on a table to one side of the room only entrenched that feeling further. But this seemed slightly gimicky, uniform and without interrogation.

The other room has been painted black, and in the vast space are a selection of prints on light boxes. The images are of the busts, but viewed through water covered glass. Almost as if we are seeing the faces peering through a window on a rainy moon-lit evening and into a darkened room. A chilling and unsettling feeling, the closer you get to the images the more obscured they become. The medical aspect is lost again though, aside from a feeling of being immersed in some variation of freak show. What is Borland saying?

I can only speculate at issues of medical deformaty as spectacle, and the show doesn't push that analogy far enough. Greater spectacle could be produced, and more obvious (and even more subtle) techniques ought to be employed. The engagement I felt with the work was ultimately tinged with disappointment at its superficiality.

Sim Bodies & Nobodies by Christine Borland is at the Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast from 13th February to 25th April 2009.

Visit the Ormeau Baths Gallery
Christine Borland is represented by the Lisson Gallery

Novel: Burial by Neil Cross (2009)

2009-02-24T15:42:00.000Z

I have mixed feelings about Burial. Ultimately it proved to be a compulsive page-turner which I couldn't let down until I reached the thrilling climax, but which also didn't take some elements nearly far enough.

Burial follows Nathan, an underachiever working behind the scenes on a radio show with a leading personality. At a starry party at his boss's mansion he hooks up with paranormal investigator Bob, and sensing the impending end to his relationship with his girlfriend, takes some drugs with Bob and a pretty girl Elsie, who they both have impromptu sex with in the woods. Only she dies.

From that point on Nathan's life changes forever. They conceal the body and all is well until a new housing project starts work in the area. Bob comes back into his life and everything untangles...

The plotline with the party and the framing and downfall of the radio personality seems to resonate with the infamous tribulations of Michael Barrymore. And there's some hints of recent high-profile tragedy such as the Madeline McCann story. Nathan's shifting of his life around and growing relationship with Elsie's sister is captivating and horrifying in equal measure - cruel, sick, twisted and yet none of this is Nathan's fault.

Opening the book on Bob's reappearance before taking us back many years into the past to reveal the extent of their relationship, bringing it up to date with the present and then continuing with the consequences of Bob's manifestation is a fine hook and I can see it working well on television (author Cross is a regular scriptwriter for Spooks). Nathan is fundamentally weak, insecure and incapable of standing up for himself. Happy to settle for whatever comes along. Even more disturbing is his ability to conceal the reasons for his weakness and put himself into a completely inappropriate position. By contrast Bob is strong, but obviously screwed up. A dominant personality and completely distasteful. We never feel comfortable with him, lending uncertainty over events which is needed to maintain the mystery.

Where the whole thing falls is the subplot with Bob and the hauntings. There is a supernatural story here, and a fascinating idea (which I don't want to spoil for readers here) with Bob's interests, but Cross doesn't give it the space or scope that it deserves. In an adaptation for the screen its these downplayed elements which should be brought forward.

Burial
by Neil Cross
published 5 January 2009 by Simon and Schuster (UK).
Buy Burial here.

Comedy: It's David O'Doherty Time (2009)

2009-02-23T20:12:00.001Z

It's David O'Doherty Time Belfast Waterfront, Saturday 14th February 2009

Dublin comedian David O'Doherty took to the stage of the Studio at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast on Valentine's Day to a sold-out crowd. Fitting enough considering O'Doherty won the prestigious If.com award at Edinburgh's Fringe Festival last year - but do people really know about him?

In Ireland, possibly. A low key television series played on RTE a couple of years back, and he seems to be endlessly gigging between here and the Stand in Edinburgh (though he's about to head to Melbourne for the Comedy Festival there). Chat with the average punter on the street and even in Belfast most haven't a clue who he is. Unlike say, Dara O'Briain who packed the main Waterfront Hall in October. Why isn't David playing the bigger room, well simply he hasn't yet got the television exposure. Surely he's ripe for a part in the next Graham Linehan sitcom?

O'Doherty (or "the D.O.D." to his fans) is announced via a ramshackle banner of his initials on the black drapes at the back of the stage, made from silver gaffer tape that will fall apart during the duration of the show. As the lights go down DOD's Dublin accent comes over the microphone and an almighty build up is given in the third person. A slightly surreal start to a very pleasurable two hours in his company. The audience are wrapt by his blend of "very low energy musical whimsy".

The show combines a selection of brilliantly astute and clever lyrical numbers which O'Doherty sings along to a slightly out of era Yamaha keyboard (as the man says, he puts the "Aha in Yamaha!") with a number of observational dialogues. Whilst maybe lacking the flamboyance and strength of a Tim Minchin performance, O'Doherty's easy style and self-mocking air with its rough quality allows him to connect much more with the audience. He's like one of us, but with a modicum of talent...

Despite the moderately large BT Studio setting, O'Doherty gives off a welcoming informal air - like a mate in the pub holding the attention of his friends. An informality and perceived accessibility which had one audience member walk right up to him before nipping out to the toilet. Even O'Doherty himself seemed surprised at the brazen breaking of the stage boundary. And yet he takes this in his stride, and despite improvisations and tangents the essence of the comedy stays true.
Self-defeating his songs and routines bemoan the state of modern relationships as witnessed through text messages, they set to hook up his friends with the hot girl in a neigbouring apartment (shades of Hitchcock's Rear Window), electric toothbrushes, and his yearly round up of pet peeves.
I'd actually caught his show "Let's Comedy" at the Stand Comedy Club in Edinburgh back in August just a couple of weeks before he won the If.com award. That night I spent an hour in hysterics regailed by his finely tuned show. The Belfast show included much of the same material, but at a more leisurely pace which allowed the audience to bond with him. At over two hours, this was a fine showcase for O'Doherty's brand of comedy.
Catch him if you can.

Visit David O'Doherty on the web

Hammer collection for sale

2009-02-22T15:36:00.008Z

Updated: 01/06/09

A deviation from the usual blog as I try and find an effective way to sell some of my film memorabilia...

I'm ridding myself of some surplus Hammer material which I've collected over the years. I need to raise cash fairly quickly to support my PhD research hence the sale!

Some of this is up on ebay at the moment - but I'm open to offers on all of the items and will take down anything which sells privately. If you need more information about any of this stuff or want to make an offer/buy, email me at rjesimpson@gmail.com (or message me through Facebook)

I should have some extra stills and lobby cards too coming up, but they'll need sorting first! (have also got a pile of non-Hammer stuff I can let go too...)

