Irascible Ian's Personal Blog

I'm Back!

2011-09-24T18:25:00.000+01:00

Switzerland was pretty much a disaster, although it taught me one important lesson: Go with your own gut instincts and research and don't let agencies and those with vested interests fool you into thinking that you are being 'too negative' unless they're the ones taking on board all the risk!

Suffice to say a cost of living about two to three times that of the UK (£1500/month for a YMCA-like room where hot water wasn't available most of the time - how stupid does one have to be?!) was a shock. The Swiss devaluation of their currency, on top of a pretty miserable work experience and complete lack of any sort of life outside work were the last straw.

I've been back in the UK a couple of weeks now, and already feel rejuvenated and back to 'my old self'.

Last Saturday I got to go to the launch of The Persuaders Blu-ray set, and got to hear an excellent Q&A by Sir Roger Moore, conducted by Barry Norman and got to shake hands and get an autograph from the former Saint/James Bond/Brett Sinclair himself.

Last night I went to see indie-pop rockers Hard-Fi at the Forum in Kentish Town and it was an awesome gig. Anthemic tunes of the sort Oasis were once famous for.

Aside from that I've been ridiculously busy starting up my new company, catching up on all the huge announcements Microsoft made the week before last, and doing daily updates (no, honestly!) to the new fast and fluid Windows 8 -themed blog. If you're a developer in the Microsoft workspace I definitely recommend you check the blog out - I'm very proud of it and have had great feedback on it from the few who've discovered it!

I have an interview for an interesting new contract next Tuesday. So, fingers crossed, things are on the look up for Silverlight developers (the lack of demand for which was the only reason I ever considered Switzerland in the first place - ironic that Credit-Suisse moved contractors off the Silverlight projects when it was clear they had to let people go).

Hopefully, I'll get time to update this personal blog more regularly, now I'm back home.

Stay tuned!

New Blog: A Grumpy Brit in Switzerland

2011-06-05T12:29:00.000+01:00

I've just moved to Zurich in Switzerland to start a six month contract.

I've only been here a week (and haven't started work yet - that happens tomorrow!) but have decided to start a new blog to document my "Swiss adventure".

My first post at the new blog has already been made, and I'll hopefully be updating it at least once a week.

Chart Hyping and The Increasing Power of the Supermarkets

2011-01-24T10:19:00.004Z

In the latest UK Blu-ray Review Podcast I have a bit of a whinge about the fact that Amazon now effectively own the film world, with only the super-markets offering any sort of competition.

Amazon totally dominate online shiny disc sales, they now own the biggest film resource The Internet Movie Database (or imdb as it's better known), and last week added LoveFilm to their acquisitions so that they now pretty much own film rental too.

I have no idea what the Monopolies Commission does these days, but I'd have thought this is just the sort of thing they should be investigating. However, I suspect that they'll be pointing out that there's always HMV (which announced the closure of 60 stores a few weeks ago and had its supplier credit insurance guarantees removed last week) and the supermarkets.

The idea that the supermarkets offer any kind of alternative to 'proper' shiny disc stores is laughable. Each week they take just two of the tens of titles released on Blu-ray each week and decide to stock them and promote them.

When I worked in the record industry for a few short years, I was shocked to find that we actually paid money to get showcased in the New Release racks in HMV. If we didn't cough up we were consigned to the alphabetic racks which most casual buyers never look at.

Worse, if we hoped to be flagged as one of four 'Single of the Week's in Our Price we actually had to delay a release until a slot was available. Yup, these slots weren't chosen - they were sold in advance to the record labels who felt they had most chance of a genuine chart hit if they paid out enough cash to become visible to potential purchasers

I don't know how the supermarkets work, but I'm pretty sure that the two new titles they select each week are not based in any way on merit, or appropriateness for their market, but on how much money the distributors are prepared to pay to be visible. How else to explain a family supermarket like Sainsbury's choosing a torture-porn title from the makers of Saw over a family classic (beautifully transferred to hi-def) like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?

When I launched the podcast I wanted to give a rundown of the best selling Blu-rays each week. The only chart that can make any sort of claim to provide this is the official one from The Official Chart Company. The trouble is it's controlled almost totally by the hyped titles being sold in the supermarkets. I can predict without fail which new entries there will be each week, based solely on checking what two titles Sainsbury's and Tesco's have chosen to stock in any given week.

And that's just wrong!

My local Sainsbury's have their own chart, which doesn't even pretend to reflect any kind of reality. This morning for instance it shows two new entries of The Other Guys and Devil, both straight in at no.1 and no.2. These titles only officially go on sale today, and aren't even out on the shelves of the store displaying this chart yet. So how can they be top of the Sales chart? It's farcical.

I'm wondering if I should just put together my own chart, based on my own reviews. Far too many great Blu-rays are getting completely ignored because the supermarkets won't stock them, Amazon aren't promoting them and those who made them can't afford the back-handers involved in getting greater visibility.

It all reminds me of an old saying from my former record label boss, when I used to complain at the back-handers and the fact we spent a fortune flying our acts in from abroad for free Radio 1 Summer roadshow performances we weren't paid for, when despite having Top 10 hits the BBC STILL refused to add our chart hits to their playlist.

We were in the endlessly farcical situation of having the BBC tell us our records 'are too dance, not enough pop' to be played on Radio 1, while Kiss FM would tell us 'you're too pop, not enough dance' to get on Kiss. Call me cynical, but I'm pretty sure the real reason was that we just couldn't afford to grease the right palms at either of those organisations where decisions were made.

I remember my boss telling me "It's called the music business, Ian. And it's all about the business, and nothing to do with the music.". It seems the movie (and shiny disc) business is no different. Naive of me to think otherwise I guess.

Podcast Feedback

2011-01-17T23:57:00.000Z

When I decided, three weeks ago, to start the New Year with my first podcast - reviewing Blu-rays which are my main non-work activity at the moment, and have been for some time - I don't think I realised how much work I was setting myself up for.

It's not just producing the podcast itself single-handedly that's the problem but the hours of 'behind the scenes' work to set up web pages for the titles reviewed with screencaps, links, trailer etc.

I'd very soon realised that there are a lot of hard-of-hearing people who love watching Blu-rays but seem to be ignored by many of the podcasts, so it was a pretty high priority to get a good web-site up and running, with a downloadable transcript of the podcast for those who couldn't 'listen' but would be more than happy to 'read'.

I seem to have had to survive on 5 hours sleep a night (especially at weekends when the podcast is produced) for the last couple of weeks, but I think it's been worth it. I've been really impressed with the speed with which everything seems to have taken off. Those advice pages saying "Just start and practice and improve. Don't wait until everything's perfect" are bang on the button I think.

Despite many horror stories on their podcast fortunes ("Apple just don't care") iTunes actually took the podcast on board after just one week, and although it's annoying that the image to represent the podcast is still missing from the official iTunes page for the podcast even though it was correctly submitted and displayed in a preview test, everything else has gone very smoothly. Within a few hours of being approved my podcast was the first to show up in a search in the podcasts area for 'Blu-ray'. Nice!

LibSyn have turned out to be the perfect podcast hosting partner, after my awful start with a UK company who seemed incapable of doing anything that worked, not even having a 'Contact Us' process that worked. As part of their deal they even provide an iPhone/iPad application for downloading podcasts on those devices via a fun customised app. That will take a few more weeks to appear (Apple's App Store approval process is notoriously slow) but it's good to know it will be there.

But in the meantime the biggest surprise has been the feedback on the podcast that's appeared on my iTunes page (below). All five star reviews so far. I'm sure there will be some lower ones as more people discover the podcast, but being told you're better than the BBC's Kermode and Mayo podcast (which I download religiously every week) is one hell of a nice compliment

In case you haven't heard the podcast yet, or seen the associated web pages, check out the UK Blu Ray Review podcast blog for all the links, an in-page MP3 player for the podcast and the latest news.

Podcast Woes Solved (fingers crossed)

2011-01-09T21:30:00.000Z

Having moved to a new podcast hosting provider (the excellent LibSyn) I'm happy to report my podcasting woes appear to be over, although it's been a ridiculously crazy week getting everything sorted.

I'm not on iTunes yet (that takes time and a few more episodes) but with LibSyn's help I've managed to get an in-page MP3 player for the UK Blu-Ray Review podcast blog up and working with the podcast (the trick is to use a WordPress plug-in which can be hacked to work with Blogger :-))

I've also managed to get the podcast on the FeedDemon feed reader so that you can subscribe to the podcast with an RSS reader. Even better if you subscribe using the blog RSS feed you get the MP3 of the podcast associated with that blog entry in the feed as well.

None of this stuff is very well documented, although LibSyn have a couple of tutorials that give you clues as to how to get started, so I'm feeling very proud of myself, if totally knackered having averaged about 5 hours sleep a night for the last week.

Of course that's the easy stuff. I now need to find a way of improving my presentation and audio editing skills. I'm hoping that will improve with more time and more experience. Fingers crossed!

I've also been working hard on accompanying web pages to go with each Blu-Ray that gets reviewed, that include hi-res ScreenCaps, the title's Trailer and a transcript of the review from the podcast.

I'm very happy with the results, but am now ready for a week's break. Alas, it's going to be a tough week in 'the real job' and the commute just seems to get worse instead of better.

Only 7 more days until the next podcast becomes due.

Help! What have I set myself up for?!

New Year, New Broom, Same Old Technology Issues (Ian launches a new podcast)

2011-01-03T00:04:00.002Z

I've used the new year to do some tidying up of various blogs and Twitter accounts. ShinyDiscs.com is gone, and its associated Twitter account renamed to UKBluRayReview.

I also used the New Year break to finally get a long-planned weekly audio podcast launched, mainly because of my old boss John Mitchell who's recently discovered podcasts and loves them, but like me has struggled to find good film review or shiny disc review podcasts. You know there's something wrong when podcasts are 90 minutes in length and that's just for one film. Downloading them invariably reveals that the so-called film review podcast is actually two flat mates arguing for most of the podcast about what they just had for dinner, or who messed up at the last social event they attended!

As with my ill-fated video podcast experiments, struggling with the technology has been a nightmare. I won't bore you with the details of how difficult it is to get sound clips extracted from Blu-Rays to help illustrate reviews, when each Blu-Ray seems to have developed a different method for hiding away the audio you need to grab and convert to a podcast friendly MP3 format.

But that was as nothing compared to the frustration in spending a couple of days rushing to get the first podcast ready in a timely fashion only to find that your chosen podcast hosting company are absolute crap.

You can find out more about the specifics if you click on the image above advertising the new podcast. I'm hoping to have a proper podcasting provision service working by the time the next podcast is ready (next Sunday) but in the meantime if you're patient and don't mind a slow download you can click the image above and then click on the Temporary download link on the podcast home page to get hold of my first attempt at podcasting.

There are problems with this first episode. The review of Scott Pilgrim vs The World is too long, the volume level for my intro is a bit too low, and the Top 10 sales countdown could do with being a bit shorter. But those are things that will be easy to fix with time as I get more experience. If you download the podcast and give it a listen let me know what you think. What don't you like? What DO you like? And what suggestions have you got for improving the podcast (apart from finding somebody with a more podcast-friendly voice?!)

Movie Meme #3: The Sixth Sense (1999)

2010-09-20T20:47:00.004+01:00

About the Movie Meme

The Sixth Sense is the third entry in my movie meme for 'films I can happily watch over and over again', and which I'm revealing one film a day over the period of a month. You can find photographic 'clues' to all 31 of the films I've selected in my introductory post about the meme here

The Film

Child psychologist Malcolm Crow (Bruce Willis) is celebrating an award for his work when an unhappy, and clearly disturbed, ex-patient he wasn't able to help breaks into his home and shoots him before committing suicide. A few months later, the disillusioned psychologist agrees to take on a child, Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), who has similar problems to the ex-patient he wasn't able to save. But Crow struggles to help the child, and finds the case dominating his life to the extent that his previously happy marriage now seems threatened. Can he help the boy who is convinced he is being haunted by dead people, and succeed with this patient where he failed with his previous one?

At the time of release the film was widely praised for being that rare thing - a 'horror film' that women were happy to see. So happy that many were going to see it a second time, mainly to revisit the film after its surprising (to most) twist had been revealed right at the end of the film. Much as had happened with Hitchcock's Psycho, the film's director begged reviewers not to reveal the 'surprise' twist, and most thankfully complied.

The film has received mixed reviews once its initial flourish of success was over. Some are now pooh-poohing the film claiming it is 'totally reliant' on its twist ending for effect, and if you take that away there's not much left. I strongly beg to differ. I suspect more of the recent negativity towards the film is revision of history based on the 'law of diminishing returns' that has become evident with M. Night Shyamalan's subsequent films to this, which was his debut. With each successive release, just when you think the director couldn't possibly release a worse film, he proves you wrong, whether we're talking Signs, Lady In the Water, The Happening or The Last Airbender. It's hard to watch any of those films and make the connection with this far superior piece of work.

Background to Why It's On My Meme List

I saw this film on its first theatrical release, encouraged by the enthusiastic press reviews and explanations that one should see it quickly before someone spoilt it for me (I wish I'd done the same for The Others and Shutter Island - both excellent films, ruined by knowing the twist ending before seeing the film). I came out the theatre feeling annoyed with myself for having been so stupid as falling for the set-up that leads you down a blind alley at the start of the film - a scene that seemed so fake, I'd actually issued an 'Oh come on!' out loud at the cinema just after the first caption indicating time had passed appeared. Others have guessed the 'twist' based simply on the much-repeated trailer that features Joel Osment's troubled character finally breaking down and confessing to his psychologist 'I see dead people', but if the twist were the only thing that made the film, as some have suggested, it wouldn't stand up to repeated viewings the way it does.

For me the twist isn't the main thing about the picture (and, to be honest, I think the much earlier Jacob's Ladder does a much more shocking twist with the same basic idea), it's the simple, clear and consistent story telling that make the film work. The needed horror touches are all there, and add chills down the spine no matter how often I view the film, but essentially this is a love story which, presumably, is why women flocked to see it again and again on its theatrical outing. It's a love story between a psychologist and his patient, between a terrified child and his even more terrifed mother, and between a man and his wife who realise their marriage is going wrong but can't seem to quite put their fingers on why. It's a film that needs a large box of Kleenex by your side because if you're not blubbing like a baby at several key points in the film, well you have a heart made of stone.

The main story is a fairly simple one, but in a world where screenwriters are usually writing their scripts on set as actors are waiting for the latest franchise to be filmed, it's one that has been polished to perfection. The central conceit may require something of a leap of faith ('How could the central character not have known over all that time?') but once you buy into that conceit the rules are strictly adhered to. Shyamalan builds up intriguing sub-plots that all carry the main story through to a conclusion that on first viewing totally shocks you, but on subsequent viewings reveals itself as the only possible outcome. It's never dull and even though I've seen it many times, if it suddenly show up on TV and I have other things to do I invariably find myself watching the end credits where I'd just expected to 'watch a minute or two to remind myself of what it was like'.

The direction is classy, without being too showy, and M Night Shayamalan shows remarkable restraint with his first feature film. There's really nothing surplus to requirements or any weak scenes that add padding to the script. Some may regard his choice of colour palette and use of the colour red to subliminally warn the audience that something is amiss as erring to the pretentious, but it works and isn't over-used to the point of distraction, the way it has been in other films. Even his own, now obligatory, cameo serves a useful purpose and moves the story forward.

Acting wise, everything is pitch perfect - in stark contrast to Shyamalan's later films. Newcomer Haley Joel Osment is simply astonishing in the title role. Off-screen in the 'Making of' he comes across as a scary, precocious American 'adult trapped in a child's body', but in the film he comes across as an astonishingly vulnerable and emotional 10 year-old. It's not hard to see why his performance, like that of Toni Collette as his mother, was oscar-nominated. The relationship between mother and son, one terrified out of his wits but not wanting to scare his single mother, the other upset at how ill her son appears to be, and fighting hard against all the experts who think she is exaggerating, is core to the sympathy one feels for these characters and the commitment we make to them on their journey.

But it's perhaps Bruce Willis' performance that is the most surprising. Leaving his cliched 'dumb action hero' persona behind him, Willis plays vulnerable and sympathetic - and it actually works! It would have been easy to overplay the role, and lose the audience in the process, but Willis judges wisely and his performance is never overly-sentimental, nor wooden. It's a shame we don't get to see him play more roles like this.

The (still) high rating on Internet Movie Database for The Sixth Sense shows I am not alone in finding this film better than its 'one trick pony' detractors would imply. I suspect that the reason M. Night Shyamalan's subsequent films have still done relatively good box office (despite the universally terrible reviews from both critics and the public) is because even with all the evidence to the contrary fans hope to see a spark of the greatness the director showed in this film, but then seemed to completely lose on his subsequent efforts. It's an astonishing debut, and an astonishing piece of work in both the writing, acting and directing stakes. It's just a shame that none of those responsible for this success seem to have gone on to do anything anywhere near as good subsequently.

Shiny Disc Release

The Blu-Ray transfer of the film is good, but not stunning. On the plus side, there is very little grain or digital noise, and no evidence of print damage. On the negative side the the picture is surprisingly soft most of the time. There is no director commentary track, which is probably a mixed blessing given the writer/director's penchant for self-aggrandisement, and the featurettes, which typically run at 40 minutes a piece are supplied in standard definition rather than High Definition. Director boasting aside, the 'Making of' feature does give some real insight into the actors' interpretations, particularly the short but remarkable performance from Donnie Wahlberg (brother of the much more famous, but seemingly less talented Mark Wahlberg), and an interesting argument between Bruce Willis and M Night Shyamalan about how laid back his performance had just been.

Movie Meme #2: A Single Man (2009)

2010-09-18T23:36:00.002+01:00

About the Movie Meme

A Single Man is the second entry in my movie meme for 'films I can happily watch over and over again', and which I'm be revealing one film a day over the period of a month. You can find photographic 'clues' to all 31 of the films I've selected in my introductory post about the meme here

The Film

Adapted from a novel by Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man is, to quote the blurb from the back of the British Blu-Ray release, "a romantic tale of love interrupted, the isolation that is an inherent part of the human condition, and ultimately, the importance of the seemingly smaller moments in life. Set in Los Angeles in 1962, at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, [the film] tells the story of a British college professor who dwells on the past and cannot see his future. We follow him through a single day, where a series of events and encounters, ultimately leads him to decide if there is a meaning to life after the death of his long time partner, Jim."

Background to Why It's On My Meme List

When I saw the online trailer for this film (a different one from that included on the UK Blu-Ray release) I was blown away by the sheer poetry of the imagery. I don't think I've ever seen such a stunningly beautiful piece of work - a sort of movie version of one of those coffee-table books that are full of stunning photographs. A couple of friends warned that the film was 'slow, boring and pretentious' but having missed the film on its theatrical run, I couldn't wait to see it on shiny disc. Happily, I was not disappointed, and despite the fact it's been on sale for barely four months I've already seen it more times than I watch most films in a decade. Each viewing shows new subtleties, and there is no doubt in my mind that this is a film I'll still happily be rewatching in a decade's time.

A surrealistic opening scene shows us the scene of a car crash, and it becomes clear that we are witnessing George's dream interpretation of the moments just after his partner Jim was killed in a car crash. From this moment on we move forward through 24 hours of George's day, starting with his awakening to find a large black stain on the bed where his partner should be - a metaphor for the dark stain on his life caused by his partner's absence. As George dabs his finger in the messy black ink and scratches his lip, we're being set up for the rest of the film with the message that Jim's car crash has been 'the kiss of death' for George.

Flashbacks throughout the running time of the film show us how the two lovers met, hinting at their happiness together, but we start with the day George learnt of his partner's death in a cold, emotionless phone call from a relative of Jim's (Mad Men's Don Draper in the form of actor John Hamm no less) who makes it clear George will not be welcome at his partner's funeral.

I have to confess I've never been a huge fan of Colin Firth, finding him bland and rather charisma-free in most roles, even that of Mr Darcey in the BBC's award-winning TV mini-series Pride and Prejudice which made him a household name. However his oscar nomination for this film is totally deserved, and would be if just for the scene where he takes the phone call bearing him bad news. It is an amazingly subtle piece of acting, showing the simmering anger, upset and disbelief raging beneath the polite exterior of a college professor who's been taught that appearance is everything. The phrase 'career best' is over-used, but surely applies here. Firth is in practically every scene in the film, and there isn't a duff line or move in any one of them.

What's astonishing about the film though is the quality of the acting from even the most minor supporting cast member. I've long been a fan of Julianne Moore, but she's been over-exposed playing pretty much the same role (herself) in recent outings, so her performance here as a 60's fashion icon and George's best friend who's still in love with him, complete with an impeccable British accent, is a pleasant reminder of how good she can be when given a role to get her teeth into.

Matthew Goode can also be hit and miss, but as George's lover Jim, he too is note perfect in a performance that shows why George was so happy, and feels that now Jim has gone he has nothing to live for. Nicholas Hault, best known for his work in the excellent ITV youth drama Skins, also delivers in a tough role where we're never quite sure of his motives, and which requires him to deliver a convincing American accent (he succeeds!)

Even the relatively minor role of a Spanish hustler who bumps into George and has a short conversation with him at a liquor store is beautifully paced and played. Everything about every little bit part smacks of attention to detail and perfection. The Times called the film " a thing of heart-stopping beauty" and I find it very hard to disagree.

The beauty of the film is undoubtedly down to the perfectionism of its first-time director and co-screenwriter, Tom Ford. Every scene is perfectly paced, with subtle visual clues to show us George's state of mind and indicate where his character is heading. The use of desaturated colour to show George's general depression, bursting into over-saturated color whenever he remembers why life is worth living is just one of the visual tics the director uses to underscore the narrative thrust of the film. As one would expect from a former fashion guru, the director's taste is impeccable, and his choice of popular (but not too popular!) music from the 1960's, coupled with one of the most haunting scores I've heard, from original composer Abel Korzeniowski, are the icing on the cake of a film that is pretty much perfect in every way.

Those friends who found the film 'slow, boring and pretentious' have completely missed the point in my opinion. One hears a lot of complaints about the 'brain dead' blockbuster garbage that Hollywood is producing these days, and how it means the death of cinema. When films this perfect - so perfect I really can't find a single flaw in it - are still being made, I don't think we have too much to worry about. The Oscars may have snubbed it when it came to dishing out the actual statuettes, but for once BAFTA got it right. I can't wait to see what Tom Ford does next!

Shiny Disc Release

The UK Blu-Ray transfer of the film (which is region locked :-( ) is stunning, reproducing the different digital effects perfectly. There's a lot of grain and noise in parts of this film, but that's deliberate. The Blu-Ray was issued with a 16-page full-colour booklet and a slipcase, despite the fact it retailed at a lower price than is usual for a very recent title like this. There's a very short Making of and a trailer, but the standout extra is a commentary from the co-screenwriter and director Tom Ford. He explains the reasons for his decisions throughout the film, highlighting all kinds of subtleties that you may miss on just a couple of viewings.

Movie Meme #1: The 400 Blows (1959)

2010-09-18T16:33:00.002+01:00

About the Movie Meme

Les Quatre Cents Coups, to give the film its original French title, is the first entry in my movie meme for 'films I can happily watch over and over again', and which I'll be revealing one film at a time over the next 31 days. You can find photographic 'clues' to all 31 of the films I've selected in my introductory post about the meme here

The Film

The 400 Blows takes its name from the French expression meaning "To sow wild oats" or "to raise hell". A semi-autobiographical film, made in black and white to save costs, by famed New Wave film director Francois Truffaut 400 Blows is an astonishing free-form account of young adolescent Antoine Doinel's experiences as circumstances conspire against him, told very much from the boy's point of view. The film follows Antoine as, neglected by his parents, he plays truant from school, sneaks into movies and to the funfair, steals a typewriter and then, with disasterous results, tries to return it.

