Sigh.
I finished "A Feast for Crows" (to give it it's flawed yet correct title) a few days ago. I'm now waiting for the next time I see one of my two friends who've already read "A Dance With Dragons" so that they can lend it to me. It's agonising.
More agonising than trudging through "Feast" (which in my opinion was way weaker than "A Storm of Swords") only to find out that I have to wait for the next book to catch up on Tyrion's escapades.
In the meantime, I'm settling into some of the True Blood books, as I really enjoy the series. So far they are MUCH lighter (and crapper) than the TV show. But after being immersed in the "Song of Ice and Fire" series for so long, it's actually quite pleasant to read something that requires no brain power to process.
It's like an enema for my mind.
Friday, 4 November 2011
Thursday, 3 November 2011
It pays to be original
"Tucker and Dale vs Evil" is one of the most original films in a long time, and awesome for it. In the same way that "Shaun of the Dead" posed the question: What would normal London layabouts do in the face of a zombie outbreak? Tucker and Dale asks: What if the villainous hillbillies from slasher movies weren't villainous at all.
And so you have the eponymous Tucker and Dale, two likable red necks who have invested in a dilapidated holiday home, which to them looks like a fixer upper but to the "normal" college students who they run into, looks like Satan's playground.
The mistaken identity continues when the skinny chick from 30 Rock (Katrina Bowden) nearly drowns and Dale (Tyler Labine - the chubby one from Reaper) and Tucker (Alan Tudyk - Wash from Firefly and Pirate Steve from Dodgeball) rescue her. Her idiot friends think that the hillbillies have kidnapped her, and try to stage a rescue, but due to a series of accidents all end up deader than Mel Gibson's career. And this, of course, only makes Tucker and Dale look more evil...
It's a lot of fun, and the escalating death scenes of the college kids pan out like a Final Destination that's played for laughs. The cast are great, and it's nice that although the stars are all recognisable, they're all C-List giving the whole thing more credibility. The film works by inverting the traditional horror conventions, whilst keeping some entertaining scares, some over-the-top gore and lots of laughs.
The perfect example that with a strong central conceit and a good cast you can make a decent movie on a low budget.
And so you have the eponymous Tucker and Dale, two likable red necks who have invested in a dilapidated holiday home, which to them looks like a fixer upper but to the "normal" college students who they run into, looks like Satan's playground.
The mistaken identity continues when the skinny chick from 30 Rock (Katrina Bowden) nearly drowns and Dale (Tyler Labine - the chubby one from Reaper) and Tucker (Alan Tudyk - Wash from Firefly and Pirate Steve from Dodgeball) rescue her. Her idiot friends think that the hillbillies have kidnapped her, and try to stage a rescue, but due to a series of accidents all end up deader than Mel Gibson's career. And this, of course, only makes Tucker and Dale look more evil...
It's a lot of fun, and the escalating death scenes of the college kids pan out like a Final Destination that's played for laughs. The cast are great, and it's nice that although the stars are all recognisable, they're all C-List giving the whole thing more credibility. The film works by inverting the traditional horror conventions, whilst keeping some entertaining scares, some over-the-top gore and lots of laughs.
The perfect example that with a strong central conceit and a good cast you can make a decent movie on a low budget.
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
Zombie Cardio
So I'm caught up with Season Two of The Walking Dead (by UK standards anyway), which for the uninitiated amongst you means I'm up to Episode Two.
So far it's been a good start, although Episode Two was much weaker than Episode One. Maybe that's just because Episode One got off to such a kick arse start with the herd of walkers (spoiler alert, sorry), all the way through to the EPIC cliffhanger ending (which I'll purposely not spoil).
The only thing that jarred slightly is the fact that in this season the zombies seem to be a lot faster than last time. Not sure if they've been hitting the cross-trainer or have been warming up on the running machine, but their cardio has improved greatly. Which is a real shame, because one of the things I liked most about the first season was the fact that they had Romero zombies rather than Snyder zombies. Yeah, fast zombies provide a more immediate threat, but I like the idea that zombies are slow, silent and surround you. The terror shouldn't be that you can't outrun them, the terror should come from the fact that they corner you, and then lumber slowly towards you like something out of your nightmare. Either way, the annoyance comes from the fact that the producers have seemingly changed the rules of their universe between seasons. Somewhat inconsistent.
That aside, it's still a wonderfully slow (the pacing not the zombie) and it's great to see a show that takes its time. All in all an incredibly tense spectacle. The character interactions are believable and the scenes where the zombies are attacking have me on the edge of my seat.
In my humble opinion, it's been the second best show on television this year. Because let's face it, nothing will be better than Game of Thrones.
So far it's been a good start, although Episode Two was much weaker than Episode One. Maybe that's just because Episode One got off to such a kick arse start with the herd of walkers (spoiler alert, sorry), all the way through to the EPIC cliffhanger ending (which I'll purposely not spoil).
The only thing that jarred slightly is the fact that in this season the zombies seem to be a lot faster than last time. Not sure if they've been hitting the cross-trainer or have been warming up on the running machine, but their cardio has improved greatly. Which is a real shame, because one of the things I liked most about the first season was the fact that they had Romero zombies rather than Snyder zombies. Yeah, fast zombies provide a more immediate threat, but I like the idea that zombies are slow, silent and surround you. The terror shouldn't be that you can't outrun them, the terror should come from the fact that they corner you, and then lumber slowly towards you like something out of your nightmare. Either way, the annoyance comes from the fact that the producers have seemingly changed the rules of their universe between seasons. Somewhat inconsistent.