I'll update this list as stuff goes... All offers welcome...

Robert
www.unofficialhammerfilms.com

POSTERS

Man Who Could Cheat Death
US 1 sheet (27x41" approx)
£110 SOLD

To The Devil A Daughter
French Grande (huge 47x63")
£200

Don't Panic Chaps!
UK Quad (30x40")
£250 SOLD

Don't Panic Chaps!
US 1 Sheet
£100

That's Your Funeral
UK 1 sheet
£60 SOLD

The Witches (aka. The Devil's Own)
US 1 sheet

£80

SCRIPTS

Deadly Game (aka. Third Party Risk)
Original Dialogue and Cutting Continuity script for 1954 Hammer Film starring Lloyd Bridges and directed by Daniel Birt.
Released in the US by Lippert Pictures, and copyright to Exclusive Films. Very rare item.
76 pages
£100

Scotland Yard Inspector
Original Cutting Continuity script for 1952 Hammer Film starring Cesar Romero and Louis Maxwell. Directed by Sam Newfiled.
Released in the US by Lippert Pictures. Copyright to Exclusive Films. Very rare item.
130 pages
£160

TIE-IN PAPERBACKS

Moon Zero Two
UK pan novelisation
£10

The Devil Rides Out by Dennis Wheatley
UK tie-in novel
£20

Yesterday's Enemy
UK tie-in novel
£20

Countess Dracula
UK tie-in novel
£20

Spaceways: Mystery Story of the Very Near Future by Charles Eric Maine
UK Pan books edition, 1954.
Based on the radio series subsequently filmed by Hammer, which gets mention on back cover
£30

Four Sided-Triange by William F Temple
Galaxy Science Fiction paperback edition, published in the US.
Cover art features likeness of Barbara Payton. Circa 1953.
£30

Pocket Essentials: Hammer Horror
£5

MAGAZINES
The House of Hammer no 14: John Carrdine interview, Ruby, Dinosaur Movies, George A Romero's Martin, and comic adaptation and cover art featuring One Million Years BC.
£10
House of Horror no 20: The Mummy, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Savage Bees, and comic adaptation and cover art featuring Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter
£15

DVDs

Spaceways (Region 2) £10
Stolen Face (Region 2) £15
Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense (Region 2) - complete series £125
Lust for a Vampire/The Vampire Lovers (Region 2) - £10
Icons of Horror: Hammer Films (Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll, The Gorgon, Scream of Fear, Curse of the Mummy's Tomb) (Region 1) - £15

Film: Sex Drive (2008)

2009-02-09T17:19:00.000Z

I feel like I'm in some sort of sex-comedy limbo right now - not exactly hell, but a seemingly endless succession of teen flicks with one gag apiece. And worse, I'm blogging about each and every one of them! Oh, the shame!

But then, for me there is a very real crisis in our popular culture when the cinema-going audience is subjected to endless nob-gags when there's truly great films with gravitas out there, undiscovered.

Newest on the scene (for us in the UK) is Sex Drive. Another American teen flick about a teenage guy who embarks on a road trip (in his brother's prize car, borrowed without permission) across the state with a couple of friends in order to hook up with an internet girlfriend and loose his virginity. Along the way he discovers the truth about his feelings for the girl back home and gets into all sorts of hijinks with local eccentric characters.

We've seen the plot countless times before, with better ensembles so there's little reason to seek this one out. The speculative ridiculing about sexuality is sure to get on some people's goat, and is borderline offensive - the related twist later on exists simply so homophobic humour can be played out on screen. The Mexican doughnut is bizarre to say the least, and Seth Green's worldly Amish is about the only character that doesn't have to try to get a laugh.

The problem is, its a rehash of various other similar films, and despite a gross-out streak, doesn't really go far enough resulting in something of a damp squid.

The American dvd includes a special unrated edition which does at least offer something a little unusual (and fun) for this kind of film. The film plays out as normal (with a couple of fluffed scenes left to play with the errors - sort of post modern irony I guess), but with a number of superflous naked women superimposed onto the frame and a naked man, allowing for more cocks and breasts on display than usual.

Unless naked flesh is your thing (for which you really need the unrated dvd), then this is just another fairly standard sex comedy. Skip it or wait for the inevitable tv screening.

Sex Drive

UK theatrical release: 9 January 2009

US theatrical release: 17 October 2008

The Cultural Crisis

2009-02-08T20:53:00.000Z

Now that the 999 Challenge is well under way, I thought it was time I made some changes to the blog, changes which will allow me to continue with this beyond the planned 81 entries, and hopefully open it up to a wider audience. I'll be tagging all 999 entries, and there's a countdown menu in the panel to the right for those of you who want to follow those.

With my freelance work, personal blog, the podcast etc. I have more than enough on my plate, but for a while I've been looking for a new way to present my reviews, and this seems like the best place for it.

There'll be some overlap with the podcast, and my horror writing elsewhere, but the reviews here will also include a wider range of cultural activities including theatre, galleries and cinema. I will not be limiting it to British productions or the horror genre, but certain trends will be inevitable. Once in a while I'll also write something more esoteric too.

Please, feel free to use the comment button and let me know if you agree with my pieces, or what you'd like to see featured.

Enjoy.

Ballet: The Sleeping Beauty (Scottish Ballet, 2009)

2009-02-08T20:28:00.001Z

I like to think of myself as fairly open minded when it comes to the arts, and particularly in recent years I've tried to see as much as possible and to engage with work that I might otherwise not.

This weekend I finally popped my ballet cherry.

I've never had any overwhelming desire to go to the ballet. I can't dance at all, and I reckon that has something to do with it. Aside from that, I'm just not sure I get it. And nor judging by the audience in the Grand Opera House in Belfast that I went to see the Scottish Ballet's version of The Sleeping Beauty with, do most men. Scores of young girls (many dressed in ballet dresses and shoes), and women of many ages, with the occasional middle aged fellow sandwiched between. Maybe it is just Belfast - are we too conservative a city, not rich enough perhaps?

I guess I'd prepared myself a few weeks ago with the Channel 4 documentary Strictly Bolshoi, a quite interesting documentary about different attituted to traditional and modern ballet in Russia. Certainly I can see there is something graceful about the whole dance thing, but what would I make of the real thing?