Background to Why It's On My Meme List

I first saw this film, like several others on this meme list, when I was in my late teens. I guess that's probably the most impressionable period for most movie fanatics. I saw it on late-night Friday/Sunday night TV, rather than at the Southampton cinema that I used to attend most Sunday afternoons, having become obsessed with cinema after being given a Super-8 camera for my birthday. Like the other films on this list which I saw for the first time around the same period, I caught it more by accident than design, intrigued by a rave review in The Radio Times I read just before intending to head for bed, and found myself incredibly moved by it.

On paper it sounded like the sort of pretentious French nonsense ('Is there not a proper story?') I would usually avoid but I was gripped from the start, despite the 'loose', apparently largely improvised, dialogue and the obvious disadvantages of a foreign language film that was transmitted in black and white with sub-titles. Thanks to the advent of DVD and then Blu-Ray I've rewatched the film many times, and it still moves me as much on subsequent viewings as it did on the first.

A large part of the reason the film has the reputation and longevity it has is due to the incredible performance from the lead actor, a very young Jean- Pierre Léaud. As Antoine Doinel, Léaud gives a performance that is significantly enhanced by the free-form 'natural' New Wave filming style which favoured location work over studio sets. Unlike many of the other films on my meme 'comfort' list this film is widely acknowledged as a true movie classic, and was key to the success of the originel French 'La Nouvelle Vague' (New Wave) film-making movement.

More than 30 years (and multiple viewings) after first seeing it Leaud's performance still astounds. It's the actor's completely natural performance, combined with stunning writing and directorial work, that mean the film is the first choice on my list.

For a simple example of what I mean by 'natural performance', take the relatively simple scene mid-way through the film where Antoine's mother shows her first and only act of kindness towards the boy she never wanted and is incapable of loving, as she tucks him up in bed one evening. There is nothing at all in the dialogue to indicate her treatment of the boy is in any way fake. The idea that she is being manipulative to keep Antoine quiet about the infidelity he has witnessed whilst playing truant from school is ALL in Léaud's eyes and facial performance.

What's really astonishing is to discover, many viewings later, that the actor's dialogue, like everyone else's, was entirely dubbed in post-production because the film-makers couldn't afford the higher costs of filming sound on location.

I challenge anybody not to be moved by the young actor's tearful but under-stated reaction when he is pushed into a police van to be sent away to a remand school, or by that final, crushing freeze-frame shot at the end of the film as Antoine realises that although he has achieved his dream of reaching the sea he has no idea where to go or what to do next. There is no Hollywood treacly sentimentality here, and the film is all the more moving for it.

Truffaut's real-life story is apparently much bleaker than portrayed here, in a film which is surprisingly upbeat, given the sadness of the central storyline. It's not hard to guess why the film's co-writer/director decided to change the story to reflect the more optimistic, 'young scallywag' real-life personality of its lead actor. In a 'life imitating art' scenario Léaud apparently played truant from school to attend the auditions in Paris, when he saw them advertised in a local paper.

Despite Truffaut's initial impressions that the boy was better looking and less skinny than he'd envisaged for a part intended to tell his own life story, the director quickly recognised that Léaud really was the embodiment of the spirit of the central character he'd based his script on. His decision to adjust the tone of the film and the personality of its central character so that the film became a true collaboration between the director/writer and the young actor who, astonishingly, had never made a film or even acted before, was clearly the right one.

Whilst the conclusion of the film, and its overall tale of a child let down by every adult he encounters, is a sad one the film has many joyous moments and celebrations of youth: the pranks at school, the 'Pied Piper in reverse' scenes with the P.E. teacher, a trip to the fun fair and a puppet show, as well as the genuine loyalty of the schoolfriend from a much wealthier middle-class family who comes to be the Leaud character's only real friend are all highlight moments, enhanced by an excellent music score from composer Jean Constantin. That these moments are all achieved without even a hint of false sentimentality is no mean achievement.

The film is technically a real tour-de-force too, with some wonderful framing in its unusual (at the time) cinemascope format, as well as some very clever, genuinely innovative directorial tricks, which include clever whip-pans, the staccato 'TV style bad-edit' of the scenes showing the character's interview with a psychologist that so shocked critics when the film was originally released, and that crushing, final scene where Leaud's character achieves his previously stated wish of making it to the sea, only to then realise he has no idea where to go next. This final moment, captured so perfectly in a sudden, abrupt freeze-frame followed by an optical zoom, is one that would be copied by many other film-makers in the years after the film first debuted (perhaps most notably at the end of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). The ending is as powerful today, as it was audacious when originally released.

Truffaut and Leaud went on to make several more films that explored what happened to the Doinel character, but none were as perfect as this astonishing first film. More than 50 years after its original release, and after multiple viewings, it still astonishes and reveals new subtleties on each re-viewing. It is a quite astonishing piece of work from both lead actor and director, and one I never tire of re-visiting.

Shiny Disc Release

You can buy the film on UK DVD for a bargain £6.99 online, but if you want an HD version you'll need to pay around £21 for the US import Blu-Ray from Criterion (as well as a region-free Blu-Ray player to play it on as it's locked to Region A). In truth the film doesn't really shine in High Definition owing to the quality of the source material, but what you do get on the US import is a superb English-language commentary, packed full of research and interview quotes in the English language, as well as the French language commentary 'interview' that is the only real extra on the UK release. Despite having seen the film many times over the last 30+ years, the Blu-Ray commentary track revealed new insights and depths to the film which I hadn't picked up on before, even after multiple viewings. So, even at the premium import price (which includes all import duties if ordered from MovieTyme the Blu-Ray is my recommended version!

Movie Meme: Films I Can Happily Watch Over and Over Again!

2010-09-11T18:02:00.004+01:00

OK, so it's been a while since I last updated my personal blog, but now I've got no excuse because I've been tagged by Brian Sibley to take part in a Film Fun Meme. The whole thing was kicked off, so far as I can tell, by Good Dog.

The basic idea is that you post the films you can happily watch multiple times. The rules are as follows:

Provide a non-exhaustive list of films you’ll happily watch again and again. [Note you don't have to match my 31, which I artificially chose to fill a month's full of daily blogging!]

There is no rule 2

Reprint the rules.

Tag three others and ask them to do the same.

I'm going to break Rule 4 because it seems unfair to saddle others with work (but if you're reading this Steve Langton I shall be disappointed if you don't take up the challenge!)

The meme has got me thinking hard about what my 'comfort' films are vs the ones I really admire but wouldn't want to necessarily sit through multiple times. You might think they're both the same thing, but in my case that's definitely not true. Some of my 'comfort' films depicted below can also irritate the hell out of me because of the poor continuity, the badly written dialogue in places, or just things that really could have been better. Others are 'comfort' films because they just seem so perfectly constructed and composed in every way.

I'll start posting mini-reviews of each film, one-a-day over the next month, starting next Saturday (18th September 2010) and indicating why they are on my list. See how many films you can guess from the small photo clues below, and if you want to take up the challenge of compiling your own meme please add a comment with a link to your meme for others to follow.

Bonus points if you can identify the film which is STILL only available on VHS. And also if you can identify which titles will be available in HD Blu-Ray format by the end of the year!

Blu-Ray Review: Sunrise (1927)

2010-01-03T16:14:00.002Z

One of the things I love about cinema is that it's an art form that hasn't been around that long - just 100 years more-or-less. This makes it possible to follow the history and growth of the medium from its very beginnings.

Alas, too many of the early 'film studio' books that documented the early years have been out of print for years so that the main source of historical information these days tends to be in the form of DVD and Blu-Ray releases: either of the old films themselves, the best of which contain accompanying historical commentary tracks or small booklets, or of new historical documentaries made by the studios to celebrate an anniversary.

An excellent example of the latter is the 6 hour documentary on MGM Studios history, introduced by Patrick Stewart, that was put out as three two-hour TV documentaries in the United States and given away as a double-sided DVD with import sets of the Blu-Ray versions of The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind.

One of my new year resolutions (again!) was to delve a bit more into older 'classics' that were made before I was born or which I missed as a kid when TV was the main way of catching up on old classics, in an era when video tape recorders and DVD players didn't exist. Fortunately Eureka's "Masters of Cinema" imprint has now started releasing some of the most important or interesting classics on Blu-Ray. Curiously "Title #1" in their Blu-Ray series is NOT their first Blu-Ray release, arriving at the tail end of 2009 when other titles came out in 2008, and I really haven't been able to work out how their odd title numbering system works, but "Title #1" seemed a good place to start. And "Title #1" is Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans by the highly praised German silent film director F.W. Murnau.

I should be upfront here about the fact that I find many of the old so-called classics dull beyond words, and I've never really been a fan of the so-called wonderful 'silent era'. Even as a kid from the generation that returned home from school to find children's hour prefaced with 'Laurel and Hardy' episodes on BBC1, I tended to want to turn over to the other channel.

Sunrise has been described by several critics as 'the most beautiful silent film ever made', and won oscars for Best Picture, Best Cinematography and Best Actress in 1928 so seemed to be a good film to start with, even though the thought of watching a silent film that runs for more than 90 minutes doesn't sound like much of a treat. The film was originally released just two days before the first talkie, and, apparently, was commercially a flop, despite all the critical praise it's received over the years.

Fortunately many of these silent classics have been issued with new music recordings that improve the 'silent' experience, and Sunrise is just such a title with the original mono Movietone score being joined by an 'Alternate Chamber Orchestra Score' in stereo that really enhanced the viewing experience for me. If you're watching the film for the first time, and assuming you're not a film student who insists on seeing the film 'as it would have been seen in 1927', I'd recommend going with the new stereo recording soundtrack over the original Movietone one.

The basic plot, adapted from a German-published short story, is a deceptively straightforward one. A farmer with young wife and child in a marriage that's going stale has an affair with a 'city girl' who tries to lure him away from his farm, suggesting that he arrange a boating accident that kills his wife so that he can sell his farm and join her permanently in the City. In the event, the farmer can't go through with the murderous act, and he and his wife re-find their lost love on a day trip to the big metropolis. A storm arrives as the couple head for home and the wife goes missing, presumed dead. Nevertheless, realising the error of his ways, the farmer tells the City girl he is not prepared to resume his relationship, just before rescuers find his wife alive and well. This last point is a 'happy ending' apparently forced on the director by the Fox film studio - it seems nothing much changes in Hollywood!

The set-up and failed attempt at the murder are dealt with in the first 20 minutes, and the bulk of the film is spent covering the farming couple's reconciliation trip to the big city, where they visit a church wedding service, get pampered at a hair salon, have a professional take their photograph, and visit a circus fair and dance hall - all in a city that looks rather futuristic for its time.

This probably sounds less than thrilling, but what makes the film work is that it's a story of emotions - a story that's incredibly well told and still works well today. If you're a fan of cinema, basic story-telling well put together, excellent acting and direction or just quite spectacular special effects (no, really!) then Sunrise really is the must-see that its 8.3 score on imdb indicates it to be.

It's easy for those of us who aren't film students to dismiss film of this era, with its implicit exaggerated facial poses, dated dress sense etc seeming so irrelevant to today's times, but films like Sunrise demonstrate that in reality human nature and story telling really hasn't changed one jot in the last 100 years - it's just the technology and fashion that's changed. Thankfully the over-exaggerated gurning that plagues most silent films is mainly absent from this film, and the performances from Janet Gaynor and George O'Brien are superb, even subtle at times. It's not hard to see why Gaynor won the Best Actress oscar for her performance in this film.

For me, there were some very pleasant surprises in the film. There was a lot more humour than the dark subject matter had indicated: from the farce of the couple accidentally breaking a photographer's sculpture and trying to cover it up by substituting a golf ball for its broken head, to the slapstick of a drunk and an escaped pig and a dress that has straps which won't stay up, to the naivety of the 'out of town' couple. 'Come again', the hair salon owner says (via cue card) to the departing couple. 'And you must come and visit us' says the farmer's wife, sincerely by way of response.

But what surprised me most about this beautifully put together film was the special effects. There are one or two back-projection scenes where one can spot the joins (eg where the couple are kissing in the middle of a busy street and the traffic backdrop 'jumps' but the couple don't) but there are other scenes, such as one where the farmer walks across busy traffic, where I still couldn't work out how it was done. Murneau uses special effects - most of them, amazingly, performed 'in camera' - to help tell a story that would otherwise need sound, and as a result is able to convince the viewer over 90 minutes that sound really isn't needed. Indeed I barely noticed that this was a 'silent' film I was watching! There's some wonderful dissolve sequences too, such as the opening title scene where a drawing of a train station dissolves into the real thing, or where 'The Man' is tormented by images of 'The Girl from the City' carressing him.

You can view the trailer for Sunrise on YouTube. However note that this is not taken from the Blu-Ray and doesn't, in my view, give the best indication of what the film is like.

As for the picture quality .. well if you're expecting a million pound makeover look elsewhere. The original print was destroyed by fire in the 30's and the two versions presented here (a Movietone version, and a shorter, but better preserved, Czechoslovakian version) have been pieced together from various fourth or fifth generation copies. The accompanying booklet details the various sources and explains that it's impossible to tell what the 'definitive' or originally edited film looked like. Different copies of the film use different takes, and two camera's were used so that the Movietone score could be accommodated on US prints which meant some cropping of the picture to accommodate it on the film strip, vs the non-Movietone version that could use the full frame. No attempt at repairing print damage has been attempted and although there is a high throughput of about 26-30MB/sec on the 1080p restoration Blu-Ray I suspect that the difference for most between the DVD and Blu-Ray versions, at least on smaller screen-sizes, is minimal because of the softness of the source material. A few crazy people on Amazon are talking about this Blu-Ray featuring a pin sharp picture - they clearly need to make an optician's appointment - and quickly!

Sunrise is indeed the classic many have said it is. Masters of Cinema have produced an excellent, comprehensive Blu-Ray version of the film, complete with an informative booklet about the restoration and a 'must hear' historical commentary track from cinematographer John Bailey. I can't wait for their Blu-Ray versions of the same director's City Girl, and also the classic Fritz Lang's "M", scheduled for release on Blu-Ray on 22nd February.

More info on this title on the supplier's website: supplier's web site.

My Top 10 Blu-Rays of 2009

2009-12-31T13:59:00.001Z

This review first appeared on The ShinyDiscs.com web site.

It's gritty, well-acted, beautifully written and despite the 'science fiction' tag is all about the characters - NOT the effects or aliens! The 'revamped for the noughties' Battlestar Galactica thankfully bears little relation to the bad hair/cheese-fest low budget series of the same name from the early 70's.

We've had a lot of high quality TV series from the States, and against all the odds, Battlestar Galactica proved to be right there amongst the best written shows that shine light on the human condition - shows like The West Wing, The Sopranos and Six Feet Under. Disillusioned former Star Trek writers were given the chance to produce the show they really WANTED to make, and the years of frustration with a tired, formulaic franchise that they'd previously been working on well past its 'Sell by' date helped them produce one of the best written drama series ever shown on TV.

Best of all, Battlestar Galactica has a beginning, a middle and an end, and just when you think you know where it's going, it changes tack on you (like the whole 'parallel Iraq' storyline that dominated the middle season of the series). Five years of one of the best shows on TV is now available in a reasonably priced tin box set that includes not just the mini series that kicked the whole thing off, but also extended versions of transmitted episodes (as well as the originally transmitted episodes), and extra one-off 'specials' as well. There's also a surfeit of episode commentaries and 'making of' featurettes that dissect the whole phenomenon.

This is the definitive set and the only thing excluded is the one-off 'special' The Plan (which retells the main story, but from the robotic Cylon adversary viewpoint), issued after the series ended. Since this late offering (available as a region free Blu-Ray in its own right, albeit on US import only) turned out to be a huge disappointment and represented a drop in quality compared to the main series anyway, its omission is no great loss.

Admittedly the series 'dark and gritty documentary style' with its profusion of grain and shaky-cam means this isn't a '3D window on the world' hi-def experience, but the series was shot using HD cameras and it looks far better on Blu-Ray than it did on terrestrial transmission or on the originally issued DVD sets.

If this had been shown on one of the major terrestrial channels like BBC1, it would have had a far bigger cultural impact outside the critics, media watchers and fan boys that caught onto the show through word of mouth and took the show to their hearts. It makes the 'overly polished turd' that is Russell T Davies' Doctor Who look like the infantile, poorly written, hammily acted, overly clunky garbage it is, and it's depressing to see the dominance of 'nostalgia over quality' where mainstream science fiction is concerned, with Battlestar Galactica never entering the popular consciousness the way the inferior Time Lord remake from the BBC did.

Bottom line: Battlestar Galactica is an essential purchase, even if you don't ordinarily like science fiction. If you can't afford the 'Limited Edition' Blu-Ray tin, HMV are currently offering the DVD equivalent in their instore sale at £70. At that price, it's a complete steal. Miss it at your peril!

This ground-breaking ITV series from the 60's has had more releases on DVD than I've had hot dinners, with each successive release being apparently justified by a gradual improvement in picture quality (the first DVD release was like a really bad VHS recording!) The Blu-Ray edition packages the previously available extra's with an authorative paperback book detailing the origins of the series in an annoyingly over-sized cardboard case, but it's the picture quality that makes this an essential purchase - it blows all earlier editions away. Serious money has been spent on restoring a show that was thankfully shot in colour using expensive film cameras, and it looks absolutely stunning, albeit in 'old school' 4:3 format.

Admittedly, some of the stories are dated, and a few of the seventeen 45 minute episodes that were filmed are clearly 'filler' material, but when the series hits its stride nothing comes close (not even the expensive 'modern' remake starring Ian McKellan that Sky have put together).

Saturated colours, blemish-free prints, and stories that were thought-provoking and challenging mean that it's worth purchasing this series on Blu even if you own all the previous releases on DVD: the improvement in picture quality is THAT good. 'I am not a number. I am a free man.' has even more relevance in today's world of high surveillance, privacy-inhibiting laws than it did in the 60's.

If you like your science fiction to be a non-stop CGI action popcorn rollercoaster ride, then Moon probably isn't for you. If, on the other hand, you like science fiction that's intense, thoughtful and mind-bending then Moon is a film you have to see.

David Bowie's son, Duncan Jones, turns in a truly astonishing debut film as writer/director on this beautifully constructed slow burner that will have you thinking over its implications for days after you've seen it. Jones builds tension and cleverly constructs a story where the twist that a weaker director wouldn't have revealed until the end, makes an appearance 20 minutes into the main story.

Cleverly playing on expectations set by similarities to previous classics like 2001 and Solaris, the film is a true sci-fi classic in its own right, and comes across more as a masterwerk from some established master like Scorsese, than the debut feature from some 'punk who used to make music videos'!

And if Sam Rockwell doesn't get a 'Best Actor' nomination for his performance in this film then there really is no justice in the world. Don't
rent this one - buy it because you'll want to watch it several times over to discover its beautifully sign-posted subtleties and clues. The attention to even minor details in this film is astonishing. It also looks gorgeous on Blu-Ray, which is all the more astonishing given its unbelievably low 'indy' budget.

Words like 'Iraq' and 'war' were the kiss of death at the box office, so it seemed like The Hurt Locker - a documentary-style fictionalised account of three bomb disposal experts working in Iraq - was on a trip to nowhere when it was theatrically released.

However a film that makes the esoteric Top 10 of a magazine like Sight and Sound, and gets called The Film of the Decade by Robert Duvall is worthy of anybody's attention, and I wasn't disappointed!

If you've seen the excellent US HBO TV series Generation Kill then you pretty much have the bare bones of what to expect here - except that The Hurt Locker condenses and intensifies the feel of that mini-series, managing not just a much shorter running time, but something with even more of an emotional punch to it too.

Unfortunately, UK purchasers get short-changed (again!) with the Blu-Ray release since it is lacking the commentary track from its female director, Kathryn Bigelow that the US release features, but the film is so powerful that the UK release makes my Top 10 anyway. An astonishing film, well presented in HD on Blu-Ray disc!

Lovers of classic movies have been spoilt with expensive restorations this year. It's A Wonderful Life, North by Northwest, Brief Encounter, The General, Sunrise, Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, The Red Shoes and Quo Vadis were just some of the classic films that received great high definition makeovers this year. (Side Warning: Avoid Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, a truly dire 'restoration' that looks no better than a VHS release)

Gone with the Wind would have made my Top 10 (and is highly recommended, if only for the amazing quality of the HD transfer and the unbelievably generous extra's) had this hi-def release not just pipped it to the post in terms of being a better 'film' (For me Gone with the Wind is just rather over-hyped soap opera!)

The movie looks better than it could have done on first release, and although the UK release is worth consideration despite its unbelievably naff 'Singalong version' packaging, its the lavish US region free 'Ultimate Edition' import you want if you care about movies, including as it does an extra double-sided DVD disc with a 6 hour documentary on the history of the MGM film studio (which is also included with the region free US import of Gone With the Wind!). This documentary is presented in three two hour 'episodes' by Patrick Stewart and is worth the asking price of the import in its own right.

The Wizard of Oz is a timeless classic, and the over-saturated Technicolor land of Oz has never looked as gorgeous as it does on this Blu-Ray release which features not just the film itself, but hours of generous and informative extra's too.

The decision to do a remake of this classic from the 50's, starring a wooden Keanu Reeves and a lot of modern CGI nonsense in a tale about aliens warning us that they're watching us and can't allow us to destroy our planet seems timely. Alas, the resulting film was terrible, but its release was a good thing because it meant that we got a restored version of the original black and white classic on the HD format, to tie in with all the new film's publicity.

Play the old 1950's film next to the new version and even the most gadget-obsessed teenager who argues that he doesn't 'do' black and white films will be forced to agree that the original version is by far the superior release.

This timeless classic holds up well, and the Blu-Ray transfer is flawless - a convincing argument that even old 4:3 ratio black and white classics can enjoy the benefits of the high definition revolution.

The original TV series was a classic, albeit one that outright stole most of its ideas from the less widely known Forbidden Planet (which was released on HD-DVD, so where is the Blu-Ray release of THAT title?!) Alas, the film versions of the first two TV shows bearing the 'Star Trek' legend never lived up to the hype of the original shows, a fact verified by this year's release of restored versions of all ten original films on Blu-Ray. Even in high definition it is astonishing how flabby and downright dull they all seem, frequently proving to be just elongated versions of the weakest episodes of the original TV series.

Then along come J J Abrams to bootstrap the whole franchise and, despite a misleadingly 'generic' trailer, and a writer/director with a reputation for sometimes getting carried away with 'style, gimmicks and endless repetition over substance' he delivered on all fronts this time round, giving us a film that old and new fans could embrace.

The Blu-Ray looks amazing and represents the state-of-the-art in special effects and digital grading. Coming so soon after the theatrical release, Paramount could have cashed in with a double-dip and a first 'bare bones' HD release, but there are enough extra's, albeit of the rather formulaic 'making of' variety, to keep the most ardent fan boy happy.

Apparently some Trekkies are refusing to watch the film because of the 'parallel timestream' reboot that Abrams' writers built into the script to free themselves from having to conform to complicated plot developments that have arisen over 40 years of the franchise. Their loss! Talk about burying your head in the sand and missing out on a treat!