That aside, it's still a wonderfully slow (the pacing not the zombie) and it's great to see a show that takes its time. All in all an incredibly tense spectacle. The character interactions are believable and the scenes where the zombies are attacking have me on the edge of my seat.
In my humble opinion, it's been the second best show on television this year. Because let's face it, nothing will be better than Game of Thrones.
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
Benefits with Friends
I really didn't expect to like "Friends with Benefits", primarily because going into it I feared it would follow all the cinematic cliches in the book for Rom-Coms. Then, once it started, I thought that there might be some hope yet...
Justin Timblerlake and Mila Kunis are friends who decide to see if they can have a sexual relationship without it getting in the way of their friendship. Things get complicated, feelings get involved, blah, blah, blah.
The film starts strongly (with Andy Samberg and Emma Stone making neat little cameos dumping Kunis and Timberlake) and for perhaps the first hour, there was lots of laughs and I thought that the film might do something original and defy convention. At one point Kunis is screaming at a Katherine Hiegl poster, berating it for lying to her about true love. And if the whole film had kept that tone, it would definitely have been edgier and may even have been exceptional.
But this is Hollywood, so of course it then needed to fall in line with rom-com conventions. And once that started happening the film got boring, the laughter stopped and I got sorely disappointed.
Good start, poor end.
Justin Timblerlake and Mila Kunis are friends who decide to see if they can have a sexual relationship without it getting in the way of their friendship. Things get complicated, feelings get involved, blah, blah, blah.
The film starts strongly (with Andy Samberg and Emma Stone making neat little cameos dumping Kunis and Timberlake) and for perhaps the first hour, there was lots of laughs and I thought that the film might do something original and defy convention. At one point Kunis is screaming at a Katherine Hiegl poster, berating it for lying to her about true love. And if the whole film had kept that tone, it would definitely have been edgier and may even have been exceptional.
But this is Hollywood, so of course it then needed to fall in line with rom-com conventions. And once that started happening the film got boring, the laughter stopped and I got sorely disappointed.
Good start, poor end.
Monday, 31 October 2011
Bad Horror Movies
So on Saturday, I ended up watching some bad horror movies with some friends. The highlight being "Night of the Demons", starring Shannon Elizabeth and Edward Furlong.
Needless to say it was badly acted, poorly scripted and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Edward Furlong has not aged well since T2 though.
But hey, it's not Hallowe'en without a bad horror movie, right?
Needless to say it was badly acted, poorly scripted and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Edward Furlong has not aged well since T2 though.
But hey, it's not Hallowe'en without a bad horror movie, right?
Sunday, 30 October 2011
Quote of the Week: Redux
This week's "Quote of the Week" came from a conversation with my wife Jane.
Each month, when Jane's girlie magazine arrives (be it Glamour or Red), we play twenty questions with the aim of the game being for me to work out who is on the front cover that month. Normally Jane can only respond with Yes or No answers.
Jane: OK, guess who's on the cover this month
Me: Erm, is she an actress?
Jane: (Long Pause) Barely.
Me: Is it Kristen Stewart?
Jane: Yes.
Each month, when Jane's girlie magazine arrives (be it Glamour or Red), we play twenty questions with the aim of the game being for me to work out who is on the front cover that month. Normally Jane can only respond with Yes or No answers.
Jane: OK, guess who's on the cover this month
Me: Erm, is she an actress?
Jane: (Long Pause) Barely.
Me: Is it Kristen Stewart?
Jane: Yes.
Saturday, 29 October 2011
MI4 Rises...
...in my estimation at least.
Not because it has The Cruiser in it. Not because it features Simon Pegg. Not because they’ve roped in Jeremy “Hawkeye” Renner. But because they’ve announced that they’re going to be showing a prologue for “The Dark Knight Rises” before “MI4”.
Now I’m sure I could watch it online within days of its release without having to fork out for a film that I had only a passing interest in, but that’s not the point. It’s fraking Batman. It needs to be seen on the big screen. Seeing Thor’s hammer at the end of Iron Man 2 wouldn’t have had the same impact if I saw it for the first time on my laptop.
Either way, it’s a good move by the studio to get bums on seats for a film whose success would’ve been questionable. It’s just a shame that I’m more interested in the “extra feature” at the beginning than the film itself. And let’s face it, even if MI4 is amazing, after a scene-setter for the final Nolan Bat-feature, it’s going to look pretty shoddy.
Just saying.
Now I’m sure I could watch it online within days of its release without having to fork out for a film that I had only a passing interest in, but that’s not the point. It’s fraking Batman. It needs to be seen on the big screen. Seeing Thor’s hammer at the end of Iron Man 2 wouldn’t have had the same impact if I saw it for the first time on my laptop.
Either way, it’s a good move by the studio to get bums on seats for a film whose success would’ve been questionable. It’s just a shame that I’m more interested in the “extra feature” at the beginning than the film itself. And let’s face it, even if MI4 is amazing, after a scene-setter for the final Nolan Bat-feature, it’s going to look pretty shoddy.
Just saying.
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