Well, I'm going to keep this short lest someone pick fault with my (admitted) ignorance. The performance itself was (I think) great, lots of movement and I'm amazed how anyone can remember all the subtleties of the 2+ hour performance and perform every night fautlessly. Ballet is decidedly energetic, and I'm bowled over by the physicality of it all. A couple of the musical numbers by Tchaikovsky were familiar which helped. The sets were beautifully crafted, with some clever moving elements, and the costumes delightfully decadent.

However, to be quite honest I really didn't have a clue what was going on most of the time. The Sleeping Beauty bit that I know was dealt with in about 30 minutes of performance on the middle. Either side of that was a series of individual dances, group performances, and some very strange things indeed. I was certainly perplexed by the choice of a cactus needle as the means of poisoning Beauty. Similarly, the evil wood nymphs with their Coneheads made me think I was watching something else completely - and I did my best not to get carried away by the green villain's gown revealling nipples below (nudity with all those kids in the audience! I must do ballet more often...). Several times I found myself saying aloud "I've no idea what's going on!".

My partner told me that she thought the different parts and players were very distinctive, but even she admitted that it was simply far too long - too many dances after the Beauty has woken up again, which don't seem to have any real purpose.

And perhaps ladies and gentlemen, that's just it. The dances serve little purpose other than to be beautiful. To show us how light and enchanting the human body can actually be. And if that is the case, then I can't fault it.

For more information on The Scottish Ballet

For more information on The Grand Opera House, Belfast

Film: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

2009-02-05T21:00:00.000Z

I gather David Fincher's latest film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has spent some 15 years in development. A long time by anyone's imagination, and its been hoiked around Hollywood passing through the hands of various directors and writers. Despite the Oscar-hype building up around it (nominations for just about everybody including the milkman) it is not a perfect picture. There are a few rough edges which rather mar what would otherwise be a fascinating piece of fiction.

Button tells the story of a man who ages in reverse, and his experiences during the middle of the 20th century. From the 30s through to the 1970s for the main, leading to his eventual death. Born as an aging man, as he grows older in years, he gains youth.

A great premise which throws the true human existence into sharp contrast - for there is a mirroring of our abilities and understanding in age and youth. Benjamin's (Brad Pitt) story is played out against that of the young Daisy (Cate Blanchett) who sits in a hospital bed in New Orleans just before Hurricane Katrina hits, dying whilst her estranged daughter reads extracts from Benjamin's diary to her.

Told over some 2 1/2 hours, Fincher allows the narrative to play out at its own pace allowing us to revel in the peculiar position Benjamin is given in life.

Much praise is due for the make up and special effects on Brad Pitt in the film. Starting off as a tiny aged man and gradually taking off the years to his present self is something. Disturbing is watching the regression from Pitt today, to the young actor of ten years ago - it is easy to forget just how much he and we all have changed.

Performances are good, though I found Blanchett's deep Southern accent a little awkward, and was bewildered by the apparant decision to dub it onto the girl playing her younger version.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a great idea, a clever conceit, delivered with style and conviction. On the whole, enjoyable but with a couple of confusing elements. Quite what the political point being made by setting in the onset of the disastrous Hurricane Katrinia was, is beyond me and seems a little excessive. The running gag about the old man who keeps being hit by lightning and one of the closing montages feel a little out of place with the rest of the film - more like an Amelie gag (and the shadow of the Second World War that looms over the picture is perhaps more like A Very Long Engagement). Perhaps some elements of Charlie Kaufman's earlier draft of the screenplay is bleeding through here, but it isn't quite as satisfactory as it could have been if more consistently used.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
directed by David Fincher
released UK: 6 February 2009
released US: 25 December 2008

Novel: What Happens Now by Jeremy Dyson (2006)

2009-01-23T22:51:00.000Z

Despite picking this up when it came out, it has taken me a while to get round to reading Jeremy Dyson's debut novel. Best known as the silent partner in the League of Gentlemen team, Dyson has been building a strong reputation as a quality writer of dark material.

There something about the format and stylistic choices with this novel - the playing about with our perception of time - that reminds me of the underrated 3rd television series of the League or Dyson's co-written BBC drama Funland. A choice which might sit uneasily with some readers, potentially confusing or frustrating, but which makes complete sense in the end.

There's only so much about the plot that I can say without giving away huge elements of the plotline. The blurb on the back of the book suggests that a dark event 20 years in the past of our characters reverberates on the present lives and isn't finished with them yet. That knowledge (which isn't neccessarily obvious from the text whilst reading the story) rather hangs over the narrative and leaves us wondering about the inevitable outcome.

What Happens Now tells the story of young Alistair Black from Leeds who is picked out for stardom and a part in a television series in the early 1980s called Then and Now. On set he befriends Alice Zealand - a girl he falls in love with, and London lad Steve Raw. Together they show Alistair something of the world outside of his bedroom and imagination.

Then and Now is a show which portrays historical stories and events in a Then episode, contrasted against a contemporary Now episode on tv each week. Alistair is recruited with the others to portray the story of an Anne Frank character and her family as they hide beneath a restaurant during the war in a hope to escape the NAZIs.

By alternating chapters in the book between the events of the making of the programme in the 1980s, and Alice' and Alistair's lives today (well, 2001) Dyson allows the book essentially to follow the format of the fictional tv series. The past and its allusions to the war, racism, misunderstanding and isolation is mirrored in the present and it is clear that the past is still being felt. But we aren't sure how - Alistair is on a train in a foreign land and Alice has been on retreat to Israel and is facing up to her ex-boyfriend she ran out on. What happened to send them off on these lonely pilgrimages?

Both stories (then and now) play out simultaneously, and we can't really understand one without the other. The Alice and Alistair of the present are slightly fucked up individuals, with emotional issues, but it is the Alice and Alistair of 20 years previous that are of most interest. Carefully drawn studies of two teenagers growing up. I found myself identifying with aspects of both stories, and elements of both characters and this surely is exactly what a writer hopes to achieve in his audience. Alistair's withdrawal, shyness and relative pureity allows us to see the world through his frightened eyes and to be affected by moments which might otherwise pass us by.

Dyson's debut novel is inventive and speaks of youth with affection and regret. He builds to an almighty finale that should be obvious from the opening but somehow remains hidden behind the complexities of the past.

What Happens Now

by Jeremy Dyson

published 2006 by Abacus.

Buy What Happens Now here.