OK, so this is more of a 'personal favourite' than a 'true classic' per se, and I struggled to choose between this and David Fincher's excellent Fight Club Blu-Ray release, but in the end nostalgia won out and I was very happy to see the big leap in picture quality improvement over the previous DVD with the release of this title on Blu-Ray.

Based on a true story, the book's a 'must read', and I've never understood why director Alan Parker went with a far-fetched and inferior made-up ending when the real story is much more dramatic and exciting. Nevertheless the film is a gripping, if sometimes harrowing, account of a young American drug smuggler's time in a brutal Turkish jail, with a career best performance from the late Brad Davis.

At a time when too many films from the 70's and 80's receive a lacklustre HD transfer (Don't get me started on Friedkin's post-processing 'rape' of The French Connection on Blu-Ray) that adds little over the DVD equivalent, it was a relief to find this dark, gritty film looking so good on the Blu-Ray format.

Arguably the best drama series currently being shown on television, Mad Men: The Complete Series 2 maintained the high standards set by the Emmy-award winning first season.

The writing's the thing, but the high production values of this tale of advertising and marketing men (and women) in the early 60's mean that the show looks best in glorious high definition.

The Blu-Ray release doesn't disappoint with stunning picture quality and a ton of accompanying commentary tracks for the episodes. If you haven't caught the show because the BBC have done their usual trick of constantly shifting it around the late night schedules when nobody's watching (WTF do they do that?!) then now's the time to catch up with it on Blu-Ray.

If you missed the first season there's a special bundle that packages the first two seasons together for a very reasonable price. This is high quality drama that's given the time it needs to breathe, beautifully acted and written, perfectly wedded to Blu-Ray viewing!

It was a bit of a toss-up between this one and Coraline to be honest. I'm not a big fan of animation, even of the CGI variety, so the fact that Coraline was even under consideration is a testament to its quality.

But the opening title sequence to Watchmen swung it for me. Was there ever a better opening sequence for a movie? Issued in far too many versions, the Director's Cut is the version I'm choosing (or the 'Ultimate Edition' if you're happy to import), not least because it's the first time I've seen the over-hyped Blu-Ray special features used to such good effect.

The director's walkthrough of the film, where he stops and starts the film periodically, is an excellent use of the format and the picture-in-picture feature really works on this title. Admittedly the film is too slow burning for many (Iron Man or Spider-Man this isn't!) and criticisms that the director stayed perhaps a little too close to the original comic book, and made far too much use of his camera's slow motion feature, are valid. But for those with the patience to sit through the film's near 3 hour running time, this is a real treat.

The film is an astonishing accomplishment, albeit one that didn't fare well at the box office. The Blu-Ray (in all its different release formats) more than does justice to that accomplishment.

Shiny Discs Web Site

2009-11-08T16:29:00.003Z

A couple of weeks ago, my Shiny Discs web site domain name came up for its annual renewal, and I decided to let it go. Work has been such that I never seem to get any time to work on it, and it's been left abandoned, just wasting hosting costs for the last year.

However I had a last-minute change of heart late on Friday afternoon, had the domain renewed, and spent Saturday working on the outline for the site.

Using Silverlight I've been able to get something approaching what I originally intended in terms of visual display for the 'This Week's new Releases' section and the 'Next Week's New Releases' section. One other change I'm making is the site is going to concentrate only on Blu-Ray releases. The site shows that this week there are SIXTEEN new releases, and next week there will be TWENTY-FIVE so the format is clearly gaining traction. These days I only ever seem to get time to watch Blu-Rays anyway and I can't remember the last time I bought a DVD.

It's early days yet. Although the user can now use his mouse to 'browse through the rack' of new releases, there is additional work to be done so that when a title appears 'head on' a popup of statistics and review summaries is visible. I think this will be a fun interface and quick way of checking what's coming up without having to read through a long review or watch a half hour video podcast.

Not that I've given up on the video podcast idea. It's just that the length needs to be reduced to under 10 minutes so that podcasts can be played, via YouTube which limites you to 10 minutes, on an iPhone and iPod. I also need to find a way to reduce the crazy render times and increase the ease with which I can grab clips from Blu-Ray to make for a more interesting 'show'.

Please go and have a play and let me know what you think - just remember it's early days yet. Also note that the site runs on Microsoft Silverlight, which is similar to Flash except that it's not from Adobe (and is much better :-P). If you don't already have that installed you will be prompted to download it. It takes less than a minute to download and runs on both Mac and PC, supporting Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari.

Stay tuned!

To Boldly Go...

2009-05-09T09:44:00.005+01:00

A crazy workload means that this 'personal' blog is languishing a bit, but I wanted to put up a quick review for the new J J Abrams movie Star Trek, which opens this weekend, and which I saw a preview of at the London IMAX on Thursday night.

I was a big fan of the original series, and am of an age where I remember the first transmission. I was dead set against it because, as a kid, it replaced my favourite programme Doctor Who, which went out at 5.15pm on Saturdays. I remember the Saturday morning paper hyping the show up with talk of 3D chess, futuristic special effects, and success in the States. Begrudgingly, I watched it to see how a show that didn't feature time travel, weekly cliff-hangers or a crotchety old guy could possibly be any good. Of course by the end of the first episode, featuring humans infected so they become 'gods' with laser-firing glowing eyes, I was totally hooked. The production values were light years ahead of anything that the ridiculously low budget of Hartnell/Troughton -era Doctor Who could afford, and the writing gave a depth that always left you thinking about the show long after it had finished.

I put my love of the TV series down to why I just don't get the whole Star Wars phenomenon. I rewatched this again recently and it was just as crap as I remembered it being when I first saw it at the cinema in the late 70's - poor dialogue, a really annoying, screechy female character, really poor pacing, and a basic, cliched, paper-thin story a five year old could have put together. This just wasn't a patch on the quality of the average 40 minute TV episode of Trek, so far as I was concerned. So yes, even before the execrable 'prequels' I thought the 'Star Wars' series was lame, and I find it astonishing that it's only now the wider opinion that George Lucas just can't write a good story, with any kind of depth or subtlety, is starting to become a popular one. But, as ever, I digress...

Of course we then had the Star Trek movies. The first one was so lame, slow and self-reverential I pretty much gave up on the franchise. More by accident than design, I did get to see the last film (Star Trek: Nemesis) when a friend couldn't use his press preview ticket. At a time when The Two Towers was the film everyone was waiting for as the Christmas blockbuster, this extremely dated film was on a hiding to nothing. On a cold December day in an almost empty cinema where even the promoters couldn't be bothered to show up and welcome us, it was pretty obvious that the franchise had run its course and was well past its 'sell by' date. The over-hyping of the movie (particularly from Patrick Stewart who, at every possible opportunity, talked up the film as being MUCH better than its predecessor) seemed like a gross act of betrayal on the part of the cast and crew.

This new 'reboot' of the franchise, is apparently down to the work of one man: J J Abrams. I'm a fan of nearly all the work that carries his name (although his TV Series Alias lost it around Series 4, presumably because the man was too busy working on other things). I love his Lost series and I don't agree with the endless whingers who complain that nothing ever gets explained. Everything gets explained - you just have to commit to it. It's a show of real depth and longevity. I love the way the show drops clues to things that they know they're not going to resolve until a season or two later. In these post-MTV days where everybody wants (demands!) instant gratification, that's not popular of course - but hell, go watch the new Doctor Who if you want instant gratifcation, ill-developed story lines and cheap stunts!

I missed Abrams Mission Impossible 3 (the idea of another Tom Cruise vanity project didn't appeal) but was pleasantly surprised by Cloverfield. The puke-making, low budget, shaky-cam trailer which debuted with the release of the Transformers movie allegedly had the internet abuzz with expectation. I just yawned and marked it down as 'one to avoid' (based mainly on still being bitter over the 90 minutes of my life I'll never get back from having gone to see The Blair Witch Project, which had similar 'hand held, shot live' pretensions). My bad! When I caught the film on Blu-Ray recently, I loved it.

The trailers for the new Star Trek movie did nothing for me. They were far too generic in a 'popcorn action movie' way that implies poor special effects, no real character depth, and minimal story telling. The trailer seemed to have lost all the 'magic' of the series which had sustained me through all the broadcast episodes of not just the original series, but also The Next Generation and Deep Space 9 (I'm afraid Voyager was a yawn, and Enterprise was just embarrassingly amateur, I left the Trek 'universe' many years ago). So I was going to wait for the DVD before I bothered to watch this one.

Then came the inspired marketing trick of the 'pre-premiere' showing to a group of fans in Texas. Before the official world premiere in Australia, a group of Trekkies were invited to a special viewing of a 'restored print' of the second Star Trek movie, allegedly to help promote the first release of the film on the high-definition Blu-Ray format. A grubby, damaged print lasted less than 10 minutes before the film apparently snapped and Leonard Nimoy walked on stage to 'apologise' and ask the audience if they'd rather see another film instead. The buzz from the original die-hard fans who'd previously dissed the re-booting of the franchise, spread over the net within hours. Against all expectations, they loved the new film, and their enthusiasm was contagious. Now THAT'S what I call brave - and great - marketing!

So, encouraged by favourable reviews from TV show fans, I went to see the film on Thursday - and the enthusiastic reviewers have got it right. It's a great movie! Not a masterpiece by any means, but a great, intelligent, thrill ride, with witty dialogue, real character depth, a superb cast (with one slight exception that really jarred) and (irritating shaky-cam aside) brilliant effects and direction.

Most important of all, it has great writing that really lets the characters breathe. Every 'supporting' character's presence in this film is justified, and they are all given credible, interesting stories. There aren't many films where a day or two later I'm thinking 'I'd really like to see that again'. Star Trek is one of those few films.

The only real problem I had with the film was Simon Pegg. He plays the ship's engineer 'Scotty' and his role is clearly that of 'comic relief'. Thankfully the film is past the half-way mark when he makes his first appearance, which really jars because his constantly shifting 'Scottish' accent is truly dreadful - seemingly because he has whole sentences where he forgets to do it, followed by others where he remembers and overdoes it! Although he has great comedic acting skills I think he's been seriously miscast in this role.

Thankfully the other characters are all - to a man/woman - superb. All of them manage to portray the strengths of the character WITHOUT resorting to impersonation. I know Michael Sheen (Frost Nixon) is continually lauded for 'getting the esence but without doing a straight impersonation' thing, but in his case I don't buy it - all his characters to me come across as a variation on his Tony Blair impersonation. But I think the Star Trek cast DO all get this in a far better way. So much so that it's impossible to single out any one actor for an astonishing performance. They're all (Pegg excepted) excellent!

There are some minor niggles - Leonard Nimoy, who originally played Spock, is over-used (and it's sad to see how much he's physically aged over the last few years) and some of the pat phrases from the TV show re-appear a few times too often. But none of that deters from the fact that this is a really fun movie, that respects the original series, but also adapts it for modern sensibilities.

I can't wait to see where J J Abrams and his crew take the new franchise next time around. In the meantime, I think the hype is justified. If you're waivering about seeing the film vs waiting for the shiny disc version - I'd say go see it at the movies (ideally the IMAX - the film doesn't suffer from the 'soft focus over-stretched' problems I had with Watchmen). This is a film that really deserves to be seen on the big screen. Highly recommended!

Fifty Dead Men Walking

2009-04-10T13:46:00.004+01:00

It was several hours after attending the advance preview screening of Fifty Dead Men Walking, which was followed by a Q &A with director Kari Skogland, that I realised I'd actually already read the book by Martin McGartland, on which the film is based.

It's not hard to see why I should have failed to recognise the story on screen from the book I'd read earlier, despite the huge impact the book had on me at the time I read it. The film starts with McGartland (Jim Sturgess) in an anonymous location on a snowy day, checking underneath his worn-out old car for the signs of anything unusual - a bomb perhaps? As he tries to start the engine a black balaclava'ed figures appears from nowhere, shooting him several times at point-blank range. The scene itself isn't fictional, but is nowhere to be found in the book. It, or something very similar to it, happened AS A RESULT OF McGartland publishing his 'tell all' book, which apparently pissed the IRA off even more than his working for them as a 'tout' for the RUC had done.

As the film tells us in its closing titles (spoiler alert!), McGartland is still under cover and still has no contact with his family.

At the Q&A that followed last night's Southbank screening, the writer/director revealed that although she spoke to the IRA 'tout' long and often, and also changed some things as a result of his input, contact was always by phone calls which he controlled, and had to be at his behest. So there is no happy 'reunited with his family' ending here for those who like their films happy and smiley!

After the opening 'grab their attention' attempted assassination, the remainder of the film tells a fictionalised account of McGartland's involvement with the IRA and the RUC from its logical beginning, starting in 1987 and ending around 1991. It bears little relation to the strong memories I have of the main character's real life which seemed to comprise never-ending periods of boredom and poverty, alleviated by sudden explosions of activity and a great deal of hatred.

Essentially, this is a story of an RUC informer ('tout' as the IRA call them)working his way up the IRA ranks so he can feed information to the British - information that, it is claimed, saved the lives of the 'fifty men' of the title. But it feels like a very different story from that told in the book: A sanitised one in many ways (which, I suspect, will shock those who haven't read the book because this is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a Hollywood film or anything approaching it!) The McGartland of the book came across as a much harder, angrier, less sympathetic person, and the intrinsic evil of the IRA (and to a much lesser extent the British puppet-masters) seeped from every page.

In Skogland's film McGartland becomes the cheery everyman, a sort of Irish version of the young Paul McCartney (hard to get the actor Jim Sturgess' previous work in the Beatles musical Across The Universe out of my head!), a sort of 'street urchin with a good heart who stands by his girl'. More importantly, the film tries to tow an independent, 'fair-minded to both sides' line, which doesn't really work given the inherently violent and controlling methods of the IRA at the time. The approach adopted makes the film seem a lot less political, and perhaps more personal, than the book so it's not hard to see why McGartland may be upset. The director has made a film 'for our times', with particular relevance to the situations in Agfhanistan and Iraq, so that suddenly the story in the book that had me thinking 'Thank God I'm nowhere near that barbaric mess and wasn't involved' has me thinking 'Maybe it's not that barbaric and could happen anywhere'

In the Q & A session with the director afterwards, McGartland's presence (not physically - he's still in hiding) seemed to dominate the proceedings. The interviewer's opening question revealed that McGartland had been somewhat 'grumpy' about the film to the press, and a quick search on the internet shows him contacting even the likes of the rather innocuous Empire magazine to complain that he does not endorse the film in any way. The director seemed cagey whenever the subject was brought up (as it was, repeatedly, by people wanting to better understand what the source of disagreements was), but it was hard to ascertain who, if anyone, was in the right here. A quick 'Google' has Sturgess revealing that McGartland was apparently unhappy with the IRA torture scene, which he never witnessed in real life, and at the Q&A the director just kept to the 'a book does not necessarily make a good film' storyline. Clearly the rather heavy-handed disclaimer about the film merging characters and depicting some events differently, which appears at the start AND end of the film is the result of McGartland's intercession and a (failed) attempt to placate him somewhat. (You can read more about McGarttlan's objections to the film and its director here)

None of which really matters, given how powerful and gripping the film is! A 'based on truth' thriller, with real flesh-and-blood characters (no blacks or whites here - just LOTS of shades of grey) is preferable to a documentary version of the original book (which I highly recommend!).

Skogland has produced a gritty, grungey, powerful and deeply impressive film that manages to shake off the rather obvious shortcomings of its first 5-10 minutes, such that you're gripped and sat on the edge of your seat right to the conclusion two hours later. Admittedly the film is not an easy watch in places. It clearly has 'indy' origins (no glossy '3D window look' Blu-Ray on its way here!) and I thought it got off to a poor start as soon as the 'reel 'em in' assassination attempt opening was over. I've never been a fan of the Paul Greengrass school of wobbly, hand-held, puke-making cam that we get in abundance here. Nor am I a huge fan of the 'bleach' process that highlights the whites and the blacks at the expense of colour or lack of film grain, but at least this time around it's somewhat more warranted, matching the gritty and dark story being told. At the end of the day it's the performances, and the sheer humanity of those caught up in events, rather than the technical aspects of the film that stay with you long after the final credits have rolled.

(Sir) Ben Kingsley may be a bit of an up-himself knob-head in real life (he comes across that way in interviews!), but you can't deny the guy can really act, and the few reviews I've read sniping at his performance here as McGartland's British 'handler with a conscience' can only be based on personal grievances with the actor himself. His performance is never less than rivetting and totally believable. From any other actor this would be considered a 'career best', but Kingsley's work is of such high calibre that one can only revel at the fact he's managed to use his incredible, chameleon-like qualities for totally transforming himself into another character yet again.

But it's Jim Sturgess, fighting against all the 'just a pretty face' odds, who delivers the most surprising, and most impressive, performance. It's no surprise to hear that he stayed in character from the moment he landed on the Emerald Isle. His accent is, to these ears, pretty flawless, and his performance as a difficult, duplicitous, dishonest character that we have to somehow empathise with is never less than convincing. This is, in many ways, HIS film even more than it is Skogland's. If he can steer clear of being the 'pretty boy flavour of the month' with the film magazines and continue to make wise choices, as he appears to be doing, he could become a huge talent in the industry rather than just another graduate from the Orlando Bloom school of (non-) acting!

As for the film itself - my quibbles are minor. I love punk bands like Stiff Little Fingers (and The Ruts too - my era! Oh, the memories!) - but not when they're so dominant in the mix I can't hear the dialogue. And I know it's all about a documentary-like, gritty feel, but at times the Greengrass-influenced shakycam goes too far. And the intro and outro captions seem rather preachy and trite (this may be at McGartland's insistence of course).

But on an evening when I felt so shattered I nearly gave the film a miss, I found myself wide awake and enthralled throughout.

The director has made it clear that this opening weekend will 'do or die' for the film - especially its chances of getting a release in the United States, urging those who liked the film to 'tell their friends to go and see it, preferably this weekend'. I have no hesitation in doing so. It's a powerful, absorbing and compelling piece of work. We need more films of this sort of calibre (although whoever's behind the marketing of the film could surely have done a better job - where's the 'official' web site with images etc to decorate this blog entry?!).

Ignore some of the pettier newspaper reviews (whose research is so poor they think the director is male) that imply the film is merely 'average'. It isn't! They are confusing the film with an event (20 years of Irish politics) and marking the film accordingly. Just go and see it. It's an excellent, powerful movie, and much better than anything else I can see advertised this weekend. Highly recommended!

A Tag of No Importance

2009-04-07T13:14:00.005+01:00

I have been tagged by Brian Sibley, which means I have to post six little-known facts of no real importance about myself

So here goes...

The first TV program I remember seeing as a child, arriving back from Cyprus where we didn't have TV, was 5 o'clock Club with Muriel Young and two glove puppets as I recall. I saw it in an overnight hotel we stayed in after arriving by plane in England, before travelling to live with grandparents in Leeds for a few weeks. I remember more about the tiny black and white TV set in the hotel room. than the show itself, and it's about the only memory I have from arriving back in England.

The first film I remember seeing was The Wizard of Oz. Again, I don't remember much about the film other than my mother complaining loudly that the film appeared to be in black and white when the pictures promoting the film had implied it was in colour. Of course as soon as Oz itself appeared the picture changed to colour and I explained what had happened to my mother as I heard a loud click during the projector changeover: "They forgot to turn the colour on. I just heard them switch it on". Oh, the innocence of youth!

I played the recorder at school. I think I was quite good and it encouraged me to try other instruments including the trumpet (hopeless), the violin (even more hopeless) and the guitar (I still have a Gibson Les Paul and Marshall combo amp but haven't used them in ages).

In my late teens I was given a Super 8 camera for my birthday, which is when my love of movies and movie-making began. I filmed some school trips and made a 20 minute silent film about my mates' disco called "Squint Eye Mangle" - a title I stole from the B-Side of a Marc Bolan single at the time. I got a kick every time I heard the deputy headmaster at 6th Form College have to read out the title when announcing a lunch-time screening in Assembly a couple of mornings!

The first concert I attended as a teenager was T.Rex in Edmonton around the time they were at their peak. I was allowed to travel down from Southampton to London on my own for the first time (a) to queue up to buy the ticket and (b) later to attend the concert. It all turned a bit sour when I returned home after the concert to a stern lecture from my father. Whilst away my mother had gone through the pockets of my Parka coat to empty them for washing and found a plastic syringe holder with plunger. We used them at school, 'borrowed' from the Chemistry class, for water pistols but nothing would convince my mother it wasn't used for drugs! She should have been more worried about the fact I insisted on buying a satin jacket after the trip to buy the ticket!

I was the only member of the family who didn't want us to get a dog. I'd always been scared of them and my parents got a Pyrannean dog which initially terrified me because they're the size of a horse. In the end I became the one who walked her most and did the chores and became a 'dog' person, although I still have an aversion to silly, yappy canines that look more like rats than dogs! My parents bought me a Newfoundland puppy as a birthday present when I moved into my own home after University and I hope to own another Newfie when I get around to retiring. I named my newfie 'Animal' after the Muppets character because of her spiky hair - a name which my mother changed to 'Annabelle' when walking with me and needing to call her, through embarrassment! My biggest regret about working/living in London is not being able to have a dog.

I think I'm supposed to tag six more people now. I'll have to have a think!

Watching The Watchmen (a pointless IMAX experience)

2009-03-15T14:52:00.007Z

The joys of London's IMAX booking system meant that despite booking well in advance of the film opening, and using my 'advance' BFI membership pre-booking notification (ha! ha!) to boot, I got to see The Watchmen a week after everybody else. A week is a long time where films like Watchmen are concerned because it seems like the whole world and its wife has been twittering their impressions of the film after seeing it on the opening weekend.

As it turned out, suffering the delay just to see the film on IMAX was a mistake on my part. The Watchmen is NOT a film that needs to be seen on IMAX because, unlike The Dark Knight, the film was not shot using special IMAX camera's, and nor does it have any 3D scenes

'The IMAX experience' this time round simply means you're watching a larger, but softer, blurrier version of the film that is being shown in normal theatres. It felt like watching an iPlayer TV programme up-rezzed to 'full screen' size on a computer monitor, with the same end result: you kind of wish you'd just seen it at its original resolution even if it meant it was smaller. So, rather like the 'amazing never before seen' giant water projection display (actually a fuzzy blue light mess nobody could really see) used to officially launch the film's opening on The Thames last week, 'the IMAX Experience' this time around, has been seriously over-hyped. And if my Friday night was anything to go by 'The IMAX Experience' is no different from a normal local cinema experience (are you listening Clapham Picture House?!) with several minutes needing to be spent before the film started to clean my seat of popcorn and coke cup debris before I could sit on it. Cinema owners keep complaining about the competition from shiny discs - but when they charge the equivalent of the cost of a Blu-Ray disc that I can keep and rewatch (my Watchmen ticket cost an exhorbitant £13.50 with travel costs on top) and treat their customers in such a cavalier manner I am tempted to join those on the sidelines applauding the fact that cinema attendances are on the decline. Nobody needs experiences like this when they can have a much nicer, controlled environment at home.

The week's delay in getting a decent seat did give me one advantage: it gave me the chance to see what others reaction to the film was and prepare me for the worst. The reaction seemed to be more polarised than I can ever remember about a new film. Comments were very clearly divided between 'four out of five stars' fans who'd read the comic book but thought the film flawed because it stuck too slavishly to a format that doesn't work for cinema, and 'zero or one star out of five' newcomers who found it 'too long, too slow, and too boring because nothing happens'.

I haven't read the comic book, and the warning signs from so many dismissive reviews might have had me cancel my attendance were it not for a review in The Daily Mail. Alone, out of all the mainstream papers who at least recognised the quality of much of what was put on screen, England's most bigotted and homophobic tabloid gave the film a pitiful 0 out of 10, concluding "This despicable trash will find an audience among sad sociopaths, deranged pseudo-intellectuals and brutalised, immature men of all ages." Coming from the cesspit world of opinion that is The Daily Mail that sounds like a 'Must see' recommendation to me! I'm still trying to work out why they didn't include a reference to homosexuals in their diss, given that one of the main characters walks around naked, showing off what fans keep referring to as 'the big blue wang' in several key scenes!

Worried that I needed to have read the comic book first, I managed to get a quick look at the US import (region free) Blu-Ray of Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic (recommended - and MUCH better than the other pitiful comic book adaptations I've seen on Blu-Ray). The Blu-Ray runs for twelve 25 minute chapters, with a total running time of five and a half hours, which just goes to show how different the perception of time can be with different mediums. The two episodes of the Blu-Ray 'comic book' I watched seemed perfectly paced. The exact same story as a film, running at a considerably lighter 2 hours and 45 minutes, seemed overlong and plodding by comparison. Go figure!

For what it's worth I DON'T think you need to have read the comic book to enjoy the film - and there is a LOT in the film TO enjoy. But you do need to set aside your preconceptions about what a comic book movie should be. This sure ain't no Superman or even a Dark Knight - it's far less mainstream than that.

Ultimately, I felt the film was a good one, but not a great one. Its comic book origins are all too clear and the director has over-egged the comic book aesthetic with endless slow-motion and gimmicky 'straight out of a comic book panel' camera angle shots. I think the main problem is that the basic narrative in the comic book appears to be one of those 'the character thinks out loud, pseudo-intellectualising the action with a comment in every panel' stories. This may work very well in the comic book medium, but doesn't really work on film, where the scribbled comic book comments become overlong, rather tedious narrative that just slow everything down. My guess is that the comic book had a thin central narrative running through the 12 different issues, with each issue focussing on a single character. Transferred to the medium of film this doesn't work: just as you're getting into the story of one character the story stops abruptly and moves on to another. Although this worked for the director's earlier Sin City, this time around the narrative is too dense, the characters too many, and the intellectualising too engrained for this to really work.

All that being said, I had to admire the film for what it was attempting. And the 'twist' conclusion with its moral dilemma genuinely surprised me (whilst making perfect sense and not resorting to the usual silly super-hero deus-ex-machina ending it looked like it was heading towards - hoorah!).

It's an over-used phrase, but Watchmen really is a film I admired rather than outright enjoyed. You sort of admire the work that's been done, but can't help wondering why anybody thought it needed to be undertaken in the first place. Part of me feels sad that this interesting experiment is likely to be deemed a failure given the box office figures that are being reported. The opening weekend was fairly strong, but still less than those for the director's previous 300, which cost a lot less to make, and was much more mainstream in its appeal, and the box office appears to be fading fast if the second weekend takings are indicative, now that the core fanboy demographic have moved on. It looks as if the film will struggle to approach break even point, hardly surprising given the obscene amount of money that seems to have been spent on marketing it. I'd like to see Hollywood make more thoughtful, experimental films like this instead of the mindless 'action' formulaic fodder they usually specialise in, but for that to happen films like this need to turn a profit - a big profit, and not just one based on overly optimistic follow-through DVD sales.

If you haven't seen Watchmen yet, and can endure nearly 3 hours in a cinema seat, I'd encourage you to go and see the film if only to help the flagging box office (That important consideration aside, I'd say wait for the inevitable Blu-Ray, complete with extended Director's Cut) Don't set your expectations too high, and I think you'll enjoy it!

The Curious Case of David Fincher's Latest Film

2009-02-22T10:43:00.003Z

With less than 48 hours to go until the oscar winners are announced, I finally got to see David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in a 'digital presentation' at my local picture house in Clapham.

I wouldn't describe myself as a huge fan of Fincher. I loved Se7en, Fight Club and Zodiac, but thought Panic Room was an extremely average 'thriller' best suited to TV prime-time. And I think all of Fincher's films are too long. Benjamin Button clocks in at just under 3 hours so the director's rather self-indulgent trend doesn't seem to have been broken with this latest oscar-nominated offering.

I left this film until last because of the luke-warm reviews from the British critics - the vast majority of whom seem to think it should NOT have been nominated for an oscar. I'm sorry to have to say I agree with them. OK, maybe it's worthy of a technical oscar for the special effects, but 'Best Film' or 'Best Director'? Gimme a break!

I thought Forrest Gump, which many of the critics have compared this film to - it shares the same writer - was a seriously over-rated film (not a bad one, just not one that deserved the 'Film of the Year' oscar) and alas, Benjamin Button plays out like Forrest Gump II, but without any of the original's charm or humour. Ridiculously neat and tidy, and overly-sentimental, one-sentence platitudes are laid on with a trowel in a series of anecdotes that make little sense, have little commonality, and just give the impression that the script-writers had no idea how to tell a basic story. Things pull together in the second half, when we finally start on the main story (a life-long romance) but it's not hard to see why friends talk about having walked out of the film before it finished - I nearly did the same myself, I found the first half so disjointed and irritating.

As the film opens we have a dying Daisy, played by Cate Blanchette, asking her daughter to read out loud a diary in her bag. The diary is that of one 'Benjamin Button', who turns out to have been the love of the dying woman's life, and the film then progresses as a series of 'out loud' readings that translate into episodic flashbacks, interrupted every 10-15 minutes by trips in real time back to the dying hospital bed scene. These constant interruptions become increasingly irritating because there's really nothing to say at the hospital (apart from one very obvious, cliched revelation about the daughter's father mid-way through the film), and the film-makers have to invent a rather silly 'Is Hurricane Katrina going to hit the hospital before Daisy dies?' sub-plot to try and justify the constant switches between the past and the present. This sort of tired story-telling has been done so often before we feel we're watching a re-run of countless other movies - except the constant time switches were justified in other films. Here, it becomes very obvious that they are only needed because the flashback scenes are so disjointed and irrelevant to each other (and also to the main romance theme that will start about an hour into the film) that the editors had no way of putting the various clips together so that they made any kind of sense.

The central conceit of the film - that Daisy's life-long love Benjamin (Brad Pitt) is a child who ages backwards, starting the film as an 'old man' baby and growing eventually into an Alzheimer's inflicted 5 year old - is surprisingly easy to take on board because the effects and make-up are so well done. However they just come across as a gimmick that wasn't really needed to tell the central message of the story, which seems to be about 'the meaning of life, death and loss'. The effects scenes in the latter part of the film don't work quite as well as the earlier ones - there's something not QUITE right about the 20 year-old Pitt compared with the 80 year-old one, so that just as one is starting to become immersed in the central story, one is taken out of it somewhat. Admittedly, things have come on quite a bit since the last time this sort of effect was used (to show a young Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in X-Men III) but it's hard to see it as much more than a mildly diverting gimmick that utlimately lessens the film rather than enhances it. And it's scary to think that in 20-30 years time, given the current rate of progress, punters will probably be able to see the likes of Richard Burton or Steve McQueen at any age in their career, playing new parts in new movies!

I'm glad I stayed to the end of the film, if only because the performances from Pitt and Blanchette are as perfect as one would expect them to be. But the whole thing felt like the pretentious, overlong, nonsensical piece of film-making many have accused it of, and it's hard to understand why this has been nominated in the 'Best Film' or 'Best Director' categories. Even in a digital presentation too much of the cinematography felt too dark and at times impenetrable (I'd even go so far as to say 'poorly lit') and overall I was disappointed with what felt like a wasted opportunity to tell a genuinely moving story.

Hopefully the American Academy will reflect the decisions made by the British Academy at last week's BAFTA's, and just give the film a few 'technical' oscars. Anything else would be a grave misjustice.

We'll all find out tomorrow morning (here in the UK - tonight for US readers) who the real winners are. I think this is the first year I've seen ALL of the films nominated, with a trip to Clapham Picture House later today meaning that I will also get to see all the Oscar-nominated short films as well. My gut feeling is that the supposedly leaked letter showing the oscar results (which the BBC have reported is a hoax) will reflect the final results. There's one or two minor disappointments in that list for me personally (most notably in the 'Best Film' and 'Best Actor' categories) but nothing too upsetting compared with past crimes (Chicago as 'Best Film'? - give me a break!) I almost wish I didn't have to work tomorrow so I could stay up all night and watch the results come in.

ChannelFlip's Film (DVD) Review Show

2009-02-13T20:57:00.003Z

A few days ago I had an email from Ian Christie, CEO of ChannelFlip. It looked like one of those blanket emails I get occasionally, and asked if I'd be interested in a partnership deal that involved embedding a video player in my web site to promote a film review show the channel runs that could earn me advertising revenue.

I've had similar requests in the past (especially when my web site was attracting ridiculous amounts of traffic when I was producing the Lord of the Rings web logs) and have always turned them down. I've always thought there's something a bit tacky and desperate about blogs and web sites that carry advertising material. They annoy readers and usually turn out to earn the web site author mere pennies in revenue anyway.

Ian's note about the target audience for the film review show being 'savvy young men' (that'll be the 'young, dumb and full of cum' audience filling our multiplexes with endless American 'humour' and dumbed-down action movies then!) sounded alarm bells from the get-go. However, having only just blogged about the lack of a good DVD review show on the web I decided to have a look anyway.

I nearly gave up when the latest show kept giving me a 'Video not found' error every time I clicked to watch the latest show (a review of Don't Mess With The Zohan), but fortunately the problem seemed to have been rectified when I tried again 24 hours later, and I have to confess at the end of my first viewing I was left rather impressed.

The show, presented by Justin Gayner, is horribly mistitled in my opinion. As a film review show it lacks the appropriate timing of the excellent Spill site which publishes amusing cartoon-based reviews of films in the week of American release. And the iPlayer can always be used to watch the British Film 2009 if films are your main interest. ChannelFlip's show is actually more of a DVD review show since it typically reviews 'films' a week or so after they've come out on DVD, months after the theatrical release. The first editions of the show suffer from the usual 'how do you make a talking head interesting?' problem (an issue I struggled hopelessly with when I posted early 'alpha' editions of 'The Shiny Discs Show' around this time last year). This 'talking head' problem is one that even professionals on multi-million pound salaries haven't been able to solve, as viewers of Jonathan Ross' well-scripted reviews on the BBC's Film 2009 will testify, but it's good to see that more recent editions of the ChannelFlip film show have latched onto the fact that a few appropriately timed After Effects animations, as well as the usual film clips, can dramatically improve the pacing and entertainment value of the show.

The presenter is passionate and energetic, can write, and clearly knows his stuff, although admittedly the somewhat theatrical presentation style will not be to everyone's taste (I'm a bit bored with this shouty 'Project! Project! Project!' style myself if I'm honest).

But, all-in-all I do think the show has pretty much got it right, which is a bit scary when you're about to launch your own effort into what you thought had been a pretty empty playing field. The ChannelFlip film show doesn't outstay its welcome, running for a pert five or six munutes, is entertaining and amusing for the most part, gives more of the flavour of a film than a purely written review can do and, perhaps most importantly of all, doesn't freeze or stutter while you're trying to watch it. You can also subscribe to it via iTunes. All-in-all it's a pretty impressive debut.

Regular readers will know that I'm not keen on American comedies of the type that unfortunately make up the two most recent shows, but if you look back you'll see that the programme makers have shown great taste in the past, highlighting some really excellent films. I've chosen to embed (above) the show that reviewed one of my favourite films of last year - Man on Wire - from a few episodes back, so that you can watch it directly (click on the image up near the start of this blog entry). If you like what you see make sure to pop over to the ChannelFlip web site to see more of the same, and find a link to subscribe via iTunes.

ChannelFlip also produces short web shows that cover comedy, the web and gadgets amongst other things. Well worth checking out if you get the chance. In the meantime I like the show enough to have added it to my iTunes feed so that's a recommendation right there.

In the meantime, ShinyDiscs.tv, when it finally launches, will be premiering with a weekly show of about the same length (just under 10 minutes), but will be focussing entirely on Blu-Ray reviews, with a main 'Blu-Ray of the week' review, a quick precis of the other releases of the week, a look at the sales chart and a brief news section covering upcoming releases. I'm also looking to launch in simultaneous web/video and pdf editions so that those who don't have time to watch video can read at their leisure. Look for an official announcement about the launch here at the end of March.

And the award goes to...

2009-02-08T14:58:00.004Z

It seems fortuitous that on the day I've set aside for the BAFTA's (don't get excited I'm just watching it on TV like everybody else - the days of being shoved into a pen on a red carpet and shouting myself hoarse trying to get a celebrity to look my way for a photo are thankfully long past) this blog should get an award from "Premio Dardos".

'What's that?' I hear you ask (I had to ask it too!). Well let me quote from Steve's blog (Steve was the guy who nominated me) The Last Picture Show:

"The Dardos Award is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web."

It seems rather odd to win this award in the year I've done least blogging. I was proficient (at least with my shiny disc reviews) until February last year when I decided there was a 'gap in the market' for a VIDEO review of weekly shiny disc releases. Too many people are jumping on the video bandwagon (when actually the information would be quicker to impart and more useful in simple, written form) but I genuinely think film/DVD/Blu-Ray reviews can be done better via the video medium (if only to include clips and give a genuine flavour of the product being reviewed) and here in the UK fans are not being catered for at all by the main broadcasters.

Of course if I'd known work would get so manic, and the hurdles would be so large, I'd probably have abandoned the whole idea, but with work drying up on March 6th I'm cautiously optimistic that ShinyDiscs.tv will formally launch its weekly Blu-Ray Review show at the end of March.

Anyway.... If this blog entry reads like it's being rushed - it is. This year, instead of waiting for a DVD release after the gongs have all been given out I've tried to see all the oscar-nominated/BAFTA-nominated awards BEFORE the ceremonies, even though that's meant far more trips to the local cinema than I'd normally indulge in. Today is BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television) Awards day of course. For what it's worth I'd like to see Danny Boyle win 'Best Director' for Slumdog Millionaire, Milk walk away with 'Best Film' (it was emotionally the most engaging - Slumdog was too ridiculous a fairy tale with cartoon charicature 'evil' grown-ups and silly question coincidences meaning it failed to totally win my heart) and most of the acting awards too, with the possible exception of 'Best Supporting Actor' which Heath Ledger deserves for The Dark Knight, not because he's dead but because if you can't see the genius present in such diverse performances as The Brothers Grimm, Brokeback Mountain and The Dark Knight then your eyes must be closed! Alas, one nominated film Gomorrah remains to be seen (which thanks to having to work Saturday I only discovered had been delivered - on Blu-Ray - last night) and with just a few hours left until the BAFTA's start broadcasting I'm cutting it a bit fine!

However, to complete my 'award recipient' obligations, here are the 'five best blogs' I subscribe to in my RSS feed. I follow these guys religiously, and nominate each of them for a 'Dardos Award':

Brian Sibley: The Blog

Not strictly-speaking film-related, but a mish-mash of the many subjects that Brian's interested in. He's a huge film buff of course, and regularly appears on shiny disc as the 'talking head' film expert, especially where Disney, Tolkien, C S Lewis or Wallace and Gromit are concerned, as well as having been a broadcaster at the BBC for many years and a brilliant author too. His latest blog entry has a beautifully written and insightful review of the new Disney 3D CGI film Bolt on it - so go check it out. I feel very blessed that Brian is a mate and I get the chance to discuss movies with him regularly (although I'm sure his partner David gets bored to death as we compare notes), but his dedication to his blog, always updated daily, never fails to impress me and is what causes me to make my first award.

Filmstalker

is not so much a blog as a film site. Run by Richard, up in Scotland, its my main news source and although Richard and I have had lots of disagreements (I think we just like different things!) his hard work and passion are always evident. He's actually down in London to blog about the BAFTA's today, and his dedication (he has a full-time job and filmstalker is just a hobby) never fails to impress me. He runs a great site and loves talking to his readers.

Blowing My Thought Wad

is always a good read, from a writer who knows his stuff and knows good quality when he sees it (although I'm struggling to forgive him for his dissing of The Dark Knight and over-enthusiasm for Wall-E which I thought was fundamentally flawed in structure, pacing and story-telling :-P). Blogger 'Good Dog' at least makes me feel I'm not totally alone in thinking that the Americans are the only ones producing good drama these days and that Doctor Who and Torchwood are for the most part an infantile embarrassment to our notion that we Brits can produce good drama. Of course it helps that at times he's almost as cantankerous as me ;-)

Reel Fanatic

is another great read, from a passionate film buff. I don't know how the writer, based in the States, manages to hold down a full-time job, and still post a daily critique of film and television news and events, but he does a fantastic job of it, and unfailingly responds to any and every comment made too. A real class act! Add it to your daily RSS feed checks!

The Last Picture Show

This one's a very recent discovery, and looks like a bit of mutual back-slapping on my part since the author, Steve Langton, nominated my blog for an award. Truth is Steve's love of film shines through his every post, and I also enjoy following him on Twitter. Steve's based in Derby, not far from where I attended university (Loughborough) and shares my love of great punk bands that I saw perform live at many venues in the area in the late 1970's. The fact that he has such great taste in films as well is a bit of a bonus.

That's it. Gotta go. The Gomorrah Blu-Ray is calling.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

2009-02-04T04:33:00.003Z

First off, let me "'fess up" and admit that this isn't really a film review - it's a Blu-Ray review. Although Vicky Cristina Barcelona is officially released to UK cinema's this Friday (6th February), the region-free US import has been available with 'next day delivery' for the UK from movietyme for a couple of weeks now, with the film having received its Stateside theatrical release way back in August last year.

The Blu-Ray is over-priced at around £21 - especially since it's a vanilla disc with no extra's at all - but that's what you get with the falling value of the pound, and at least you're going to get a crystal clear picture if you decide to opt for the Blu-Ray over a trip to your local flea-pit. One note of caution on the picture quality front though - the film looks like it's been 'Tango-ed' because of the ridiculous colour grading that's been performed on the film, presumably to make it clear the movie takes place in a hot country.

The film's title summarises the story perfectly: it's about two friends (Vicky and Cristina) and their trip to Barcelona! Vicky is straight-laced and conventional, having a last holiday with her best friend Cristina, before she gets married to a rathr dull lawyer. Cristina is her opposite - a, promiscuous, artistic, 'free spirit' who has commitment issues and, it transpires, low self-esteem despite obvious talent. The film is essentially the story of the two girls meeting a Spanish artist Juan (Javier Bardem) who cheekily introduces himself by suggesting the two spend a weekend with him 'making love'.

Cristina is attracted, Vicky is appalled and Juan's ex-wife, who has disappeared abroad after trying to murder her husband, returns not quite sure what she thinks.

The marketing of the film has been interesting, to say the least. Despite being a Cannes Film Festival award winner, the standard film trailer (not included on the Blu-Ray but which I caught at the cinema last week) and all the advertising I've seen makes no mention of the fact that this is a film written and directed by Woody Allen. I suspect this sublimation of the writer/director is deliberate, given the extremely negative reviews his last few films have received.

As the title suggests the film sees Allen moving on from London (where his last three films were made) in favour of Spain, and the move seems to have done him the world of good. Most critics are lauding this as a 'return to form' for the elderly director with 43 films to his name, although a few are at pains to point out that this is still a long way from the director's peak a couple of decades ago.

Javier Bardem shows surprising leading man charisma, turning a character that might have seemed seedy in other's hands, into a sexy, passionate, noble type whose purpose in life seems to be to bring out the best in others. I don't think I'm giving too much away when I say that the impact his character has on the lives of all the people he meets improves their lot, even if it means characters completely change what they have perceived to be the important things in life up to their point of meeting him. If nothing else, this film proves that Bardem's award-winning performance in No Country For Old men (aka 'the performance with the silly wig') was no one-off fluke. Given Allen's notorious difficulties in dealing with actors (he allows no rehearsal time and allows only one or two takes) the results on display here are quite astounding.

Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall give strong, totally believable and sympathetic performances as the Cristina and Vicky of the title, but when Penelope Cruz turns up in the second half of the film, as Juan's psychotic ex-wife, she totally steals the film (and not JUST for her much publicised 'lesbian kiss' scene with Johansson's character). She is at turns fiery, sensitive, bonkers and amusing, often within the same short scene.

The film does rely a little too much on narration to 'fill in the gaps', and feels particularly artificial in that you can 'hear' Woody Allen reading it even though it's actually Christopher Evan Welch performing the role. But this is a small criticism when so much about the film is so enjoyable. Allen is careful not to judge any of his characters, or even indicate which of the two widely different world views held by Vicky and Cristina are the 'right' ones, leaving the viewer free to simply fall in love with the characters and the simple story he's set up.

I found the film a subtle, beautiful piece of work - albeit one that is rather like a rather exotic, but light desert: very enjoyable at the time, but not anything that strikes you as particularly substantial or necessary when reviewed in the cold light of day. While Allen's touch is deft, and his choice of music sublimely in keeping with the film's mood and themes, for me it's the ensemble cast that steal the picture and make this a 'recommended' viewing.

Revolutionary Road

2009-02-01T17:19:00.002Z

Although Revolutionary Road has garnered a few award nominations, it hasn't grabbed any of the really big nominations, and so was not on my list of films that I really needed to see BEFORE they hit shiny disc.

However, a particularly gruelling week at work, followed by some tedious study on Saturday morning left me wanting some escape from all the drudgery and so I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to go and see the film at my local cinema, The Clapham Picture House, now thankfully outfitted with pristine digital projection.

Despite a high rating on imdb the response from the British critics seems to have been somewhat luke-warm, with one or two pathetically resorting to mean-spirited attacks on Leo DiCaprio's 'weasily' face as some sort of critique. Nearly all reviews have emphasised the bleakness of the piece, with many concluding that this new essay on American Suburbia, set in the 1950's, is a much lesser work than director Sam Mendes' earlier 1999 treatise on the same subject, American Beauty. Seemingly Revolutionary Road is in dire need of some of the black humour that helped elevate that piece. So, I was all set up for a film of unremitting despair and dreariness. Thankfully I got a beautifully directed and acted piece about the break up of a marriage in the 1950's, which had real intelligence and depth and - weren't you paying attention critics? - several moments of black humour too.

As the film opens we meet Kate and Leo's characters, April and Frank Wheeler, strangers flirting with each other across a crowded room, quickly falling in love. Most reviewers have tried to play down the hype around this reunion of Winslet and DiCaprio - their first film together since the collosally successful Titanic - pointing out that these are two very different characters from the star-crossed, iceberg-bound lovers who many wanted to see reunited again. The couple will indeed spend most of this new film's running time tearing each other apart. That being said, I think these could very well be the same couple, with the film effectively showing that romantic feelings (or lust) do not necessarily make the best starting point for a good, long, happy marriage. We're not long into the film before realising the couple are having problems. April has aspirations to be a professional actress, but her first amateur dramatics production is a disaster, with her own performance being the worst thing about it; whilst Frank is stuck in an office job he hates but suffers in order to provide for his family and young children. He finds himself so miserable and unhappy that it's hardly surprising he ends up having a one night stand with an infatuated doe-eyed secretary. Marriage-wise, things can clearly only go downhill from here.