Film: Role Models (2008)

2009-01-22T18:22:00.000Z

Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott are the employees of the Minotaur energy drinks company, driving round the country promoting the drink as a safe alternative to drugs (despite it turning your pee green). That is until Danny (Rudd) has an overly shitty day, and having been dumped by his lawyer girlfriend (Elizabeth Banks) immediately after he proposes to her, he gets into a fight with school security on one of the talks and is given the alternative of community service or face jail.
When they are enlisted to help with the Sturdy Wings group as mentors to a couple of troubled kids things go from bad to worse. Wheeler's (Scott) kid is a foul-mouthed boob obsessed urchin Ronnie (Bobb'e J Thompson) and Danny with the intraverted teenager Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) who lives his entire life through fantasy role playing....

Ahh, the American sex comedy... where would we be without you?

Role Models is the latest offering in the genre, though quite who its audience is, is hard to place. The kids are 11 and 18 and the adults in their 30s... its a good mix which ultimately shifts it away from being a simple teen sex comedy based around highschool environments. Bobb'e Thompson shines out with his direct delivery, which has a way of taking you by surprise - should a kid have a mouth like that?! He also, frankly gets some of the best lines.

There's some nice messages in the film - not too cheesy, and played well within the context of the screwed up families, absent/unsupportive parents and escapism through role play. Heart-warming but also very very funny, and rather caustic too! Ah, go on...

Film: Valkyrie (2008)

2009-01-19T21:47:00.000Z

Even before filming commenced, Valkyrie was surrounded by controversy thanks to reports that certain bodies in Germany were unhappy with the involvement of Tom Cruise in the project - his very public ties to Scientology rather tainting everything. I rather suspect that many cinemagoers will be unfarely predisposed against Valkyrie for those same reasons.

But frankly, I think you should reconsider....

Valkyrie tells the story of the failed coup of 20 July 1944 in NAZI Germany, headed by Colonel Claus von Stoffenberg (Cruise), a man who believes in Germany, but not Hitler's regime, and who was previously injured in an Allied bomb attack, loosing an eye, an arm and several fingers on his remaining hand...

My World War II history isn't up to scratch evidently, as I hadn't known that an assasination attempt and coup had come so close to topping the NAZI control in 1944. Its a shocking tale of human frailty and the weakness of some and the failings of military campaigns. No doubt there are parallels to the current situation in the UK and the US but I leave them for others to discern and announce.

Unlike, say War of the Worlds, Cruise is allowed to pay a hero in a very real sense, and makes his battles, his raison d'etre is not revenge, and this itself goes beyond expectation of an American telling of the German story. Before the press screening I went to, someone commented that they were taking bets earlier today about whether Cruise would rewrite history and actually kill Hitler at the end of the film. A typical response, but demonstrates that here in Europe at least our perception is that American's can't tell historical stories with any sense of accuracy or respect, but here they do.

There's a strong British contingent in the cast, including luminaries like Bill Nighy, Kenneth Brannagh, Terence Stamp and (adopting a bizarre and misplaced American accent) Eddie Izzard. To single any single performance is difficult, because everyone gives it their utmost. Characters are complex, multi-levelled and engaging.

For a war film, this is suprisingly quiet too. Between the establishing sequence at the opening in which we see the Colonel receive his injuries, and the dramatic conclusion of the coup at the end, there isn't a shot fired and so when they do happen, they ring out with sharp refrain. The conviction from the producers (including Cruise) is felt in the authentic use of World War II planes, authentic German paraphanalia and the honest sound of gunfire (harsher and shriller than that used in most films). Certainly this doesn't glamorise the process or war and politics and should be lauded.

Curiously Hitler is presented as a rather softly spoken, slightly stooped man. Whilst instantly recognisable, he lacks much of the charisma and presence I have always been led to believe the man held. Instead he hides behind his lackies - and the scene where he is introduced to the Colonel is typical of this - they come across like jocks rather than NAZI leaders.

Aside from close attention to production detail, this actually feels more like an old film, without the frentic editing that seems to blight action films today. The camera is allowed to take its time, and the music isn't too intrusive either. Might I suggest that director Bryan Singer is given the rein of the next Bond film...

Not the greatest war film ever, but a commendable turn which doesn't outstay its welcome.

Britcom: The Magnificent Evans (1984)

2009-01-14T12:57:00.000Z

The late Ronnie Barker is never less than watchable, and at his best he is absolutely brilliant. This 1984 BBC sitcom showcases Barker's larger than life personality as the Welsh photographic artist Plantagenet Evans.

Evans is a gregarious dandy, like an over-the-top version of Jon Pertwee's time in Doctor Who - complete with cape, cane, fedora hat and ginger goatee. He even drives around in an old vintage roadster!

He believes himself to be a great artist, and has little time for the imperfections that everyday life and the average person brings his way, whether it be a bride with a big nose or an aspiring academic with a hump. Tact is something he lacks, and he is quick to point out the failings of others and has an uncanny ability to tease out the hidden truth between other's relationships.

Despite these less than perfect traits, Evans is something of a loveable rogue, and this perhaps is the result of the perspective of the narration. Roy Clarke (perhaps best known for penning Open All Hours and the never-ending Last of the Summer Wine) presents the series as scenes from the memoirs of Evan's live-in assistant Rachel (Sharon Morgan). Rachel reads from her personal journal (a touch of those classic romance novels here...) as she works for Evans and battles for his eternal affection. Despite living with him (she has her own appartment!) in sin, and his promises, he refuses to give in and marry her - instead leaving her hanging. He believes its better for business to be seen to be single...

A chunk of the comedy is (typically for the mid-80s) centred on their illicit relationship and the cheeky inappropriateness of it. Each episode showcases Sharon Morgan's black-stocking clad legs as she climbs in and out of Evan's jalopy, whilst he gazes on admiringly. Meanwhile, Rachel's sister and brother in law peer through their net curtains across the street with disapproving eyes and attempt to take her away from the dark side.

The show only lasted one series, so never quite finds the proper stride. Whilst not up amongst his most favored creations, Barker is engaging and plays the Welshman well. Oh, if only life were that simple and we could all just say what we think to potential clients! Though of course, some sense of reality creeps in as his photography obviously doesn't make enough money and he has to do a side in antique dealing and retail of Sweedish wood-burning stoves (which also gives him an air of Arthur Dailey or Del Trotter as opposed to the flamboyant artist Evan's obviously aspires to be).