Unfortunately, this first, short section of the film suffers greatly from comparisons to Mad Men, the Emmy-award winning series about ad men in the early 60's. The characters look and act the same, the set design (particularly of the offices and restaurants) look and act the same, and the basic story seems to be the same. All that's missing are the more soap-y elements necessary to keep a show running over 13 hours of prime-time TV. So comparisons are inevitable when the film starts off failing to offer anything different.

Fortunately things take a turn about 20 minutes in, and from then-on the film becomes a gripping, acting tour-de-force as the lives of the young married couple who feel they are 'special' compared to those around them, unravel.

When April sees a chance for the family to escape their dull, suburban, unhappy lives, by escaping to Paris for a new life, it seems that maybe there will be a 'happy ever after' ending after all, despite their seeming naivety about what awaits them in Paris. Neighbours and friends are incredulous, if a little envious, but events soon conspire against the couple as multiple chickens seem to come home to roost at the same time and the planned escape starts to fall apart in spectacular
fashion.

Most reviews have centred on Kate Winslett winning performance as a depressed housewife, but for me DiCaprio's performance is the real relevation, and the far more interesting performance of the two. He has a much less sympathetic character to play but beautifully expresses the pain, sadness and anger his character experiences without resorting to histrionics. He is never less than 100% convincing, and the pain in his eyes is hard to bare. The actor has come a long way from the ridiculous 'pauper' acting as Jack that he gave us in Titanic.

Winslett delivers, as one would expect her to, based on previous form, but I couldn't help feeling this is the same Winslett act we've seen so many times before -Kate doing her teary, worthy, Oscar-nominated thing. It just felt a little too 'clever' to be entirely believable for me.

That being said, I was gripped by the film, right to its rather startling and abrupt end. The film takes its time to tell its story and tells it well, and the cinematography, from stalwart Roger Deacon is
stunning. It may not be a 'feel good' movie, but it's nowhere near as bleak as some critics have implied, and we're blessed that Hollywood can turn out strong, intellectual fare like this amongst all the banality
of gross-out 'comedies' and mindless action flicks that are guaranteed to put teenage bums on seats and turn a hefty profit.

Checking out the Ocar Nominated Films

2009-01-25T12:28:00.007Z

Good new movies are just like the buses at this time of year - a long time waiting for something good to show up, and then suddenly everything arrives all at once. We have the endless awards ceremonies to thank of course, but there does seem to be something wrong when my local PictureHouse has five screens showing nothing but oscar-nominated movies in the one week. If only one were faced with such tough decisions as to which film to see at your local cineplex all year round!

In an attempt to be more informed for watching the Academy Awards this year I decided NOT to wait for the shiny discs, most of which come out AFTER the awards ceremony, but actually check the films out on theatrical release. Alas, such is the poor memory of most that recent marketing machinations mean we're suddenly in a situation where most companies release films to the general public AFTER they're nominated, rather than months before, as used to happen. I can't help feeling that The Dark Knight (OK, I know it's fantasy which never does well, but even so...) and Christopher Nolan have seriously lost out because the film was released a few months ago rather than next month!

I saw Milk last week (and blogged about it here)
but used the weekend to catch up on three of its rivals.

Slumdog Millionaire

If my local cinema at Clapham is any measure of success Slumdog Millionaire looks like a slam-dunk for the 'Best Film' oscar. Two weekends running they've had to display "All performances sold out" even at 11am in the morning. Certainly if there were an award for 'Best Marketing' this film should win it. The decision to advertise the film as if it were a Mama Mia! 'feel good' movie is an inspired one, even if it totally misrepresents the film and the director is unhappy with the deception. Punters who will likely be shocked at the torture scenes that appear at the start of the film, but feeling beholden to stay to the end because they've already paid, will by the end feel they've been on a journey and seen a worthy film, even if it wasn't the one they'd been sold.

Personally, I thought Slumdog Millionaire was a very good film, but not an excellent one, and not one I'd give 'Film of the year' to. I liked the direction, whilst accepting that it may have been a bit too 'flash' in places for some, and there were some truly amazing shots of Mumbai and the slum area in the film. The young actors (or non-actors, as director Danny Boyle has indicated) are very impressive and the early scenes are moving and realistic. Unfortunately the later scenes in the story timeline, featuring the 'grown up' lead appearing on TV show Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? or being tortured are less successful. Dev Patel seems a nice enough chap, but this is a 'no acting really required' role for the most part, and it's scandalous that BAFTA have decided to nominate Patel for 'Best Actor', seemingly because of his nationality rather than any evidence from the film. Our hero has entered a TV competition purely to be seen and reunited with his childhood girlfriend. The trouble is there is no chemistry between Patel and his beautiful female lead, and I didn't believe in their 'life long love affair' for a second.

The story itself, described by director Boyle as 'a fable' is also too far-fetched to have any credibility. We are asked to accept that each question our hero is asked on the TV quiz show just happens to coincide with some obscure event that happened to our lead character on his life journey. This is silly enough as it is, but that they also happened to be asked in the correct chronological order to events in the lead's life, told as background between each question, is just ridiculous. Apparently this is carried over from the book the film is based on, but for me it just made the whole film's story ridiculous and contrived.

And I'm going to upset several Indian friends who are big fans of the film's composer A.R. Rahman, when I say that for me the music intruded far too often, and seemed to distract from, rather than enhance, the on-screen visuals. When music actually takes you out of the film, as it did on a couple of occasions here, there's something wrong.

None of this should stop you going to see the film. Like the execrable Mama Mia! it seems to have struck a chord with the general public, and certainly it's a MUCH, MUCH better film than the poorly-written and directed Abba spin-off. In many ways it marks a return to form for director Danny Boyle after the extremely disappointing, derivative Sunshine.

The Wrestler

If I was slightly disappointed with Slumdog Millionaire, I was even more so with The Wrestler.

The 'low budget movie' warnings should have alerted me of course, and in fact if it wasn't for so many enthusiastic reviews about the film itself, and Rourke's performance as 'The Wrestler' of the title I would no doubt have given this one a miss. Which, given my lack of enthusiasm for the actor I should have done. I'm not sure if it's the excessive ego, the rudeness and bad manners, or a strong dislike of the yappy little dogs that he's obsessed with, but I find myself avoiding any interviews with this 'difficult' personality.

Most reviewers said this was a 'character piece' rather than a movie about wrestling, but Lord there's a LOT of tedious wrestling in the film, especially in the first hour. The 'trailer home trash' real life story has been done, to much better effect I think, a hundred times before I think, and even the cliched 'let's have no real start and no real end' approach to the film, which others are claiming is 'brave' seem cliched to the extreme. It's like one of those tedious documentaries about people fallen on hard times, with no real let-up or variation on a tired, well-known theme. I found the film hard work and it's one you'd have to pay me to sit through again. Yes, Rourke gives an incredible performance - but is reliving the events of your life and playing yourself REALLY an oscar-winning ACTING performance? Not for this viewer. And not, it seems, for most of the public. Despite the rave reviews, the cinema was almost empty where all other screenings were full and it has already switched to matinee performances only.

My money's still on Sean Penn in Milk for the 'Best Actor' winner, although he has some serious competition in the form of Frank Langella in ...

Frost/Nixon

A 'talking head' movie is one I'd definitely avoid at the cinema - wait for the DVD instead. However, I'm glad I went to see Frost/Nixon before the awards ceremonies all kick off. The film, transferred from the London stage, was gripping, tense and beautifully acted throughout and whilst I kept thinking I was watching 'Blair vs Nixon' rather than 'Frost vs Nixon' because of Michael Sheen's over-familiar act, that didn't detract too much.

In many ways the film reminded me of Good Night, and Good Luck, a 'better' film in my view, but one shot in black and white which undoubtedly put a lot of potential viewers off. This more mainstream political drama is likely to prove more popular with the general public.

The direction from Ron Howard is perhaps a little pedestrian, but I think the material demands the sort of subdued subtlety that's in evidence here and the story plays to Howards' strengths rather than his weaknesses. But, ultimately, this isn't Howard's film or Sheen's - it's Langella's. As Nixon he gives a career-best performance of great subtlety and depth. I'd hate to be the voter having to choose between this performance and Penn's for the oscars this year.

So Who Should Win?

Personally, I think Milk deserves the 'Best Film' oscar - I found it more 'genuinely' moving than any of the other contendors. But I also think the subject matter (about an openly gay politician) means it hasn't a hope. I haven't seen Benjamin Button yet (not released in the UK until next month), but am already getting the sense from early critical reviews that I'll find it too contrived and sentimental to win me over. I suspect Slumdog Millionaire will win, and if so it certainly wouldn't be as ridiculous a result as a few years ago when Chicago won!

'Milk' it for all it's worth

2009-01-17T03:52:00.006Z

It's been a while since I last blogged, as the pressure of work, video, and preparations for new Microsoft certification exams seem to have taken over every available minute :(

But a bout of insomnia gives me a chance to blog about the excellent trip to BFI Southbank I made a few hours ago to see
Milk, the oscar-nominated film about the murdered San Francisco gay rights politician Harvey Milk who rose to fame in the 70's.

Director Gus Van Sant's films can be a bit hit and miss for me, and I frequently seem to take a contrary view to the general critical response, so that for example while I loved Elephant (a sort of retelling of the Columbine massacre in a very smooth, free-form, poetic style) which the critics didn't seem keen on, I really disliked Paranoid Park which the critics loved, but which I thought was badly-shot, self-indulgent, 'arty' tosh.

Then of course there's the oscar-winning Good Will Hunting, which wasn't a bad film, but one that really didn't merit all the hype it received at the time of release.

Thankfully, Milk marks a return to form for the director after a series of independent 'art house' movies, as Van Sant moves back to a more mainstream style of filming, with a biopic that is individual, powerful, moving, incredibly well acted and couldn't have arrived at a more appropriate time given what's happening in California with Proposition 8.

The film opens with titles over archive black and white footage showing the police raiding and arresting gay men in bars for simply being there. This was a time when men could be arrested for the simple act of holding hands, and to a modern audience the footage, showing men in suits sat at tables covering their faces so as not to be caught on camera as the police barge in to arrest everyone, comes across as quite shocking. Manhandled and stuffed into police vans like sardines, it's quite incredible to think this is real-life footage from not that many years ago.

Despite the shocking introduction, the main theme of the movie is a celebration of one man's vision of hope, with Milk fighting for the rights of minorities and against injustice being kick-started by the murder of a gay friend on Castro Street in San Francisco. Perhaps unintentionally (the film was made before Proposition 8 came into being) the film also helps to show how placid and resigned we've become to losing such hard-fought rights in a time when there's far LESS homophobia about.

Proposition 8 shows that history, yet again, is doomed to repeat itself, and as actor James Franco (who plays Milk's lover in the film) and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black pointed out in the Q & A that followed tonight's screening, few people - even modern gays who live close to where these events happened - seem to know the story of Harvey Milk, America's first openly gay politician.

Black's screenplay is based on extensive original research by the author, and the film features some of the real life characters in Harvey's life at the time. He has written a wonderfully warm, personal script full of humanity and life that doesn't try to paint Milk as a saint, but as someone of good heart, not moved to politics, who just felt he'd done nothing good in his life by the age of 40 and rose to meet the demands of a situation that was so unfair that it demanded action. Milk has flaws: a sexual attraction to weak, unlikeable, mentally unstable men being perhaps the main one and the flaws are portrayed here in a way that makes the man far more real than the simple 'hero' he's often been painted as.

Director Van Sant has put together a clever collage of real life footage of events at the time, together with original dramatic scenes, but if the film is one man's show (it isn't, as ALL the cast, including Josh Brolin, Emile Hursch and the afore-mentioned James Franco give performances that make the characters seem real flesh and blood, not actors giving 'oscar winning' performances) it's Sean Penn's. Those used to seeing Penn play angry, violent characters are in for a shock, his performance as the amiable Harvey Milk is full of joy, humour and sly asides that make you totally forget Penn the actor, as you watch Milk the politician as if he were still alive today. Where I'd be rooting for an oscar win for the much under-rated (until he died) Heath Ledger, I'm now leaning more towards Penn for what surely counts as a career-best performance. And with a career as impressive as Penn's has been, that's no small compliment.

The screening tonight, at the BFI Southbank in London, advertised a post-screening Q&A session with director Gus Van Sant, covering his entire career, as part of the Guardian Talks series of events. As it turned out, we were treated to two Q&A's - the one advertised, and then an extra one concentrating specifically on Milk with Van Sant being joined by his screenwriter and one of his lead actors.

By all accounts Van Sant is a shy man, and he's certainly a quiet one, not naturally given to giving long answers to quite involved questions, some of which came from the audience, but most of which came from a professional on-stage interviewer. Nevertheless he held the audience for the 30 minutes he had on stage, intercut with excerpts from his earlier work. He was self-deprecating and told some amusing anecdotes, such as how he spent 6 years trying to persuade Universal to support his 'shot by shot' remake of Psycho before Good Will Hunting's awards success suddenly turned a studio's position of 'Not interested' to 'That's a fantastic idea'!

While dismissing critics opinions, particularly with regard to the highly controversial Psycho, he seemed to admit that in this particular case they might have been right, saying that the film made him realise that simply copying shots isn't enough to recreate something, and that Hitchcock himself was the main ingredient that made the original film work, an ingredient that was clearly missing from his own remake despite featuring an 'exact' copy of each original scene.

I was surprised, watching the Good Will Hunting film, to see Ben Affleck's brother Casey Affleck in the film, thinking him a very recent recruit to the world of film acting (he is sensational in Gone Baby Gone, The Assassination of Jesse James and Lonely Jim), but Van Sant revealed that actually the much-publicised relationship between himself and 'new to film' Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, came about through him knowing Casey.

I'm a big fan of James Franco's work (and NOT just because he's so pretty, although I'm sure that probably helps!) Perhaps best known as Peter Parker's best friend Harry (aka the son of The Green Goblin) in the Spider-Man movies, or as the front-man for the current Gucci "men's fragrence" magazine campaign, his best performances have been in movies like In the Valley of Elah, Pineapple Express or even the critically mauled Flyboys. He's an incredibly versatile actor, and gives another excellent performance in Milk.

So it's disappointing to report that in person he comes across as a bit of an inarticulate, rambling, empty head - at least if his long-winded, content-free replies to the couple of questions directed his way at tonight's Q & A are anything to go by. It seems to be the pattern with really good actors - I remember feeling the same way about a similar Q&A at the same venue with Cillian Murphy around the time Sunshine came out. It's best, I guess, to just judge actors on their work and perhaps only allow them the limelight when they're doing that work, to avoid the shattering of illusions!

So far as the film itself is concerned, it seems unlikely that Milk will win the BAFTA or oscar for 'Best Film', even though it's been nominated. Not because it's not worthy (I really believe it is), but because Slumdog Millionaire seems to be winning all the marketing campaigns, after a slow start where it looked like The Dark Knight (probably my favourite film of last year) was going to be a shoo-in.

Tomorrow (erm, later today), I shall be seeing Slumdog Millionaire, hoping that it's significantly better than director Danny Boyle's last film Sunshine, which proved to be a huge disappointment (by all accounts 'Slumdog' is a significant return to form, so fingers crossed), and on Monday I shall be seeing The Wrestler, if only to see if Sean Penn's most fierce competitor for the upcoming 'Best Actor' oscar Mickey Rourke (I'm not a fan based on his personality and previous work) really does deliver the performance all the critics are saying he does.

Expect my thoughts on these other oscar contenders to follow later this week. In the meantime I highly recommend Milk despite the subject matter perhaps appearing a bit too minority-oriented to be of interest. The film goes on general release in the UK next Friday: 23rd January 2009.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

2008-08-17T16:39:00.004+01:00

The morning after a preview screening of Hellboy II: The Golden Army at the BFI Southbank I'm still trying to work out why I felt so let down by Guillermo del Toro's latest film. 'Disappointing' doesn't even begin to cover it.

Admittedly my humour wasn't helped by the fact that the ticket advertised by the BFI as being a preview that included a 'Q & A with the director' had no such thing (and of course no staff around to complain to - I'm guessing that since more than half the audience stayed to the end of the ridiculously long credits, I'm not the only one who got conned). What we DID get for the extra expense and trip to Southbank instead of our local fleapit was a self-congratulatory 30 second 'live' video introduction from the director who told us, rather presumptuously, that the film we were about to see was 'triple fucking A'.

Of course my expectations may have been too high, and my disenchantment with del Toro specifically may have set in with recent interviews and the way the fawning media are all over him as yet another 'flavour of the month saviour of cinema' director that the jibbering fan boys at Empire and the like suddenly seem to have fallen head-over-heels in love with (Tarantino didn't last long, did he?!).

The man who entertained with endless self-deprecating comments at Comic-Con several years ago, and indeed again at the NFT last year at the preview screening of Pan's Labyrinth seems to have turned into a sort of egomaniacal monster after all the oscar nomination hype, telling the world at every given opportunity how The Hobbit will be HIS fantastic vision and not Peter Jackson's - which may well be hilarious to watch from the sidelines (Jackson's real persona, by all accounts, is far more Machiavellian and controlling than the cuddly persona put on public view) but hardly augers well for the collaborative 'best of both worlds' originally promised.

The credit-claiming antics over The Orphanage didn't impress me either, although that may be the lazy media's fault rather than the rampant case of del Toro egotism it seems to be. Suffice to say that if I'd put my life blood and tears into directing such an excellent horror film, I'd be extremely pissed off at the number of column inches dedicated to praising del Toro (who was merely a producer on the film) as if it was all his work!

Those initial misgivings aside, I've loved del Toro's film work (although I thought Chronos rather over-rated) and although I don't think Hellboy is one of del Toro's best films (certainly not in the same league as Pan's Labyrinth or The Devil's Backbone which are real masterpieces) it was a SUPERIOR popcorn flick for all that.

Alas, 15 minutes in to the sequel, which most critics are touting as being a better film than its under-performing predecessor, I couldn't fool myself any longer, and found myself thinking 'This is an incoherent mess. Why didn't they go back and do re-shoots or edit the damned thing properly'. When you need title cards every few minutes to explain the time and place as you keep jumping around all over the place something is seriously wrong with the structure of your film. And unfortunately rushed editing was just the start of the problems I had with Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

Mabye I should get the good stuff out the way first as I know a lot of folks have high expectations for this new film. Let me say straight off that Hellboy II isn't a bad film: it's not as bad as any of the Star Wars prequels or The Matrix sequels or even anything in the Pirates of the Carribean franchise. It has more than a few enjoyable moments.

But it's just not a film that needs to be seen on a big screen, at least if last night's NFT screening was typical. The print used at the NFT was muddy, murky and over-processed and the aspect ratio hardly cinematic. These were criticisms I had of the same venue's preview of Pan's Labyrinth (which then turned out to be absolutely stunning when released on DVD) so hopefully the shiny disc will rectify these problems.

The new film is more true to the comics than the first one was - in that it's less mainstream, more quirky, and has a LOT more going on. I gather the budget wasn't high, but by God every penny they had must be up there on screen. Del Toro's imagination has run wild and there are endless wonderfully inventive creations and creatures in almost every frame of the picture.

But the whole thing is like a ridiculously over-egged pudding with its CGI puppets, endless effects and prosthetics in a story that has little depth or originality (the first 10 minutes come across as 'Lord of the Rings redux' - but instead of rings being split between races to stop a war we get bits of a crown) and just involves moving as quickly as possible from one showcase battle sequence to the next. The humour, so much a hallmark of the comic book, seems stagey and contrived and... rather weak. You can see each quip coming a mile away and too often the one or two good 'wise-crack' lines seem like they've been added with no thought as to where the characters are at the time and the situations they're in, but just shoved in anyway to get a quick laugh.

Most critics have pointed out the film's single real 'character development' moment - Hellboy and Abe bonding over a late night drinking session - as a highlight, but for me it stuck out like a sore thumb as being so different (and out of place) from the never-ending eye candy 'haven't we seen all this before, and wasn't it called Farscape the last time we saw it' aliens and effects sequences that it jarred - like a clip from a completely different film had suddenly been just slammed into the middle of proceedings.

The biggest sin of all though was Danny Elfman's totally generic, bombasic film score that seems to invade every single frame of the film. Like a bad episode of Doctor Who it's there all the time, drowning out dialogue, deafening you with its cliche's, leaving no room for subtlety or any kind of light and shade that might be required to mark this as 'a film rather than a fair ground ride'.

Maybe when I get a chance to re-appraise the film on DVD in a few months time I'll think better of it, and discover the charm that so many critics seem to be convinced is there. But for now it all feels like a case of 'Emporer's New Clothes' - a film let down by not just poor writing and a lack of coherence, but a woeful implementation by a director who's formerly delivered films to such a high standard. Too often there are glimpses of what the film MIGHT have been if a bit more care and attention (and time?) had been lavished on it, but in its current form it smacks of being a 'rush job'. And whilst 'rush job' might be acceptable to the mindset that liked the recent Pirates and Indiana Jones movies, del Toro's past efforts have meant I expected so much more than what's been delivered here.

Experimenting with Time Lapse

2008-08-03T14:38:00.007+01:00

Despite the hot, muggy weather - and it being Summer and all - I managed to catch a cold from a colleague at work last week and on Friday felt so ill that although I made it into the office, half an hour later I set off back home for a hot bath, Lemsip and bed. Not good for the cashflow, but what can you do?!

Alas, the cold seems to have totally messed up my sleep patterns, which are sporadic at the best of times, such that at 4am this morning I was still wide awake, not feeling at all sleepy.

So I decided I might as well just get up and head off to South Bank and try and film the dawn, using the time lapse feature on my Sony PMW-EX1 camera.

Alas, it may have been warm and muggy when I left the flat at around 4.15am, decked out only in a thin t-shirt, shorts and sandals, but by 5.30am it was distinctly cold, and by 6am it was raining that annoying thin drizzle that we only seem to get here in the UK. Net result is that it was pretty much the worst thing I could have done, most certainly hasn't helped my cold recovery time, and the rest of the day is going to be pretty much a write-off as I try and catch up on sleep.

Cold and wet I had to give up on the filming, since it was clear the sun was never going to come out, but here are a couple of scenes I shot (just over a minute - nothing too time-consuming to watch) that show the 'time lapse' feature I'm talking about:

London, 3rd August 2008 By Ian Smith
View in HD Download 720p HD Version Visit Ian Smith's ExposureRoom Videos Page

Time lapse is rather more difficult than I'd anticipated. I haven't found any way to lengthen the interval time so it takes less than one frame a second (although I guess I could use the 'stop animation' feature for that if need be) and you have to do some funky stuff with the shutter settings to 'smooth out' movement that would otherwise be so jerky it's really unwatchable. However this shutter adjustment makes using the LCD to line things up extremely difficult as suddenly it's like having a display that responds to movement etc 12 seconds after it's happened, and then displays only a streaky image to help.

Alas, there's a couple of nasty changes in the exposure about half to two-thirds of the way into the clip above because the 'zebra' function on the camera which warns about over-exposure was suddenly going crazy as the light started to increase. I over-reacted and adjusted the aperture setting when really I think I'd have got away with just leaving things as they were.

Anyway, it was an interesting exercise, and I'll be going back to try it again when the weather's a bit less inclement. I must say I LOVE using this camera - almost as much as I love editing and playing around with video. So, despite being cold and wet it was nice to have the chance to use the camera for something other than just filming user group talks, which don't really lend themselves to a lot of creativity.

What surprised me most about my little excursion this morning was the number of people walking around at that time of a morning. It seems that Vauxhall is full of gay people heading out TO (not from!) nightclubs at around 4.30am on a Sunday!

The Dark Knight

2008-07-26T08:44:00.004+01:00

The alarm bells started to ring the week before The Dark Knight opened here in the UK (officially on Friday, but with previews available pretty much everywhere on the preceding Thursday night), thanks mainly to the fact the film had opened in the States to an unbelievable amount of hype a week earlier.

I'm always suspicious when films get the best rating ever on imdb, start appearing at the top of bloggers' "Top 10 Films of the Year so far" lists, have the media calling for oscar awards, and fans boasting of having seen the film three or four times - all within just hours of the thing officially opening. Such ridiculous knee-jerk reaction, without proper time for reflection and comparison with some truly great movies over the last century, has invariably in the past lead to a set of expectations that can only realistically end in disappointment when one finally gets to see what all the fuss is about.

The Dark Knight is a film I've been waiting a long time to see, for a couple of reasons. One: Chris Nolan hasn't made a bad film yet (Insomnia is probably his weakest, but even that was extremely watchable) and his Memento still remains one of my favourite films of all time. Two: Heath Ledger has always shone as a chameleon-like actor (my favourite type) in everything he's done, even when the film he's appearing in has been pretty disappointing (Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm anyone?). Check out Monster's Ball, Brokeback Mountain and The Patriot (as well as the afore-mentioned Brothers Grimm) for examples of what I mean.

Of course in saying this I risk looking like one of those morbid idiots who are suddenly calling for an oscar for Ledger, based solely on some sort of Princess Diana-like overly sentimental obsession with death. Or like the sort of people who can ignore real talent in great films for years and years until the second they appear in a major mainstream blockbuster, when they suddenly think they've discovered a 'new' talent that's actually been around doing great work for years. Why IS it that people too lazy to bother go and see anything other than big budget movies at their local cinema multi-plex seem to think they're experts on discovering 'new' talent?! In my defence I'd like to point out that if you check back through previous blog entries you'll see I've been enthusing about Ledger (and his co-star in The Dark Knight, Christian Bale) since quite some time before pre-production work even commenced on The Dark Knight.

But (as ever!) I'm veering into off-topic rant mode. What I'm trying to say here is that with all the hype I was prepared to be hugely disappointed with the second film in the rejuvenated Batman franchise that's been co-written and directed by Nolan.

Admittedly the film has flaws. So let's get those out the way first. There's some silly, totally unrealistic gadget gimmick McGuffins that are completely unnecessary - the most ridiculous being a video wall that uses sonar to pinpoint someone anywhere in the city by their voice! There's a lack of emotional depth meaning there's no real viewer involvement or sympathy for any of the main characters which makes it hard to care whether or not one of them dies. There are a couple of rather bad edits and plot jumps that indicate this was originally a 4 hour movie that had to be drastically edited down even to make a two and a half hour cut. And I should add that a major weakness in my first viewing was the fact that although the IMAX hi-def presentation is exemplary, this is only true if you're not unfortunate enough to be sat in the first few rows where it's impossible to take in the whole frame, and one is at such an extreme angle you're likely to spend a great deal of the film's running time feeling nauseous. By all means go and see it at an IMAX for the best experience - but NOT if you're stuck with a seat in the first few rows!

But those minor criticisms I mentioned really are minor in the grand scheme of things, and the truth is I loved the film. So much so that I'm rather keen to go and see it a second time to catch the subtleties I missed on the first viewing. So much so that yup, at the moment this is at the top of my 'Best films I've seen this year' list. Bizarrely, the two and a half hour running time (which would usually have me running a mile with moans about 'self-indulgent directors who need to learn to edit') flew by, such that I was kind of disappointed when the film ended and didn't have another half hour or so to go.

Quite simply, the film has a depth and intricacy - and intelligence - that is quite astonishing for a big Summer blockbuster movie from Hollywood. And, those minor criticisms aside, it's pretty flawlessly executed, with great pacing, stunning cinematography, skillful editing and cast performances to die for.

I liked Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan's first take on the Batman franchise, but The Dark Knight is on a whole different level. Many are saying that it will be impossible for Nolan to make a better Batman film, and seem to be hoping he'll refuse to make a third on the basis that you should quit while you're ahead, and although I can see what people mean, I'd still like to see him try and top this one. When a director's best is this good, even his mediocre films are going to be worth seeing.

The obsession with Ledger's death means that certain critics are rushing to distance themselves from the gushing 'He should get an oscar' reports appearing on a daily basis at the moment. 'Christian Bale is the real performer here', says one critic. 'No! Aaroon Echkart is the ignored oscar contender' says another, 'his performance isn't a one-note pantomime trick like Ledger's and is far more subtle'.

I beg to differ! As Gary Oldman (who, incidentally, is the second best thing in the film, in another performance that deserves a 'Best Supporting Actor Role' nomination) repeatedly points out in promotional interviews, Ledger has created a truly astonishing and original take on a villain that will stand the test of time, and be remembered for years to come. It's an iconic performance of an iconic role. Just one example: there's a scene where Ledger's Joker approaches Bruce Wayne's love interest, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal and somehow manages to convey pure male violence and aggression while on the surface playing it lightly as he playfully curls his hair effeminately behind his ears. It's a performance that alternately has you celebrating the pure joy of the maverick, while at the same time feeling an icy chill down the back of your spine.

Bale, so enigmatic in other films, seems to be coasting here and there's nothing really memorable about his performance - other than the silly fake voice adopted for when he's in costume, which just doesn't work and takes the film out of its neo-realistic take on the comic book character. Eckhart is fine, but he's really just playing the same character we've already seen in most of his films, and I never really bought into his 'so madly in love it drives him to insanity' relationship with Maggie Gyllenhaal's character.

Ledger, on the other hand, is totally mesmerising. A frison of anticipation and excitement enters the cinema every time he appears on screen, and he's reinvented The Joker character to an extent that even the very strong 'nobody will beat that' precedents set by Cesar Romero (in the 60's TV series) and Jack Nicholson (in the earlier films) are instantly forgotten.

This is one film that, for me, lived up to the hype. And it has sufficent plot and depth that I suspect I'm going to see it a second time at a cinema rather than wait for the shiny disc. Some argue that Nolan, as director and co-writer, has over-egged the pudding with too many strands, complexities and far-too-clever moral diversions that compare with the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan today. Personally, I happen to like over-egged pudding in an industry that far too often seem to rely on dumb, formulaic content-free 3D software showcases. And the fact that such an intelligent, well constructed and well performed film has just won itself a 'best opening weekend ever' accolade, along with plaudits from critics and public alike is a cause for celebration.

Go see it if you haven't already. Even if comic book movies just aren't your thing. Just one word of warning: this is, as the title implies, a very dark film, and despite the comic book connotations is NOT suitable for children.

Mad Men

2008-07-06T13:02:00.002+01:00

At the risk of becoming a bore on the subject, I keep being impressed by the quality (of the writing, acting, cinematography and writing values) of so many good American drama series, whilst dumbfounded at the endless critical praise heaped on the garbage that makes for drama series given peak viewing slots on British TV. The last gasps of Russel T Davies reign on the BBC's Doctor Who, which aired his season finale on Saturday, show just how dire a situation we're in. The last two episodes of this British award-winning series weren't just bad, they were dire. Actually make that diarrhoeia. Ask a six year old to write fan fiction and you'd get better results than the garbage that was put out as peak time viewing on the BBC last night.

What makes me so angry is that the Beeb are so busy pushing their tawdry tat as 'event TV', with constant updates on their news pages about what's happening and how everyone's tuning in, and the script's a secret etc etc that even the tabloids are all rushing to join in. Seemingly the need to cash-in on merchandising from the mindless masses who just follow what they keep being told to follow means that the real dramatic gems get consigned to the graveyard slots on BBC2 with not even the merest hint of promotion or advertising.

The BBC royally screwed up Rome, a series they'd invested millions of license payers money in, by doing what no other country did when showing the series - condensing the first two episodes of the series down into a single episode, cutting so much out in the process that what aired made no dramatic or cohesive sense. That they did so without telling anyone, presumably hoping nobody would notice in an attempt to make it fit between a couple of the cheap reality shows they'd rather be making, only adds to the general incompetence that seems to reside in the corporation's drama department. It was left to the episode's director, Michael Apted, to apologise profusely for what had been done behind his back, making it clear that he washed his hands of what aired in the UK as being in any way representative of what he'd filmed as director.

The BBC even manged to kill ratings winners like The X Files by introducing constantly changing schedules and time-slots that made it impossible to work out when the next episode might air, and on which channel.

They did the same, only worse, to The West Wing which never got off the ground despite rave reviews, because nobody could ever figure out what night and at what time the next episode might be on.

And now they've done it again. This time to Mad Men, the first season of which I caught a brief 10 minutes of by accident around midnight on BBC2 a few weeks ago just because I couldn't sleep and was channel flicking. I was so intrigued by what little I caught I imported the (thankfully region free) Blu-Ray disc of Season 1 from MovieTyme for just £22 (OK, £21.99 if you want to be precise). The show tells the story of ambitious, thriving ad men in Manhattan in the 1960's and is that rare thing - a subtle work of beauty, that's also thrillingly addictive.

It has more than lived up to my hopes. The writing is excellent, the cast are superb and the production values are exemplary - from the exquisite Saul Bass -homage opening titles, to the beautifully lit period detail in every scene. It exudes the sort of class and quality the BBC used to be famous for before it got obsessed with merchandising and producing infantile nonsense like Toshwood or endless free adverts for the two millionaires responsible for most West End musicals.

Thankfully, Mad Men has just been released on bog-standard DVD here in the UK and sells for £25 - a bargain thirteen 50 minute episodes of this quality - but, in yet another example of the great British rip-off, includes as extra's (if Empire magazine's reviews section is to be believed) just 3 commentary tracks and a couple of short extra's that deal with the music for the series and what advertising in the 60's was like. There is no hi-def release in Britian.

But my US imported hi-def release, paid for in British pounds and shipped to me from a British address, cost me £21.99. So, for £3 less than the official British 'standard definition - there's no other choice' release you can buy the hi-def version on Blu-Ray and get not just a far better picture that show the high production values the show has, but also had additional material. How much additional material? How about TWO commentary tracks PER EPISODE instead of three commentary tracks sperad across all thirteen episodes? Or a documentary on the making of the series itself?

Why would anyone with internet access buy the British release?! Come to that, why would the British release not only cut out so much additional material but then have the temerity to charge us a higher price? I think we all know the answer to that: it's just business as usual for the British distribution companies.

Things are so bad that I'm seriously considering purchasing an American Blu-Ray player to play the titles I want that AREN'T region free (basically everything from Fox, including shows like Lost which aren't available in hi-def formats in the UK). We get ripped off in so many ways - a big mark up in price for significantly less. How do they get away with it? There really is no excuse.

Empire gave Mad Men four stars by the way, which is a high mark for them, and I'd agree with that rating. But if you're going to check it out please buy American and don't encourage the UK industry which insists on ripping us off so much.

I heard over the weekend that another superb US drama series, Dexter, which kicks off its second season on a channel I don't have access to (FX) TONIGHT, is going to eventually surface on ITV. No doubt that will follow the fate of other quality drama over at the BBC and end up being aired too late for anybody to be able to watch it.

Still there was a little glimmer of hope for those interested in improving the quality of widely viewed British drama this week. In a Q & A session on the BBC web site hack writer Russel T Davies said that when he left Doctor Who at the end of the five specials next year he would never write for it again! Hoorah!

I hope and pray the BBC got that promise in writing! It's sad, especially as I loved his Queer As Folk scripts, but Davies' Doctor Who scripts have been the most inane, infantile, plot-hole filled, ex-deus machine ending filled garbage masquerading as drama that I've seen fill our screens in a long, long time. So, as far as I'm concerned, it's good riddance, thank God you're going, and please Mr BBC commisioner don't let him anywhere near sci-fi ever again if his work on Who is an example of all he can do.

It may get a bit quiet around here!

2008-06-14T12:28:00.005+01:00

I've wasted pretty much all of Saturday morning taking part in a senseless 'debate' (ie heated argument) with people on an online forum. Will I never learn?!

The 'debate' was about an American company's pricing policy. The company are continually promoting 'discounted' prices that have a limited time on them, with such gems as 'special price - ends tonight'. The trouble is that those 'special' prices almost invariably change to a new, even lower price just days later, which tends to annoy newbies unfamiliar with the way the company works its strong-arm sales tactics who've purchased the items thinking they've got a bargain, only to find it bettered days later.

Understandably, people get annoyed that before they've even taken delivery of their goods the 'special' price has turned out to be not so special as if they'd waited a day or two and ignored the so-called 'special' deadline that was advertised. This happens so often that the controversial subject of 'unfair business practices' or 'rip offs' tends to crop up fairly frequently on the company's forums. What's odd though is that this particular company has a small number of loyal, but extremely vocal, fan boys who moan endlessly about how often the subject comes up. This might be acceptable if that small minority didn't continually fan the flames themselves, by mercilessly bullying anyone stupid enough to show even a hint of disapproval about the company's practices. What usually happens is the poor naive newbie pointing out the obvious unfairness of the company's sales approach gets such verbal abuse that he invariably beats a hasty retreat, usually never to be seen again.

Today's 'debate' got more heated than normal because it centred around the fact that a week ago the company boasted a launch price that was "never" (their word) to be repeated, only to, as usual, then advertise a better deal just a few days later. Understandably, this upset a few folk who'd purchased before the "never to be repeated" better deal came into effect, with the salt in the wound being that they were still waiting for delivery of the items advertised under the older deal. I foolishly leapt into the debate when I felt the usual forum's fanboy minority were yet again bullying someone who had a legitimate complaint.

The counter-arguments put forward can best be summarised as 'The company products are so good nobody cares about the pricing. I'd sell my house, wife and kids to buy these products even if the day after I'd bought them I found they were being given away free to any newcomers. So why is anybody else complaining?'. OK, I exaggerate a little for effect, but you get the general drift.

The folks who've wasted so much of my time this morning don't seem to appreciate that the argument is about business ethics and 'truth in advertising' and not about the value for money of certain products in certain price ranges. Suggestions that they look up the word 'never' in a dictionary and then consult the guidelines of The Advertising Standards Authority to see why something's not just unfair but (at least in the UK) just plain wrong, are invariably met with intelligent, reasoned responses like 'You're always complaining. Why don't you leave?'. Fortunately I've had the good sense to exit the 'discussion' before the inevitable word 'whinger' raised its ugly head, which at least means my Saturday afternoon won't be a complete write-off too.

Generally, criticisms that I'm a 'frequent complainer' or a 'whinger' are just water off a duck's back. Especially when those making the calls (Microsoft evangelists on salaries take note!) have vested interests, or who demonstrate time and time again all they're interested in is point scoring rather than a fair and objective view. And there's a reason why this blog is called 'Irascible Ian' after all!

But the wasted time and energy in dealing with the negativity that radiates from idiots is getting to me so much today that I've decided it's time to take some good advice: 'If you've not got anything nice to say about somebody don't say anything at all'.

Well at least for the next few weeks anyway! Old habits die hard ;-)

Which is why there's no review of The Incredible Hulk in this blog entry, which I was lucky enough to see a preview of on Monday (lucky in the sense I didn't have to pay money for it). And why there isn't a lengthy discourse on how great the new Narnia film Prince Caspian is. Or even The Happening.

Heh! Look at the time I've reclaimed by not having to write about those things under this 'nice things only' policy!

The danger of course is that this blog might just disappear completely if all the negative stuff gets taken out.

Fortunately there's last week's Doctor Who, which was so well written and filmed, that I feel I can actually mention it here on this blog with a sense of enthusiasm and respect. It was the second of a two-parter by Stephen Moffat, whose episodes over the last four years have easily been the stand-out ones of the series.

Apparently the next few episodes - including tonight's - are written by Russel T Davies. I won't be watching. I'll be going to The Magic Circle instead. That way there's a chance I'll have something to write under the new policy on this blog tomorrow!

Another "Catch up" Post

2008-06-02T19:02:00.004+01:00

My blogs have all suffered as I've wasted one weekend after another trying to get Shiny Discs properly launched. It's now 'on hold' until I can afford decent hardware to ensure I don't spend two days producing a weekend show, only to then find it needs a week to edit in titles and then render them out.

I may revive the old DVD reviews in the absence of the weekly video podcast if I haven't got things sorted by the middle of July, but in the meantime here's a few quick thoughts on titles I've seen recently.

National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets (on Blu-Ray) - not as bad as the critics have said it is. Formulaic and a bit pedestrian perhaps but I was never bored and this is worth seeing just for the incredible London car chase scenes. Nic Cage isn't my idea of someone who makes for a good leading man (although his sidekick in this film, Justin Bartha does, with quirky humour, some great lines and traditional good looks what's not to like?!) Helen Mirren joins the 'franchise' and it's good, if somewhat old-fashioned and extremely silly, Saturday teatime popcorn fare.

My Kid Could Paint That is a fascinating documentary on DVD about a four year old child hailed as an artistic prodigy. But as the story unfolds suspicions arise that it may be the girl's father who's actually doing the painting. The film and to an even greater extent the extra's show how scarily able human beings are to totally delude themselves to justify their decisions, even when the evidence is right in front of their eyes. One of the most enjoyable documentaries I've seen in a long time.

The Savages on DVD was a disappointment for me, despite starring the wonderful Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney. All the best bits are in the trailer, and the film loses its way by not sticking to the main story that starts the film - that of two siblings forced to face dealing with a father who develops dementia. His predicament pretty soon gets dropped as the story moves all over the place trying to show the two childish siblings finally reaching adulthood. I'd expected more laughs and more of a single-strand story than I got with this one.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead on Blu-Ray was a real joy for me. Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman give incredible acting performances in this story of two brothers who set up a bank robbery on their parent's jewellery store to sort out their financial problems, only for things to go horribly, horriby wrong. It's the 84-year old director, Sidney Lumet who's the real star of this film though - he brings a fresh, exhuberant energy to the direction that totally belies his age.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days on DVD has won a lot of festival awards. I was worried the bleak subject matter (abortion in 1980's Romania) would mean this would end up like the last Romanian DVD I saw (The Death of Mr Lazarescu - ejected after a long hour that made the prospect of watching paint dry for a week seem exciting). But I was gripped throughout, and it's a very well made, powerful film.

I've also been catching up on some TV by way of DVD box sets.

24 Season 6 is just turgid and I gave up on it about 2/3 the way in. Repetitive, unbelievable and just plain dull this is by far the worst series of the show so far. Previous series have had me hooked from start to finish. Not this one! Did the regular writers leave or something?

Dirt was also disappointing given the generally enthusiastic cricial reviews. Admittedly Courteney Cox gives an impressive performance, but the show is so obviously trying to shock with its endless sex scenes and drug-fuelled storylines, I got very irritated with it very quickly. It's like someone tried to steal all the best bits from the likes of Six Feet Under, Nip/Tuck and Ugly Betty, but forgot that you need more than just 'quirky' to make it addictive viewing. There isn't a single remotely likeable character in it and the whole thing comes across as a 'we've got a deadline - write something' rather third rate soap opera. Not terrible, but not great either!

The big surprise has been Skins on DVD (Series 1 and 2). The trailers on Channel 4 put me right off watching this when originally broadcast, and the tagline 'From the makers of Shameless' did nothing to dissuade me that this was the sort of rubbish that lay at the root of London stabbings, yobby, foul-mouthed youth and endless reality TV rubbish. Truth is I have zero interest in drug-addicted, sex-obsessed teenagers. Or so I thought. But the series is great because it has real fleshed-out characters that you find yourself sympathising with. The series has great writing, with wonderful laugh-out-loud moments mixed with 'Reach for the Kleenex' tragedy, and a cast able to deliver on the writing. I now understand why the show is so popular with the young folk. It's well worth renting out if you missed it on TV.

On the big screen yesterday I went to a preview of Narnia: Prince Caspian which hits cinema's on June 24th. Of the four of us who went I think I was the only one who actually thought it was rather good. I didn't like the first 'The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe' film, finding the acting, particularly from the children, very poor, the direction lackadaisical, and the pacing tedious in the extreme. It was a kid's film, pure and simple. The new film is definitely more of an adult's one, although it's become one by emulating (or trying to) 'Lord of the Rings'. As a result the original book by C.S. Lewis has been pretty much lost, with lots of silly new stuff added (jealous rivalry between the two elder boys, a love affair between Caspian and the eldest girl, an invented battle in the thin second act etc.). The film is MUCH too long at 2 hours and 25 minutes, but the effects are consistently good throughout and much better than those in the Harry Potter franchise. But I went in with pretty low expectations which may be why I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Certainly I'd agree with most of the early reviews that suggest there's nothing original that we haven't seen before in the film.

Video editing - knowing when to give up!

2008-05-26T10:34:00.004+01:00

I seem to have spent most evenings and weekends of the last few months sat at a computer, waiting. Waiting for the computer to do something that should take seconds but, inexplicably, starts taking hours.

For the last few weekends and a few Bank Holidays too I seem to have survived on just a few hours sleep, trying to get a slickly designed and produced video podcast ready for the web. Only to find I run out of time, have to throw away all the hard work done over the previous week (because each week the material becomes out of date), hit the 'reset' button and go through the whole wretched process again a week later.

Signs that things were not going to be as straightforward as promised by the hardware and software manufacturers who'd sold me high priced equipment surfaced pretty early on, with basic camera usage.

Sony's PMW-EX1 camera is an amazing camera for the (not inconsiderable) price of over UKP4000. The high def picture quality and level of control available is amazing. But the build quality is worse than that of a very cheap Christmas Cracker toy. Sony just love deliberately building in obsolescence - and as I look at a broken PC, several broken DAT players, a broken portable CD player and a broken digital video recorder, it seems to me that this is deliberate policy on ALL their products.

The PMW-EX1 is a hi-def camera that has numerous fiddly controls designed for fingers the size of matchsticks, with much needed lettering that flakes off within weeks of being used. It features an on-camera microphone holder which snaps off just by having a piece of camera bag material brush against the attached microphone.

The video forums are full of early owners disappointed at the frankly shit quality of what Sony have done in several areas, when the camera is so beautifully well designed in others.

What I find really bizarre is that whenever somebody rushes in to complain about any of the problems a horde of Rottweiler-like fan boys rush in to say 'What do you expect for the price? The picture quality is great. Who cares about the ergonomics or the build quality?'. I don't know why these 'fan boy' owners don't just walk around wearing 'Please rip me off. I'll never complain because that would mean admitting I made a mistake in my purchase' t-shirts. The reason we get such shoddy products is that people just seem happy to accept third-rate products that don't deliver on the promises made in the sales material.

My second 'learning curve' came with buying some animated backgrounds from Digital Juice. I should state upfront that I like Digital Juice a lot. They make great products, at ridiculously affordable prices, and have a customer service department second to none. But they also have this annoying practice of changing their prices on an almost daily basis. However, I guess that's a subject for another day. My frustrations with their product started with finding approximately half the DVD volumes I purchased from them - which should just load within seconds - would sit cranking away, locking up my whole computer for over 8 hours at a time, before finally giving up without installing the required video collateral!