Buy The Magnificent Evans on dvd here
Buy The Magnificent Evans as part of the Ultimate Ronnie Barker Collection dvd box set here

Novel: "Loser's Town" by Daniel Depp (2009)

2009-01-12T18:20:00.001Z

Daniel Depp's debut novel Loser's Town hits the shelves in March, but I've been reading an advanced copy and indulging in that rare (for me) activity - engagement in a new novel...

Let's get some of the basics out of the way first, Depp is Johnny Depp's brother, and has worked as a producer with him on features. Undoubtedly he has a good working knowledge of the film industry, which serves as a sort of research for the world in which he sets his prose. There's a lot of buzz about Loser's Town in the industry, with publishers falling over themselves for the rights to this book. Now whilst some of that is no doubt to do with the association with the other Depp, the book itself is actually rather good. Now, I'm not an agent and I don't think I could adequately judge the marketplace, so my comments are based purely on my personal experience as a reader. Fair enough?

Loser's Town is the first in a proposed series of novels featuring ex-stuntman David Spandau - a private detective working in LA. According to the publishers he is "a laconic private eye in the best tradition of Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade". Well, I've never read either, so I can't comment.

Spandau finds himself wraped up in a world of gangsters and mafiosa working within the film industry after agreeing to help new star Bobby Dye, an actor with lots of ambition and little sense. Dye is being blackmailed into appearing in a film which will counteract the chance of success created by his latest blockbuster production. With bodies to be accounted for, a drug-running operation to avoid, and an ex-wife on his mind, Spandau has more than his hands full...

One thing's for sure, I wouldn't be surprised if Depp's book gets picked up for film adaptation soon, as its a remarkably cinematic work. There's enough characters and some nicely vivid descriptions to make the whole thing very attractive. The swift move from calm conversation and serenity to rampant sex or gruesome violence works well and is perhaps a more realistic depiction of life.

Opening on a clumsy clean-up following an accidental heroin overdose at Dye's home, I'm tempted to think of scenes in Pulp Fiction or Eyes Wide Shut but this is merely the preamble. We are all aware now, I think, of the deep set levels of corruption and malpractice in Hollywood, and Depp brings these to the fore. Constantly the image of the movies as a place of glamour is shown to be a construct of marketing and the cameras, and the truth is infinately less pleasant. We're left to wonder how much of these comes through Depp's own experiences and whether he is as disenchanted by the whole thing as Spandau seems to be.

Spandau's position as a former stuntman gives him years of experience of the bullshit of the film industry and so allows him to move in and out of encounters without being bowled over by the sparkle and propeganda perpetrated by the studios. He's someone who has been through the system and spat out, and survived. But despite this seemingly impenetrable exterior, Spandau is vulnerable, not least with regards to his ex-wife Dee (now moving on, despite a deep mutual attraction remaining). As this is a series we can only hope that the battle with Dee is expounded on further - for it makes him a three-dimensional character.

Interesting asides come in the form of Potts - the henchman with a brain and a heart. The two facets of his life are displayed like those moments from the Austin Powers films when we cut to the family of the henchman who has just been killed by Powers... And then there's Terry, the Irish hired help. That a great chunk of the novel follows Terry's investigation is actually an asset. Depp gives us characters we can't help but care about, and he allows them their moment to breathe and to step into the spotlight. A diplomatic author indeed.

Loser's Town rattles along at a fair pace, and is near-impossible to put down. It offers enough cliff-hangers and moments of build to bring you back again and again. Whilst for me, it started a little slow, and perhaps a little too predictably, Depp soon finds his voice and his path. Only the rapid (but perhaps apt) conclusion to the story frustrated me.

Depp has promise as a novelist, and Spandau has plenty of life left in him. This is good detective fiction which doesn't depend on the minutae of clues. Like Spandau we have to find our way, and this is more detecting by active experience than remembered deduction.

Loser's Town is published 2 March 2009 by Simon and Schuster in the UK and USA.

Buy Loser's Town in the UK here
Buy Loser's Town in the US here

Sherlock Holmes: Jeremy Brett

2009-01-09T18:18:00.001Z

As part of my 999 Challenge I've promised to tackle 9 different interpretations of Sherlock Holmes. As there are two new Holmes movies in the offing for later this year, I thought it would be a good way to prepare, and so I'll be sure to include a diverse selection and at least one irreverant take on the character. I'm not promising to take on the entire series of Holmes adaptations by any one performer, but single examples of their work.

I grew up with Jeremy Brett's Holmes. It wasn't the first I'd seen, I was aware of both Peter Cushing's Hammer version and the Basil Rathbone versions, but Brett's was the first I followed consistantly, and whilst I would have been very young, probably from the start. Certainly I remember both David Burke and Edward Hardwicke as Doctor Watson, and both have their merits, but Brett's Holmes spoke to me.

At the time I carted around a huge volume containing reprints of all of the short stories, from Chancellor Press (which included the Strand magazine illustrations) in my schoolbag. I'd tick off the stories from the contents page as I read them, and would sit up late in the evening reading them in bed. Over the years I would revisit favourites, and when ITV showed a new story I would read and re-read the Conan Doyle original too. Towards the end of the Granada-produced series I remember being confused by their tale The Last Vampyre which wasn't quite matching up to anything in the books - and despite having heard mention of it, where was the Giant Rat of Sumatra (I know now... but not back then!).

Brett's Holmes for me was the character, and rewatching his performances on dvd and endless re-runs on ITV3 or BBC2, he is still the perfect Sherlock Holmes. Yes, as the actor's health deteriorated so too did his onscreen performance diminish a little, but we watched in pain - as Brett suffered so too did Holmes, and he came alive. Perhaps the thing that sold it most was the references to the Strand illustrations. The adbreaks were bookened by captions which utilised those images by Sidney Paget, but they came close to near identical images in the screen versions themselves. My only regret is that the dvd sets don't include those ad bookends, which break up the narrative and remind us of the imagery.

More so, they were authentic for the most. Some of the stories are remarkably close to the original shorts, which meant that you saw on screen the story you had read and visa versa rather than some attempt to clarify a classic narrative that ought not be tampered with.

I've been dipping in and out of the Brett series again since I bought the Granada series on dvd a year or so back. Beautifully restored I found myself spending hours watching them back to back late into the evening. Ahhh, so much nostalgia, but well-placed.

The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes: The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax

Granada Television, 1990. UK.

starring Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke.