Endless experiments and to- and fro-ing eventually pointed to my DVD drive being the problem, despite it having had no problems with numerous Microsoft software installation discs from MSDN. This is the 'fitted drive' that came with a top-of-the-range laptop that cost just under UKP4000! Digital Juice suggested getting new drivers but there are none available. What is available, if you do an internet search, is a lot of owners of the same drive complaining about lack of decent drivers and the way the drive keeps 'disappearing' from Vista on reboot. Unfortunately, this being a 'fitted' Dell PC, there is no simple alternative to replace it with.

I had thought I might be able to use an external Blu-Ray drive to load the discs instead - another expensive piece of equipment. But no, that drive too fails to read discs that other drives have no problem with! Shouldn't this shit just work? Are DVD formats a standard specification or not? Why am I wasting hour upon hour just trying to get basic functionality I foolishly assume I've paid for to work?

The next problem is that despite having 4GB RAM on my PC, video editing is too slow to be practical. Available disk space is part of the problem, so last week I bought a 2TB external RAID drive from Western Digital. If you're tempted, as I was, by their My Book Premium Edition II range that proudly boasts it's suitable for hi-def video, please do an internet search to find out how many angry owners all trying (and failing) to get their money back on this product there are!

Problems were obvious from the get-go. The drivers didn't auto-install as the flimsy one sheet instructions supplied with the drive had said they would. Not a biggie - I installed them manually. The drive then became visible in Windows Explorer and I could use the 2TB drive (actually two 1TB drives RAIDED together) to read/write to. But the supplied RAID manager, necessary to switch between RAID 0 and RAID 1 configurations, just keeps saying "no device found" despite the fact the drive is happily there, visible AND usable. A quick search via Google revealed no solution - just a LOT of unhappy customers complaining about what an awful product it was, and how customer support was non-existent. Some owners are still trying to get Western Digital to fix their problems more than a year after purchase!

Last night, after working crazy hours for two days on filming, DVD reviewing, script editing and collating assets I started to try and put the final touches together for a video podcast I wanted to launch last night (with another show to follow this morning). Using the Western Digital drive to hold assets introduced an interesting performance issue. Hit any key in the video editor and the PC would lock up for 10 minutes with the Western Digital drive flashing to say it was doing something, but I've no idea what. Want to split a piece of video to insert something? Wait 10 minutes. Want to back up a frame to line up a transition? Wait 10 minutes. After 6 hours I realised that my four minute video would require a week of working 18 hour days to get ready with this hardware. Hardware sold as 'suitable for use with hi-def video' I hasten to add.

I've had enough! Video podcasting plans are on hold until I can afford the 8 or 9 grand that seems necessary to purchase a turnkey solution suitable for video editing. A turnkey solution that has proper backup and support and NOT the sort I've had from Sony, Western Digital and Dell over the last few months! The time I can afford that sort of money to get something that will actually do what it says on the tin seems some long way off, but in the meantime if you've found a good packaged hardware solution, ideally one that's PC-based since I've spent a fortune in time and money in learning Sony's Vegas Pro package, please let me know.

In the meantime, I'm just going to look forward to a few free evenings, some decent sleep, and casual weekends for a change! The world of video editing makes the world of flakey Microsoft beta software and continual patches seem professional by comparison!

I'd better not give up the day job!

2008-05-14T22:48:00.005+01:00

A few weeks ago I blogged about a Single Camera Documentary Film Making Course I went on for a bit of fun, and wrote how I felt the whole thing was a poorly given rip-off. I think there's a lot of these sorts of rip-offs aimed at 'wannabe' film-makers and producers, often aimed at gullible newbies who think it might give them some sort of magic pass into the film-making industry.

After that experience I'm kind of relieved to be able to give a much more positive account (or, given the name of the company behind the course, I should say Pozitiv account) of the one day TV Presenter's Course that I went on as a way to 'celebrate' my 51st birthday on Tuesday.

No, I don't have any aspirations to go and work as a TV presenter (which is just as well, as I'm rubbish at it), but I did want to try and improve my 'on camera' apparances for my weekly video podcast over at ShinyDiscs.tv

I should say upfront that the course isn't cheap, but then quality rarely is, and the glowing references from a ton of reliable sources (like The BBC and The Guardian) together with a long list of former clients whose names I recognised 'from the telly' meant I thought this was probably the best course to go for. The fact that the next available course coincided with my birthday and had one space available (out of just six available places per course) acted as a beacon that said 'You're destined to do this'.

And I'm really glad I did, even though, as I'd initially suspected, the course didn't transform me into the great presenter I'd like to think is hidden inside me. The main thing is it was a LOT of fun, and I was really impressed with the attention to detail from the company behind it, which extended to delivering me a birthday cake with candles on half way through the afternoon viewing session :)

My experience all through the pre-booking and final course assessment with this company was never less than professional and customer-focussed. Which is a pretty rare thing these days, in my experience. Frankly it's a relief to be able to post something good about a company, after all my experiences of late!

The schedule for the course was really scary, particularly when you realise that most of us attending had no prior experience of being in front of a camera or in a TV studio. The company send out an information pack a week or two ahead of time and you have to choose (or write and send in) an autocue script for one exercise, and make sure you have learnt another piece ready for a 'live broadcast' exercise on the day of the course itself.

What impressed me about the course was that I felt it was very 'real world', where another company would probably have made the exercises much easier and more 'mickey mouse', if only to make the students feel good about themselves. They warned us ahead of time that there might be some 'surprises' (ie spanners in the works!) instead of just simple exercises we'd been initially prepped for, and so it proved to be, which I think is much more typical of what happens in the real world.

For example the first exercise - apparently the one most students have trouble with - was a rather scary 'talk about yourself to camera' piece which you had two cracks at, with tuition between the two attempts after some initial training about what to do, and the various floor manager signals you would get. The 'surprise' on this exercise was that you didn't know how long you were going to have to talk for until just before the recording started.

Next up was a scripted autocue piece against green screen, with the idea again being to have two takes. What really impressed me here, given that this was the piece most relevant to what I was looking to do in video podcasting, was that the instructor took the time to give me advice and then do as many takes as were needed. I think I ended up with something like six takes when all was done, with new advice between each, and although it meant we started running a bit late (and the other students were propably really annoyed with me) it was typical of the personal attention I think we all got at different points throughout the day. A lazy instructor would have just left things as they were after the second take.

The course instructors had pre-prepped things to the extent that whatever subject a student chose they had a choice of three different 'green screen replacement' backdrops for each of us to choose from that were all specifically relevant to the subject we'd chosen. For most of the people on the course these exercises were going to be part of a 'show reel' they used to try and get work, and it was good to see them trying to personalise things very specifically to the student's choice.

Next up was the 'outside broadcast', conveniently filmed on the green outside The Houses of Parliament, just opposit the studios where the course is held (and also used by the BBC and ITV). Here we each had to deliver a prepared script, but without autocue (although clipboards were allowed). The other students all said they were most looking forward to this, but I was dreading it the most because I'm hopeless at learning stuff by rote. I find that appearing 'natural' whilst struggling to remember whole sentences with key facts is incredibly difficult! I ended up needing four takes to get it just about right, but the funny thing was that it turned out everyone else had problems too, and the initial confidence of the other students soon evaporated as some of the 'live broadcasts' descended into four letter word expletives or people just freezing up as they experience the sort of 'brain fart' I am all too familiar with.

Again, the director and crew gave nearly all of us three or four takes rather than the promised two to get us to continually improve and learn new techniques for coping. The 'surprise' on this exercise was that we had to deliver the broadcast not standing still, but while walking with a very wide-angle camera seemingly just inches from our faces. Apparently I was chasing the cameraman rather than just walking naturally allowing him to follow me! Even worse, my idea of walking in a straight line while delivering a piece to camera from memory is to apparently zig-zag all over the place, which can be particularly 'challenging' for the cameraman given the number of other professional crews gathered in that very small park who tend to be there interviewing MPs pretty much all day long!

The final exercise of the day - the big one - was two takes of a 'magazine' programme, with each take recorded back to back almost immediately after each other. This exercise had all kinds of distractions: multiple camera's, autocue scripts we'd not really seen before, constant director instructions through an earpiece, and an unscripted but rigorously timed interview. The fear in the air was palpable!

The first take was to involve just a 90 second guest interview slotted into the middle of the programme, the second take was with a different guest for that section, but with the interview expanded out to 3 minutes.

I was constantly surprised at how people could contradict your assumptions about what they'd be like when in front of a camera. Carl, an ex-radio DJ from Manchester station Galaxy FM, who I chose to interview for my magazine section, had looked really terrified just before his first take of the magazine program (he was first on, and I was his first guest) but as the opening music cued it was like a switch went on and he transformed himself brilliantly.

Another chap, who was a real extrovert and 'character' when with the group, was someone we all thought would be great 'on camera', but when the camera started rolling he became rather dull and static (just like me).

The only disasterous take of the day (on previous courses some people have apparently frozen completely or ended up in tears as the pressure has built up) was my first take of the magazine programme! In the morning the autocue had been close enough for me to read without having to wear glasses (which I usually avoid for anything other than driving). As we started recording the magazine section I realised (too late) that the camera was further away and all I could see of my autocue script were some very fuzzy words which I often mistook, somewhat hilariously, for completely different words! It was an incoherent rambling mess, and the whole thing was not improved by the fact I thought I'd heard the director give me a '10 second - wrap it up' warning when he hadn't, so that I finished up having to fill 10 seconds of dead time before the end credits. Nobody - but nobody! - is ever going to get to see that footage I can tell you!

Fortunately a hastily grabbed pair of glasses (thanks Jo!) meant my second attempt wasn't quite so bad. You can see for yourself how it turned out in the video below. It was only when watching the DVD/VHS tape that the organisers give you at the end of the course, that I realised I had got the guest's surname wrong in my introduction! Oh, the horror! Admittedly, it's not very good, but I include the segment here so you can get more of a feel for what the exercises on the course were like (and watch me squirm!)

By the way, if you think the studio looks familiar that's because it's the one used for The Frost Report and, like most TV studios, looks so much better on camera than it does 'in the flesh' where the couch seemed really grubby and worn! Apparently Sarah Jessica Parker had sat where I was sitting just the day before - a fact which seemed to excite some of my fellow students!

All-in-all, I thought the course was excellent and made for a really fun, if totally exhausting, day. Although I'm clearly never going to be very good at this sort of stuff, I thought I was given some excellent advice and tips throughout the day - I just didn't seem able to personally deliver on too many of them.

Anyway, if you have any aspiration in this direction yourself, or just want a fun day doing something completely different, I highly recommend this course (apparently a big favourite with Big Brother contestants when they leave the house!). You can check out all the details at pozitiv.com.

The course certainly made for a birthday I'm going to remember more than most - and all in a good way :)!

Neighbours!

2008-05-12T11:04:00.005+01:00

There's an old saying 'You can choose your friends, but not your family'. I think it needs updating for the noughties, especially for those of us living in London. It should read 'You can choose your friends, but not your neighbours'.

For the third time in the ten plus years I've lived here my upstairs neighbour decided to start running his bath and then promptly forgot, ignoring even the heavy pounding on the door I was giving to alert him to the fact that yet again the moron was trashing my bathroom.

Lights in the bathroom have been fading in and out despite being turned off at the central switch for most of Sunday afternoon and evening, and there was no electricity in the lounge, bedroom or hallway, although the study survived intact. About 7 years ago the flat was completely rewired. I'm beginning to think the work carried out was less than stellar, and the relation of the labelled fuses on the wiring box bears no relation to what actually happens when I get flooded out!

The electricity is now thankfully back on (except for the bathroom), and at least the warm weather means the bathroom should soon dry out. I own my property but my neighbours are tenants so I guess they just don't care about repeatedly flooding me out. The local estate office will no doubt reimburse me for the costs of sorting the mess out (ie the electrician who's looked at the results). But they never reimburse you for the hassle, inconvenience and, more importantly, the day's lost pay in trying to get the mess sorted out.

Alas, I'd like to say that this third 'wash out' will mean the afore-mentioned tenant will be evicted, but given that the tenant below me has happily survived tens, if not hundreds, of warnings about deafening noise all through the night (he has a habit of leaving his DVD player on full-blast menu-repeat all through the night - I know each and every note to the '24' menu system off by heart, having spent so many Saturday night/Sunday mornings hearing it) this looks unlikely.

Oh well. The bathroom was overdue for a refurb anyway I guess and at least it didn't happen while I was away! And compared to the suffering in China (a 7.5 earthquake apparently) this is all pretty small beer. Damned annoying all the same.

The BBC Just Don't Get Hi-Def!

2008-05-11T08:35:00.003+01:00

It seems somewhat ironic that within just days of making the big announcement about the upcoming free High Definition TV service from the BBC and ITV, I should find two pieces of evidence indicating that the BBC are either totally incompetent or just plain clueless when it comes to being realistic about the importance of content for High Definition (HD) video.

Online internet sites offer upload/download of 720p high def video already, and the number of these video hosting sites is growing, seemingly almost daily. But in the meantime the BBC seem determined to just ignore the demand for HD and create barriers to entry.

The newly launched (and rather excellent) Reel Show TV features the main High Definition guy at the BBC reviewing the new Sony PMW-EX1 camera (it's in part 3 or 4 of the first edition if you want to check out the video). The man from the Beeb talks about how impressed he is with the new Sony camera, but somehow neglects to point out the most important things about it, leaving the seemingly more knowledgeable interviewer to step in and do it for him. Nevertheless the BBC rep says the camera gets an 11 out of 10 on their scale of evaluation (based on using a 'benchmark' Sony Z1 camera) and then goes on to say that the output from this '11 out of 10' camera is not allowable for their High Definition service! WTF?!! This is a camera that received a ringing endorsement from the Hollywood film professionals who make up the membership of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) who professed themselves blown away at a cinema screening of a film made using the camera. But it's not good enough for the BBC's artefact-ridden, heavily compressed HD service!

The reason, apparently, is that the camera only outputs HD at 35Mb/sec where the BBC have arbitrarily decided they won't accept anything less than 50Mb/sec. The man from the Beeb declares that this is to keep standards high, whilst admitting that the picture quality, even at the 'lowly' 35Mb/sec is outstanding and that he couldn't see any differences in picture quality. Sometimes I think the world really has gone mad with the idiotic bureaucrats having completely taken over the asylum.

Further evidence that the BBC is letting incompetents make the key decisions on HD comes from an interview with prize chump Russel T Davies (aka 'Billy Bunter'). Davies explains that Doctor Who isn't being made in high definition because the increase in budget required to shoot in HD is not worth it. WTF?!! Even the internet's moving to High Definition, and yet the BBC's so-called 'prime' BAFTA award-winning drama series - the one that generates an absolute fortune through merchandising and sales abroad - has decided it's not worth bothering with. This is the same sort of monstrously stupid short-term thinking that caused the BBC back in the late 80's to trash so many of the old Doctor Who video source material, not realising that they'd just thrown away a small fortune in future VHS and DVD sales.

Regular readers will know that I think Russel T Davies makes a lousy 'head writer' for Doctor Who. I'm enjoying the current series far more than any previous one, and that can only be explained by the fact that it's because Davies has not written any of the last 4 or 5 episodes. But to have the 'head writer' now making use of technology decisions that will affect future transmissions, worldwide sales and sell-on Blu-Ray opportunities is utterly ridiculous.

His words MIGHT have some sort of value to them if the appallingly bad Torchwood hadn't switched to high definition right from its first episode. This series doesn't get anything like the viewing figures Who does (despite the non-stop ads), primarily because it not only has unbelievably juvenile writing, but also the worst acting I've seen on a prime time series in a long, long time. It makes Hollyoaks look like an oscar winner! And yet it has the 'budget' for HD, where Doctor Who doesn't!!!! The first series of Torchwood is being released for the THIRD time (talk about flogging a really dead horse!) next month, this time on high definition Blu-Ray disc. Fans of Doctor Who who prefer high definition viewing are wasting their time hoping for something similar. The series isn't shot in high definition and therefore won't appear in high definition.

While we're on the subject of HD, and because even I'm getting sick of my own ranting about the fools, dolts and nincompoops that seem to control nearly every aspect of our lives, it seems best to try and end on a happier note by mentioning the wonderful folks at Digital Juice. These guys show what a company can achieve when it employs people who are genuinely passionate (and not just people who keep telling you how passionate they are - Microsoft take note!) and care about quality. Their customer service is fantastic, their web site contains some of the best 'free training' on video that I've seen, their products are market leaders, and even the packaging shouts 'quality' at you. They've just relaunched their magazine (available as a free PDF download) and, of course, most of their products are produced ready for instant high definition. While the BBC seem happy to pay obscene amounts of money for spinning '6 o'clock news' graphics these guys produce the same sort of stuff for very affordable prices, with strictly limited copies so that you don't run the risk of the whole world and his wife using the same material. I just wish more companies operated the way they do.

May the Fourth Be With You!

2008-05-04T20:15:00.002+01:00

There's nothing like a good pun to open a new blog post.

And yeah, I know that the title is nothing like a good pun!

I seem to have spent most of the Bank Holiday break wrestling with Sony Vegas Pro to edit video together, but am finally starting to feel that I'm controlling it, rather than having it control me!

The first 'proper' weekly video podcast is uploading as I type (with two hours to go before it finished and then starts compressing - sigh!) but at least this one's in 720p hi-def and although still too long, half the time of the early 'preview' show which clocked in at just under half an hour.

I'm happier than I was with the preview with the way the visual side is going - especially the Top 10 rundown, but my presentation (narration and 'on camera' performance) still sucks big time.

I'm going on a TV Presenter's Course for my birthday a week on Tuesday, so hoping that the folks there can give some hints and tips on how be less 'wooden'. The company running the course trained Natasha Kaplinski and seemingly almost everyone who works in television today, and it's conveniently run just down the road from me, opposite The Houses of Parliament, so fingers crossed! I must say the course looks pretty intense and we've been given home-work (script writing) to prepare before the course. It turns out the six attendees are all going to have to do an informal piece to camera (with no idea how long to talk for, under the control of someone barking instructions down an ear-piece), an autocue piece, an outside interview, and a couple of magazine-styled interviews - all on top of any training we're given. It's quite a long day but should be fun!

Fortunately, I haven't spent all my time at the computer, although it sometimes feels that way. On Friday night I 'escaped' and went to see the Iron Man movie, having renewed my annual subscription to the Clapham Picture House, receiving three 'free' tickets as a result.

I wasn't disappointed in the film, although the final act suffers from the usual Hollywood nonsense, and comes across as a carbon-copy replay of something from the Transformers movie. As I've mentioned in my Shiny Discs show, if you go make sure don't rush to leave the cinema when the (seriously overlong) credits start rolling there's a nice extra scene which features a Hollywood A-list actor giving clues as to what's coming soon from Marvel right at the end. You'll be filled with Fury if you miss it and want to 'Avenge' yourself on those that didn't warn you what you might miss!

OK, so Sometimes I'm wrong! (Speed Racer revisited)

2008-04-28T18:36:00.003+01:00

A month ago I blogged about Warner Brothers generously 'inviting' people to traipse over to Holborn just to see a 5 minute preview from 'Speed Racer' (here). At the time they were saying there would be no full previews, so this was 'a real opportunity'.

I had a whinge about how ridiculous film promotion has become if Warner Bros really expected bloggers and reviewers to travel at their own expense just to see a 5 minute trailer, and this drew a hilarious, irate response about me being 'classless, insecure and mean-spirited' from someone identifying themself as 'Anonymous' who apparently wanted to hit me over the head repeatedly with a hammer. I think we can all guess which film company 'Anonymous' might have worked for!

Well it seems Warners had second thoughts, and decided to hold preview screenings of the film, which opens nationwide on Sunday 9th May, after all.

For some reason ;-) I wasn't invited.

But I went anyway!

And to my surprise I liked it!

The film has its faults - it's half an hour too long with one endless climax after another for one thing (Peter Jackson's Return of the King has got a lot to answer for!)

And the first half hour is confusing as hell, even for adults, with endless sudden switches between the past and the present and what a person is imagining rather than what is actually happening.

But it's a MUCH better movie than I'd expected given all the secrecy around the project, reports of it being 'in trouble' and that ridiculous 'We're only showing people a 5 minute preview' email.

Think Tron updated for 2008 and you've pretty much got the feel of it. Every penny of the $200 million spent on it is up there on screen, and I'd say I don't think I've seen so much endless eye candy in a film for a long, long time.

I mention all this now (some two weeks before the film is due out) just in case anyone was put off going to see it by my original 'Promotional Madness' blog post. This is a film that needs to be seen on the big screen, in the same way that 300 and Transformers were - and ideally at an IMAX cinema which is launching the film day and date with 'ordinary' cinema's.

Advance tickets will likely sell out fast as 'word of mouth' spreads, so if you're tempted I'd say book your seat now. Much of what's on show here is as ground-breaking as the same directors' work on The Matrix was, so I'm ALMOST prepared to forgive The Wachowski Brothers for the dreadful second and third Matrix movies (let's not get too carried away - I said 'almost').

Playing with Video Titles

2008-04-27T05:17:00.006+01:00

It didn't take very long to realise that the first Shiny Discs video podcast was too long for the web, running at half an hour, even if you ignore the rather dull visual style used for some of the longer reviews.

I suspect the length of the first podcast was the reason why I've still been unable to render out a hi-def version of that first podcast without crashing, even after a week of re-trying.

So I'm moving to a more frequent, shorter set of podcasts, and the Shiny Discs web site will be redesigned to accommodate new plans. Watch this space (or rather the ShinyDisc space, if you see what I mean!)

In the meantime I've posted a (not very good) summary of highlighted new releases for next week under the title "Sunday Shipping". The new title sequence for an improved version of this "Sunday Shipping" podcast wasn't ready in time for this week, but as a sneak peak you can see the new titles for a couple of the planned new short shows below. I think they're coming along nicely and there are more to follow now the basic "theme" has been worked out.

Shiny Discs - Thrilling Thursday - Test Title from Ian Smith on Vimeo.

Shiny Discs - Telly Tuesday - Test Title from Ian Smith on Vimeo.

Shiny Discs - Blu Monday - Title Test from Ian Smith on Vimeo.

I must say that overall I'm impressed with the hi-def video hosting from Vimeo, which is faster and better quality than that I'd been experiencing with Viddler. But the 500MB weekly limit (where Viddler has none) and the fact that hi-def can't be streamed from embedded video is a real pain. To see the video as intended the user has to click through from the video embedded in the Shiny Discs web site to go to the Vimeo web site. So if you want to see the sample title sequences above in full 720p glory pretty much intended (aside from the nasty compression that ISPs do once the video has been uploaded) you have to click on the videos to go to the vimeo site direct where the hi-def versions are available.

Hi-Def Woes and A Trip to the Theatre

2008-04-20T13:36:00.004+01:00

I seem to have spent my last week of freedom (before going back to full-time work), endlessly waiting for my PC to finish rendering video - only to have it invariably fail after 8 or 9 hours at the '99% complete' mark. 'Frustrating' isn't the word!

The net result (no pun intended) is that The Daily.NET Show is now 'on ice' until probably October/November 2008 when I can afford the hardware needed to dramatically improve rendering times so that getting the show out on a daily basis while holding down a full-time job is at all feasible. I seriously underestimated the time needed for video rendering, uploading and subsequent server-side compressing in my original forecasts.