Despite some of my comments previously, this adaptation from 1990 does take some liberty with the original story. Whilst the plot is largely identical, the action is shifted from Switzerland and Germany to England in its entirety. There's also a bleaker more solemn tone to the Granada narrative, and Holmes is shown to be struggling, part of a wider story arch the Casebook television series would handle (the original story was published as part of His Last Bow in 1911).

Granada handles the period costume admirably, and Brett carries a cane and a top hat rather than the deerstalker which lazy shorthand interpretations see fit to give us. For a while it is Hardwicke's Watson that seems to be the star of the piece. However, intercut with the footage of Watson we see Brett's Holmes thinking over the scenario, conducting his research and finally plunging into action.

Whilst some have suggested that Brett was rather too manic as Holmes, I feel he holds it just in check. He allows some extravert eccentricity into the performance I conceed, and he has a physicality which seems beyond Brett's advancing years. But where Brett comes into his own is in the silences. The camera can linger on any scene, and no matter where Brett is in the frame you are drawn to his face and eyes, particularly in the lulls. He shows us a Holmes that is seen to think through the possibilities. Is always alert, and can never really be predicted in terms of his behaviour.

That this particular episode has Holmes come up against something of a mental block, which eats him up and throws his confidence, might throw the audience with a lesser actor. But Brett is uterly convincing and draws us into his world without question. He is Sherlock Holmes.

Buy the complete Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes on dvd here (UK/Europe) (only £36 at time of writing)

Buy the complete Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes on dvd here (US)

Avalard's 999 Challenge countdown
(a quick reminder of my challenge, and the current tally of entries)

1. 9 different interpretations of Sherlock Holmes 1 down, 8 to go
2. 9 instalments of "Avalard's Box of Obfuscation" podcast 0 down, 9 to go
3. 9 novels 2 down, 7 to go
4. 9 Hitchcock films 0 down, 9 to go
5. 9 films at the cinema 3 down, 6 to go
6. 9 Michael Caine films 0 down, 9 to go
7. 9 classic Britcom television series 0 down, 9 to go
8. 9 British horror films 0 down, 9 to go
9. 9 episodes of the Avengers 0 down, 9 to go

total entries so far: 6

When the challenge is through?

2009-01-09T15:59:00.000Z

It occurs to me today, that I should be able to get through some of the categories in the 999 Challenge fairly quickly. With several novels and films down already, I could well be finished by April on those, and most of the others before the start of the summer. So what do I do with this blog then?

Early days perhaps, but I'm thinking of keeping it on as a side project to my podcast (which I really need to record again this week). But what do I call it?

I'm thinking of renaming it sooner rather than later. Avalard's 999 Challenge is all well and good, but limits to this challenge (and I tag the 999 entries anyway). So what do I call it? The blog is the "Box of Obfuscation", but need something here.

Suggestions please?

And please, we'd love others to join us on the 999 Challenge, so please if you fancy joining us on the voyage (9 posts each on 9 different topics - eg, 9 different types of film x 9) then let us know so we can add you to the group. All posts to be complete by December 31st!

Film: Bride Wars (2009)

2009-01-08T22:46:00.001Z

I know what you're thinking, what the hell is Robert doing blogging about some crappy girls film about weddings instead of something culty or horrifying. And you know what, you'd be right. But I promised you reviews for my cinema outings so here goes...

Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway play a couple of lifelong friends who suddenly find themselves engaged with their perfect weddings booked at the same venue on the same day (June wedding at the Plaza in New York). With neither prepared to give, a lifetime of friendship is put to the test and the Bride Wars begin...

So much for the plot.

With a trailer that promises some over the top slapstick and the anticipation of scenarios of best friends fighting with each other, and two perfectly competent actresses one has if not exactly high hopes, a certain degree of optimism for entertainment.

The problem is, the whole thing is twaddle, terribly makish and without any moments of outstanding brilliance. The most perfect moment in the whole movie (and don't waste your money on this one, folks...) is after the inevitable fight as both brides lie on the floor side by side looking at the camera, exhausted after their quarrel, and with dresses lying low in the shoulder. The frame is cut so the couple could be lying in bed together, and this is almost a post-coital moment, reminding us of the scene early on in the film when the girls as teenagers pretend to be bride and groom... Maybe if the whole plot had been about a latent attraction between the couple I'd have given a shit!

I refute my apathy as the result of me being a man. I love weddings as much as the next gal, and I did laugh from time to time with the rest of the audience I went to see it with, but I could count the number of times I did.

Both Hudson and Hathaway have form for light comedy, but they lack real spark against each other. Perhaps the addition of some names amongst the male members of the cast would have helped - strong comic performers who would boost the performances all round, but then that would take away from the stars perhaps (and its worth reminding ourselves that Hudson is one of the producers herself).

There's more potential in the male characters, and with some modifications in the cast this could have been lifted beyond mediocrity. However, this was never going to be a classic. And so, if you get a free ticket or in a few months from now are looking for something inoffensive on dvd, then this might do.

Bride Wars (2009)

directed by Gary Winick

Avalard's 999 Challenge countdown
(a quick reminder of my challenge, and the current tally of entries)

1. 9 different interpretations of Sherlock Holmes
2. 9 instalments of "Avalard's Box of Obfuscation" podcast
3. 9 novels 2 down, 7 to go
4. 9 Hitchcock films
5. 9 films at the cinema 3 down, 6 to go
6. 9 Michael Caine films
7. 9 classic Britcom television series
8. 9 British horror films
9. 9 episodes of the Avengers

Novel: "Moon" by James Herbert (1985)

2009-01-05T18:39:00.000Z

My brother Jonny has always been a prolific reader - much wider probably than myself with an insatiable desire for literature. I guess my indulgences in film and television detract from valuable reading time - that said I'm trying to put that right, and hopefully the 999 Challenge will allow me to be a little more eclectic than previously (there's a good chance I'll surpass the requirements on some areas of the challenge - is that allowed Holger?).

At any rate, I was always aware of his collection of James Herbert novels, and I knew nothing other than he thought that Herbert's The Fog was rather good, and that Herbert's novels were horror stories. At this point I should say to my shame, I've yet to read any Lovecraft, King or Barker either something which I intend to correct.

Anyway, in November 2007 I was one of the guests at Ingrid Pitt's birthday party (which double's up as a fan club bash) at which the guest of honour was none other than James Herbert himself. Having not read any of his books I didn't feel I could speak to him (something which I once had to do with another author, making for a rotten experience), but I was intrigued and figuring our paths may cross again I made a note to try and read at least something of his in the near future. As an aside, Ingrid herself blogged about that event here.

Cut to last summer.

By chance I happened to spot a copy of The Fog in a local discount booksellers (Bargain Books) for 50p, and so quickly devoured it. Whilst visiting Jonny in Edinburgh I picked up The Rats and Fluke in a second hand book store, and from there was hooked. Since then, I've read Lair, Shrine, The Survivor, '48, The Spear and his most recent offering The Secret of Crickley Hall (which I got in a nice limited signed edition to add to my collection of signed books).

And so having had a bit of a break I started into his 1985 novel Moon this week, which unfortunately for me proved every bit as addictive as the last one.

On face value, you pretty much know what you're going to get with any of Herbert's supernatural/horror stories. A male protagonist who uncovers something mysterious (often either directly involving himself or something he finds himself sucked into). At some point there will be an intense sexual encounter with a woman (usually a chapter's worth of description here) and a resolution which reveals some greater truth about the protagonist and a tidying up of most of the loose ends. His men are damaged in some way - suffering often from the pain of a previous relationship, and Moon fills that brief admirably.

Regardless of what happens and how it turns out, there is something deeply satisfying about Herbert's prose. This isn't the pulp of someone like Dan Brown, who gives us very literally the identical plot in each of his books. But rather there is something familiar in the tale, which Herbert expands upon. Despite surface similarities each of the novels is deeply original.

Moon centres on a man who has latent psychic abilities which allow him to connect with the perpetrator of a deeply sadistic series of muders. He is reluctant to become involved with the police again following his experiences three years previously where he was implicated in a similar case. He teaches computers at a private girl's school on the island (Jersey I think...) he moved to after the trauma of the past, and is involved with one of the young teachers there...

The visions themselves are shocking and intense. Vivid and violent and jarring to everyone. As the psychopathic killer connects with the protagonist so the crimes become more directly related and as children become involved we shudder with horror.

Everything builds to a thrilling and deeply supernatural crescendo fusing tales of serial killers and psychopaths with ghosts and spirits and spiritualism.

Not perhaps his most original work, but satisfying enough. Another page turner from Herbert, and one crying out for a decent film adaptation too.

Buy the book in the UK here
Buy the book in the US here

Novel: "The House Without A Key" by Earl Derr Biggers (1925)

2009-01-02T19:24:00.000Z

Okay, I'm being a little cheeky with this one, as the first of my novels in the 999 Challenge was read as part of a three-novel reprint volume. As its also available by itself, I'm counting it...

The House Without A Key was first published as a serial in 1925, released in novel form a little later. Author Earl Derr Biggers had already received a good deal of success with his play Seven Keys to Baldpate (which will always be imortalised for me as the Pete Walker schlocker House of the Long Shadows starring Peter Cushing, Vincent Price, and Christopher Lee). House Without A Key would introduce the world to Honolulu based detective, the erudite Chinese fellow, Charlie Chan.

The old black and white Charlie Chan films were something of a staple of my youth, regularly re-run on British television in the 1980s. Chan was a rotund chap with a thin moustache, an erratic manner of speach and a succession of assistants in the form of his children. It wasn't unusual for my father to refer to me and my brother as "number 1 son" and "number 2 son" a la Chan.

I spotted the Wordsworth edition of the first three Chan novels, A Charlie Chan Omnibus whilst on a trip to London a few months ago in that favourite haunt of mine, Lovejoys on the Charing Cross Road. I've been picking up the Wordsworth reprints of classic mysterious literature whenever I can, and the opportunity to visit this icon from my past was too hard to resist.

There's a notion from some quarters that books like this are actually in some way an endorsement of racial stereotyping, but to reduce to such shorthand is to brush aside a genuinely fascinating body of literature. Chan's success is in spite of the perceptions which are manafest in the novel itself - the white Bostonians, who are visiting Honolulu when the murder at the centre of this novel is committed, are convinced that this Chinese man will not be any good, but like Columbo he plays to people's perceptions as a way of sneaking out the truth.

Chan doesn't appear for the first third of the novel, but from that point on he is increasingly important, showing an awareness of subtle clues which would rival the great Sherlock Holmes. Something about his appearance expanding to become the lead character in future novels finds resonance in the ascent of Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies.

Hawaii at the turn of the centre is exciting and mysterious and deeply attractive. The issues of class and family secrets find echoes in British custom of the same period, and are not unfamiliar today. That this is the first of 6 Chan novels makes it rather important, and it certainly grips. Only in the closing pages as the subplot about a young man's love for just about every pretty young (white) thing he meets reaches its zenith does my attention wane.

The story - John Quincy is a Bostonian who has come to Hawaii to bring his wayward Aunt Minerva back home, only to discover that his cousin Dan has been murdered. Quincy soon finds himself teaming up with top detective Charlie Chan in pursuit of the murderer, whilst at the same time falling in love with Hawaii himself and resolving to move to San Francisco.

Buy The Charlie Chan Omnibus in the UK (containing the first 3 Chan novels) here.
But The House Without A Key in the US here.

Avalard's 999 Challenge countdown
(a quick reminder of my challenge, and the current tally of entries)

1. 9 different interpretations of Sherlock Holmes
2. 9 instalments of "Avalard's Box of Obfuscation" podcast
3. 9 novels 1 down, 8 to go
4. 9 Hitchcock films
5. 9 films at the cinema 2 down, 6 to go
6. 9 Michael Caine films
7. 9 classic Britcom television series
8. 9 British horror films
9. 9 episodes of the Avengers

Film: Twilight (2008)

2009-01-01T21:37:00.001Z

Over the Christmas period the trailer for the new teen vampire flick, Twilight has been seemingly on endless loop during the advert breaks on UK television. I've been developing an aversion to teen horror films over the last couple of years, with them increasingly banal and my own youth swiftly running away from me (not that I'm past it yet, but the gulf of cultural difference between me and the average 19 year old is shocking).

Somewhat begrudgingly I went to see this a couple of nights ago, and with little foreknowledge or expectation waited to see what would happen.

Bella is a typical teen - slightly withdrawn, and displaced thanks to her mother's remarriage and a desire to return to her hometown and to live with her father. All the guys in the little town seem to be attracted to her (I rather unfairly feel compelled to compare the reaction to that of flies round shit), but she is more interested in the mysterious Cullen family of adopted orphans - and in particular that of Edward.

As the trailer which has been running on tv suggests - Edward and his family are vampires, and Bella soon finds herself deeply in love with something decidedly dangerous...

Such is the plot. As for the film itself, casting is fine with the young leads showing a good deal of promise. Only Taylor Lautner as the Native American, Jacob (evidently a werewolf - a plot point which is being kept on low-key until the sequel) with his super-white teeth seems to fail. There's some heavy sexuality almost buried here, but the attempts to breathe new life into the vampire mythology is where this film comes into its own. Rather than a hideous malformed being, we see the vampires as deeply seductive "the ultimate predator" sparkling in the sunlight with their skins like diamonds.

I was less convinced by the rather excessive running at great speed, though some of the shots high in the trees were captivating. The concept of a "vegetarian vampire" is treated fairly seriously here, which does the film wonders and there is an element of real menace to the chase between the Cullens and the vampire tracker, James.

Whilst we've moved on here from the images of Buffy (echoed in Underworld at times), the whole thing is let down by the woeful decision to mimic twilight with a dark filter across every moment of the film's running time. The dark hue takes all life from the image (maybe that's the point - a comment on the vampire's existence and that of life in Arizona), but also all energy from the film bringing me closer to a headache than anything else.

As films go, fine. I can think of worse ways to spend a couple of hours, but certainly not hot on my list of recommendations. Underwhelmed.

The cinema
As an aside - we went to see this one at The Strand cinema in East Belfast - a screen I haven't been to for a number of years, but which now looks to be my local. A delightful picturehouse which dates back to the 1930s and still has something of the art deco design about the exterior. I take some comfort in the fact that they lock the exterior doors when the screening starts (no more kids wandering in from outside), give you a proper old fashioned ticket stub, start the film at the advertised time (rather than sit through 20 mins of adverts) and on the way out it was possible to see the projectors hard at work in the projection boothes - elements of a proper old-fashioned cinema.

Only the charging of a price which didn't match any of the advertised prices for the screenings marred proceedings...

Film: The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (1993 / 2006)

2009-01-01T20:38:00.000Z

Although ultimately he didn't direct it himself, The Nightmare Before Christmas is for me the defining Tim Burton film - fusing his weird visual aesthetic (heavily influenced by German expressionism) and quirky characters, alongside a rich Danny Elfman score and lashings of Universal horror homage. With the stop-frame feature version of Frankenweenie in development, now is as good a time as any to revisit his first animated feature.

I've seen it dozens of times since the first release in 1993, with both the dvd and soundtrack getting a regular airing at home. It was then with some barely restrained excitement that I faced the news that the film was being re-released in 3d last year, though sadly not anywhere near my home in Belfast. Re-released again this year, I planned on making the trip to Dublin before I learned that it would be screening just ten miles away in Lisburn and then, the news that the Omniplex was opening beside the Ice Bowl in Dundonald, just a couple of miles up the road from my new place in the east of the city.

The Dundonald omniplex claims to be Northern Ireland's first digital cinema, and the complex is still very clean and fresh and surpisingly warm (though they do need to get their online ticket system in order quickly). Picking up our 3d glasses we made our way inside...

Unlike traditional 3d methods, this does not use a red and green lensed pair of glasses, but rather a set with lenses of different polarisations. I can't claim to completely comprehend the technological wizardry but its the same system used on those 3d rides in the likes of Universal Studios (I gather that the left eye is the original film, but the right eye sees a special rebuilt version which was projected onto real 3d shapes... I'm confused!).

The Nightmare Before Christmas was filmed as an ordinary stop-frame animation using puppets, and so it comes as a real delight when the various layers of the frame are lifted. It isn't completely effective on every frame or surface, but some real sense of depth comes through with backgrounds and foregrounds lifted, and characters move through the planes convincingly as if the film was intended for the format all along. Thankfully the original made good use of the frame, with characters and scenery playing with depth and almost reaching out to the audience, and in these moments it really comes alive.

Whilst not perfect, it is a great format and brilliant way to revisit an old favourite.

As for the film itself - Jack Skellington is bored of his job as the master of ceremonies in Halloweentown, and when he stumbles upon the exciting new world of Christmastown he attempts to fuse the two traditions with disastrous results....

There's some nice homages to Frankenstein, a rich tapestry of unique characters, some of the most striking visuals ever committed to celluloid, and a number of great catchy songs. From the opening bars of "What's this?" and Jack's child-like fascination with everything from snow to Christmas tree lights, I was sold (and continue to be every time I watch it).

For more see the official website.

You can purchase the original version of the film on dvd -

Buy on dvd in the UK: here
Buy on blu-ray in the UK: here

Buy on dvd in the US here
Buy on blu-ray in the US here

The 999 Challenge

2008-12-18T21:30:00.000Z

Okay, so as my dear friend Holger has instigated the 999 Challenge over at his Hammer and Beyond blog, I thought I'd take up the gauntlet.

I'm running this as a side line for 2009 to my podcast (I'll try and avoid overlap where possible) Avalard's Box of Obfuscation, so it gets a blog all to itself (and I might even turn them into spoken word podcasts too, or is that too cheeky?).

Now, the podcast is basically (if you don't know already) about cult British culture with an emphasis on film and television and a regular horrorcentric thread. So that's quite a broad remit and allows me to indulge in areas of literature and popular culture too.

The idea is to watch/read/visit and review/comment here. I'm not promising great big epic essays, but will do my best! I'll steal a couple of topics from Holger's list, but adding a few variations of my own. As I find my way around the blog I'll add links to the other challengers' blogs so we can all keep an eye on each other. I'm deliberately avoiding including Hammer films as a category of its own - I need a break from them somewhere along the line!

So what will I be chasing up...

1. 9 different interpretations of Sherlock Holmes
2. 9 instalments of "Avalard's Box of Obfuscation" podcast (if I don't add this, I'm worried I might get lazy as the new year starts...)
3. 9 novels (considerably more than I manage most years!)
4. 9 Hitchcock films (need to work my way through the acres of dvds I've got cluttering the office)
5. 9 films at the cinema (I see plenty, but I never write about them!)
6. 9 Michael Caine films
7. 9 classic Britcom television series (only 1 episode of each!)
8. 9 British horror films
9. 9 episodes of the Avengers (at least one from each year of the original 60s run)

I think that's suitably eclectic and more than enough to be getting on with. If the categories don't end up overlapping that's 81 entries! Bloody hell :(