In the meantime the different user group videos are serving as a good way of getting more familiar with the camera and editing software (four videos from the Silverlight UK User Group have been posted here). There are a lot of issues around rendering hi-def video, which is proving to be far more of a 'bleeding edge' issue for most of the software I use (Digital Juice's Juicer 3 product and Sony's Vegas Pro if we're being specific) than I'd expected this far on in the life-cycle of the respective products, quite aside from the hardware issues I've got.

Next up on the user group video coverage front is DDD Ireland in a couple of weeks time. I'm looking forward to it as it will give me an opportunity to concentrate on being 'behind the camera' instead of worrying endless about how 'wooden' I am in front of it!

Online friends have argued that hi-def on the web isn't there yet, and doesn't have that much demand anyway, so why am I going that route (and in particular using one of the 'true' hi-def formats XDCam rather than that used in the very small consumer cameras)? In fact there are several good hi-def shows already out there, albeit produced by folks for whom it's a full-time job, often with several staff to help. I'm convinced that in a couple of years time hi-def will be 'the norm' and the 'bleeding edge' pain is necessary, if only to get a head start on the immense learning curve. There are plenty of spotty youths doing YouTube video's already, and I prefer to try and get something closer to broadcast quality, although having to serve as reviewer, presenter, cameraman, editor and web master all at the same time is making progress slow!

That being said, the first weekly video podcast of The Shiny Discs Show that I've produced is NOT hi-def. The problems (which seem to be down to the fact the 28 minute running time of the 'expanded' first show takes me over the 1GB limit) mean that hi-def just wasn't an option this week. Hopefully next week's show, being shorter, will not prove to be such a problem. You can watch the first show now using the Shiny Discs link above. It's a disappointment with so many problems (truncated ending, too long, features out-of-focus talking head shots etc etc), but it's a start and things can (hopefully!) only improve from hereonin. Given how problematic this first show has been it will be interesting to see how feasible producing a weekly video podcast on top of holding down a full-time job proves to be!

I start a new 6 month contract with Intelligent Environments tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to catching up with folks and finding out what's been happening in the year I've been working elsewhere.

Yesterday I went to see an old 1920's Noel Coward play, The Vortex at the Apollo in Shaftesbury Avenue. Felicity Kendall leading a strong cast (including the young girl - Cordelia? - from the TV series Brideshead Revisited, a woman we all recognised from Doctor Who - The Slitheen head honcho? - and a bunch of others). It was a good production, with excellent staging and acting throughout, although the play itself did feel a bit dated. Recommended, especially at the cost available using the Official Half Price Ticket Stand in Leicester Square, which is where we got our tickets. Word of warning: all those stores near the tube station displaying red LED displays saying 'Official Half-Price tickets' are NOT the place to buy tickets - they're rip-off touts, albeit officially licensed. You need the clearly identifiable stone building down from the Odeon in the square itself to avoid getting ripped off.

And in an amusing footnote to the whole 'travel across London to see a 5-minute extract from a film' saga that I blogged about a few weeks ago, next Sunday (thanks to a friend who I won't name as I don't want anybody to get into trouble on my account) I'm going to see Speed Racer. It seems the whole film is being previewed after all. It'll be interesting to see if the film is as bad as it sounded it was going to be, or whether the full screenings now mean that Warners have more confidence in the final results. No doubt I'll be posting a short review next weekend, either way ;-)

And time to mention (as if I didn't have enough distractions already) that you can follow me on Twitter, which suddenly over the last two weeks has taken off big time (I'm getting endless spammers suddenly 'following' me!) Personal/work -related stuff is under the Twitter 'irascian' account, one-line news/reviews about shiny discs are under the Twitter 'shinydiscs' account.

Recent (lack of) Activity

2008-04-01T09:46:00.003+01:00

Does anybody like recruitment agencies?

Any thoughts I had that the recession is just an invention of the mainstream media, determined to irresponsibly talk us into a recession that wouldn't otherwise happen, are being somewhat dashed by personal experience in trying to find work at the moment. A market that was ridiculously buoyant last Summer seems to be pretty 'dead in the water' at the moment, and my 'between contracts' sabbatical is lasting far longer than I'd originally intended!

Not that agencies are being in any way honest about the situation. Last week, after posting my CV to Jobserve on the Friday afternoon, I had 27 different agency calls, so excited about my CV that they were 'putting it forward immediately for a job that's right up your street'. Number of agencies that subsequently called me back? One (to advise me that the vacancy they'd insisted on contacting a reference for, BEFORE even putting my CV forward, had 'gone to India').

On the back of my experiences before Christmas when doing the same thing, I'm alternating between getting extremely demotivated about the whole thing, and getting really angry at the way staff at these agencies deal with people. And of course the people on the other side of the fence (the clients) have similar horror stories to tell from their side.

Agency issues aside, I did actually manage to get an interview at the end of last week, which involved travelling up to Watford Junction and having to answer such in-depth technical questions as 'What is the configuration file for an ASP.NET application called?' (which appeared twice in a multi-choice 'test' that comprised 30 questions in total). This involved some time, travel and expense on my part, with a promise that I'd hear back first thing Monday morning, if not late Friday afternoon. Needless to say I'm here, late on Tuesday morning having not heard a word, and I suspect the situation will not have changed by the end of the week.

As it happened, the job was not one that was appropriate or I'd accept anyway. And I should have taken the lack of any telephone pre-interview technical screening as a sign of how the company works, but this lack of any response seems to be 'the recruitment norm'. No wonder the whole recruitment industry has a general reputation of being 'worse even than lawyers and estate agents'.

Just before Christmas, I spent the best part of a day on a coding exercise that one agency insisted all potential candidates had to complete before they could be put forward for any possible vacancies. The exercise was fundamentally flawed in several areas and I had to send in a solution that was accompanied by a whole list of assumptions that I'd made because the specifications were unclear. In response I got an email from their .NET specialist saying how impressed they were with my submission, and would I consider helping them to grade other candidates in future when they launched a formal appraisal service in the new year?

All very nice, but as for the original vacancy that had caused me to contact the agency and deal with their coding exercise submission? Not a word! And in what's a common pattern where agencies are concerned, any attempt to talk to the person who originally contacted you with such enthusiasm is invariably met with complete silence. Email responses to queries go unanswered. Promised "he's busy right now. He'll call you back" promises made when you hassle them as to why you've heard nothing back never materialise, no matter how often you try and follow up. The whole process is extremely demoralising.

When candidates have spent time and money to help agencies who then go on to collect between 15% and 20% of all future income that successful candidates generate, they should get a far better service than they are doing. As it is all the agencies seem to be offering for their not insignificant cut, is a CV forwarding service based on the most crude 'keyword' searches.

I don't know a single contractor who's got a good thing to say about agencies. Or, in fact, a single employer looking for contractors who has a good word to say about them! I wish there were some other solution to the 'matching contractors with clients' problem. Maybe I should just change careers and become a recruitment consultant myself?

Podcast Interview with 'The Social Programmer'

Since I seem to have got into the subject of work (or lack of it!) it's worth mentioning that a few weeks ago I did a podcast interview with The Social Programmer web site. You can hear over an hour of me pontificating on the state of the industry, the Las Vegas conference I attended, and the whole HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray format wars mess in the podcast which can be found here

Weekend Film-Making Course

I spent the weekend on a 'single person' documentary film-making course. I had suspected that many of these advertised film-making courses are just an attempt to make money from naive 'wanna be's who think such courses will magically open doors in Hollywood (rather like those Microsoft certification boot camp ads that imply in 2 weeks they can turn you into a high revenue-earning IT consultant!). And so it proved to be. A lot of the equipment didn't work, was insufficient to meet the stated goals of the course, or had broken/missing bits and pieces. Misinformation was given out right, left and centre, and I don't think I've heard so much bullshit in quite some time. Very disappointing! I learnt more from the excellent (and far cheaper) Shut up and Shoot Documentary Guide book than I learn on this course, despite the instructor's ridiculous claims that he'd saved us all a year's worth of learning!

Film: The Orphanage

On a happier note, last night I went to see The Orphanage, universally praised by critics as an 'intelligent horror movie'. This foreign-language film has received a lot of attention (and a UK Top 10 position) primarily because it's been recommended/produced by Pan's Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro. It's in nowhere near the same league as Pan's Labyrinth, but it is a beautifully constructed film that's well worth a trip to your local emporium to see - even if you're the sort of person who hates seeing subtitled movies. It's hard to say any more about the film without spoiling it - just go and see it!

Fan Mail!

2008-03-31T12:36:00.003+01:00

For those (like me) who read a blog post but don't go back to check comments made days later, I can't resist posting this "comment" to my previous blog post about the ridiculousness of expecting people to schlep over to Warner Brothers HQ for the 'privelege' of a 5 minute preview of a film that the company is desperately trying to promote. I know we live in a society where there's a starry-eyed obsession with the 'cult of celebrity' but even so, the following response took me by surprise...

"First of all, thanks for specifying the parts of this blog in which you were being sarcastic. I don't know how I would have coped without such helpful hints (sarcasm).

Secondly, you need to replace your photo, as it quite clearly depicts a grown man. This is surely some mistake?

Finally, I wouldn't invite you to a five minute screening of me hitting you over the head with a hammer (and trust me, that is a work I would be very proud of); I'm amazed anybody would seek the approval of such a classless, insecure and mean-spirited man.

I don't know what's funniest: the fact that the poster criticises ME for being 'classless, insecure and mean-spirited' in what is just one long insult that doesn't address the subject matter of the original blog post at all; or the fact that they're so cowardly they felt they had to share their intelligent and enlightening thoughts 'anonymously'.

If there's one thing I hate even more than publicists expecting me to waste my own time and money promoting something I clearly won't have the knowledge to comment on (I challenge anybody to review a film based on a 5-minute preview) it's cowards - and anyone who resorts to threats and name-calling 'anonymously' is by definition a coward!

Promotional Madness!

2008-03-27T13:03:00.006Z

One of the happy side-effects of my different shiny disc review blogs is that I get the occasional invite to a free preview screening. 300 was a real treat and resulted in me recommending a film I would otherwise have probably avoided on theatrical release. I subsequently received a couple of other freebie invites, which unfortunately coincided with my being abroad, but which was kinda nice!

But the latest, an email headed Fancy a Free Film Screening (read that again, yup it definitely says 'Free Film'), shows just how ridiculous the whole art of film promotion has become!

It turned out to be an invitation to schlep over to Warner Brothers HQ in Holborn for an 'exclusive 5 minute preview' of Speed Racer. Excuse me, but since when did a 5 minute preview constitute a 'free film'?! As added incentive I could apparently take the kids too (oh wow! - a five minute preview full of noisy kids - sign me up, now (not!))

Why would ANYONE want to spend time, effort and money attending this? All I can sense is the total desperation of a promotions company stuck with a real turkey on their hands when the invite attempts to explain the lack of a proper screening thus: "It doesn’t sound like a lot, but bear in mind that there is unlikely to be any advance screenings before it’s release, so it’s likely that this will be the only advance footage that reviewers/bloggers will get to see" Oh well, in THAT case sign me up immediately (sarcasm!)

To be honest, my suspicions that the movie was duff were aroused by an over-the-top advertorial masquerading as editorial article in one of the glossy film monthlies that appeared a few weeks back ('Total Film' I think). Despite the pretty colour pictures, multiple pages and generous cast quotes there was just no substance to the piece and it all seemed a trifle desperate. This latest invite has simply convinced me that Speed Racer, far from being a 'must see' is looking suspiciously like a 'must avoid'.

Note to Warner Brothers: if what you have really is a 'great' film and you're only prepared to show a 5 minute preview, why not maximise the number of bloggers/reviewers/potential audience members you reach and simply post it on YouTube, Vimeo or any one of hundreds of other promotional sites?! Don't assume bloggers are so starry-eyed they'll schlep across London just to do the same thing in one of two staggered screenings at your HQ!

(Belated) Happy Easter!

2008-03-24T14:53:00.002Z

I'm afraid the blog's been pretty quiet because I seem to have been sick for so much of the last few months - with some sort of endless cold/flu/insomnia/jet-lag thing. Thankfully, I seem to be well past the worst now and more-or-less back to normal.

I hope everyone's had a good Easter. I seem to have spent most of it fighting with computers (no change there then!), trying to get a preview edition of The Daily.NET Show done. Like most things in my life these days, this took far longer than it should have done, although I'm now feeling a lot more comfortable with Sony Vegas Pro video editing software. The preview episode is done and now I have to work out how to iron out all the kinks (of which there are many, but it's more fun than doing real work!). One thing's become very clear: I'm definitely a "better behind the camera than in front of it" guy :(

I did watch a couple of movies over the Easter break. No new shiny disk purchases as I'm 'between contracts' and money is scarce, but I caught up with Evening on HD-DVD (which features a great cast, but misfires on most fronts because of messy and too-frequent time shifting) and also Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which I admired rather than enjoyed (worth seeing for Jonny Depp's performance, but a bit too off-the-wall to really appeal to me).

Next weekend I'm going on a 'documentary film-making' course, and I suspect most of this week will be spent chasing agencies for job interviews, not to mention helping a former client out with a 'quick' piece of work that is suddenly looking like a 'long, slow, difficult' piece of work instead, so don't hold your breath waiting for any updates over the next couple of weeks.

Anyway, I hope everyone's enjoyed the break and is all prepped for the return to work tomorrow.

MIX08 Blog Posts All Appearing over on DailyDotNetShow blog

2008-03-04T19:08:00.002Z

I'm blogging all the MIX08 announcements over on the new Daily.NET Show web site. Already announced pre-conference is the new version of Expression Studio 2, available in April.

Gatwick Restrictions and A Damehood for Petula Clark

2008-03-02T15:31:00.005Z

I'm in Las Vegas, with a sore throat and feeling somewhat jaded, but otherwise fine despite a scary amount of lack of sleep.

The flight over was great, apart from the nightmare Virgin Airways check-in, where they're insisting on weighing hand luggage and not allowing anything over 6kg. This is a nightmare when you have a very expensive camera in a soft padded bag, and according to other cameramen, seems to be something exclusive to travelling from Gatwick airport. Avoid!

Thankfully the laptops I subsequently had to repack survived a journey in the hold, although the padlock I put on my case was gone when it arrived in baggage reclaim at Las Vegas airport! To get the hand luggage down to just over the maximum weight requirements I had to move everything else (including laptop - ouch!) into my hold baggage. New regulations introduced a week or so ago say li-on batteries have to travel as hold luggage anyway, which I hadn't picked up on. I swear they make these ever-changing regulations up just to wind passengers up, or to force you to buy stuff from over-priced 'duty free' shops the other side of check-in!

You've probably seen a lot of folks promoting a petition to try and get Bruce Forsythe a knighthood. Well my friend Brian Sibley is trying to promote something similar for Petula Clark. Time is running out and the petitition needs to be signed by 12th March at the latest. For reasons why you should sign the petition, and a link to the petition itself, please check Brian's blog entry
here.

Off to Vegas!

2008-02-29T21:44:00.006Z

In eight hours time I'll be heading off to Vegas. Got a pretty hectic schedule once the MIX08 conference kicks in since I've got a whole bunch of interviews to do for my new video podcast site The Daily.Net Show (which doesn't officially launch until April).

Contacting people for interview requests has been a real revelation. Microsoft get a lot of flack for a lot of things, but I've been amazed at the level of co-operation from people who are 'rocks star's in the Microsoft development world, all of whom have responded quickly and positively to simple email requests. Hard to imagine a Corporate Vice President at another company responding to an email within a few hours, effectively saying 'I'll be happy to do an interview'.

So far Scott Guthrie (Corporate Vice President, .NET Developer Platform), Scott Hanselman (hanselminutes.com), Jeff Sandquist (channel9.msdn.com), Adam Kinney (Silverlight evangelist), John McLelland (Microsoft Partner Huddle) and Mike Ormond (Microsoft UK Developer Evangelist) have all verbally agreed to take part so it's just a question of trying to co-ordinate things once we're all in Vegas. I suspect this is where things might fall down with so many things going on, but people have happily given out cell-phone numbers so I'm optimistic that most of it will happen. I'm a fan of all these folks so I feel very lucky in having had such a strong, supportive response.

On Sunday I'm having brunch at Bally's with good friends Susan and John Brock from San Diego. They are coming up to Vegas especially to show me around, which is, as the Americans would say, 'totally awesome'. We're going to have a lot to drink on the Sunday, visit The Star Trek Experience on the Monday, and do a quick 15 minute helicopter tour of the Las Vegas Strip at night on Monday evening. This last activity is primarily in the hope that I can get a nice opening shot of the conference venue from the air for the video podcasts, before the Brocks have to make a long drive home back to San Diego later that evening.

The conference itself officially starts on Wednesday but on Tuesday I've got a couple of interviews tentatively arranged, registration for the event itself (which is at same hotel I'm booked into all week - The Venetian, and a pre-conference Silverlight treasure hunt in the evening.

My luggage is an even bigger nightmare than usual. The tripod, all the camera and sound gear, together with my heavy video editing laptop, my ultraportable email and note-taking laptop, my 'self-promotional' wardrobe (t-shirts promoting the new web site which I'll be wearing all week) and business cards mean there's very little room left for anything else in my luggage. Despite taking little in the way of clothing I still have three large pieces of luggage to haul around.

The alarm clock is now set for 5.30am tomorrow morning, and the flight gets into Las Vegas early Saturday afternoon local time. If I get the chance to shoot anything before the event itself kicks off (assuming the equipment still all works when I get to the other end) I'll publish it here, otherwise all video will be the work-related stuff posted at The Daily.Net Show.

And just to round this post off so that it's vaguely 'personal' rather than 'work' related: here's a link to a video that made me laugh out loud. Optimus Prime performs 'Evolution of Dance' Tribute. Worth watching to the end for the pay-off! Enjoy!

Nothing to see here - move along!

2008-02-24T14:05:00.002Z

This is just a quick test of YouTube workflow in prep for MIX08 in Las Vegas. Please ignore! High definition 1920x1080p recording converted in less than 20 seconds to YouTube format by FXHome VideoWrap!

Life Update and lots of Shiny Disc mentions

2008-02-16T14:06:00.009Z

Things have been so hectic, there's been no time to update my blog. Currently work-related stuff seems to be eating up every available minute. It's just two weeks until I head off to Las Vegas for a week, primarily for the MIX08 conference, but also for a few days break - with my friends Susan and John Brock joining me for a few days before the conference kicks off, and I have no idea how I'll be sorted out in time. Even "simple" stuff like getting the laptop into a fit state ready for the conference are taking forever. I knew Windows Vista was bad, but man one year on and it's still a mess. I haven't had a 'blue screen of death' (BSOD) on Windows XP for years, but with Vista I get one every few weeks. Alas, the most recent BSOD occurred during a major software install, and means that the key software (Visual Studio 2008) that I need available to me during MIX08 is now in a "can't be installed, can't be uninstalled" status which is just what I didn't need.

I'm also trying to push on with "The Daily Dot Net Show" project, but time is not on my side. I had hoped to get a pilot ready before MIX08, with what remains of the weekend being used to shoot an initial episode based on this weekend's new releases etc, but this is looking increasingly unlikely as I fight the clock on the wall and my lack of knowledge on editing software and FX. The biggest unforeseen problem is the sheer volume of "daily" updates Microsoft and bloggers are putting out, making it hard to research things properly and keep everything tight in a planned 5-10 minute daily show. Just compiling the information from Friday and Saturday morning has taken several hours, let alone filming the video, editing the graphics and putting the whole thing together in a professional looking format.

Socially I've met up with a couple of friends that I met a few years ago on my different Lord of the Rings trips to the States. Two weeks ago the wonderful "Mooch" (Susan Brock) was in town for a week of culture in the museums and I managed to hook up with her for an evening and a Sunday, taking great advantage of free access to the Park Lane Hilton Executive Lounge. Would have liked to have spent more time with her, and thankfully I'll be hooking up with her and her husband John in Las Vegas in a fortnight's time. Last Sunday I met "Lulybunny" who was in the UK as part of her job, appraising hotels in the area to see if they were up to standard. She was worn out and tired, but I had a fun meal with her and a colleague. Like me she'd just quit her job so we were able to sympathise with each other's war stories.

Quit my job? Yes, the new contract has turned out to be a big disappointment. My colleagues, all on 3 month contracts which run out in a few weeks time, have all declined to renew although my boss is wavering and may renew at the last minute.

I'd decided my second day in I was in one of those horrific "everyone's got their heads buried in the sand" situations where even if the technology issues and continual 'customer fire fighting' issues could be resolved (far too many obscure, little known technologies when more mainstream, more productive ones are available), the company culture couldn't. I've been in a "hang in there because things might change" situation for a few weeks now but having been in similar situations before where I've felt obliged to hang on to the death so that I've typically been the last contractor out the door - at a personal cost of being permanently stressed, frustrated, and generally miserable - I've decided to move a little quicker this time around and gave my 4 weeks notice on Wednesday.

This is not the best timing given the current state of the market and my financial situation, especially after taking 3 months out to learn new stuff after my last contract in Ireland, but really there are times when you just have to recognise that health and overall happiness have to come first.

Nobody's been surprised at my decision, in fact they've been totally sympathetic, but somehow it still feels like I'm letting people down. I'm going to have to be a lot stronger in future interview situations - all the signs of the problems I was going to encounter were there when I attended my interview, but I skillfully ignored them telling myself I was being overly pessimistic or too picky. Alas, not!

On the movie front I've seen a bunch of great films...

There Will Be Blood at the cinema was almost as good as people are saying it is, with Daniel Day Lewis certainly deserving his 'Best Actor' oscar for his performance, even if I thought the film was a bit too long, slow-moving and downright pretentious in places (a criticsm I'd also make of the director's earlier 'Boogie Nights' film).

On DVD I really enjoyed Control (the Joy Division/Ian Curtis bio-pic) even if it was in black and white. Think 'coffee table book of great black and white photographs bought to life' and you've pretty much got the feel of it.

The Street Season 2 was an outstanding BBC drama series of six one hour (being British that really is one hour not the '40 minute' hours that the Americans have) drama's. I missed this when broadcast on TV at the start of the year but am glad I caught up with it on shiny disc. Brilliant writing from Jimmy McGovern and brilliant acting from a universally excellent cast. It proves we Brits CAN produce great drama (and not endless 'Torchwood' tosh) when we want to. Admittedly this is not the sort of stuff to watch if you're prone to depression or like your drama to be endlessly upbeat and 'feel good', although there are comedic moments. The premise for each episode of the series is someone making a key decision that dramatically alters the course of the life they're living, often for the worse, but occasionally for the better. A very thought-provoking and powerful series that was as strong as the first season of six episodes broadcast last year had been.

HD-DVD is officially dead, with Toshiba apparently about to formally announce they're abandoning the format. Warners Judas-like last-minute betrayal at CES has had faster ramifications than anyone expected. I find it too depressing for words given how many HD-DVD discs I own, and how much more solid it is than the 'still under development beta' Blu-Ray format is. But even when Blu-Ray finally gets out of 'beta' status with its hardware the main disadvantage to the format is that HD-DVD is region free so that we can buy much better discs in a much more timely fashion at a cheaper price from the states, while most Blu-Ray discs are region-locked meaning we have to wait months to pay an overly-inflated price for titles that the Americans got with many more extra's for a much lower price, months earlier - if we get them at all!

But new HD-DVD titles will dry up very soon so buying more titles is throwing good money after bad. However, pre-ordering titles months in advance mean I've seen The Heartbreak Kid which was better than I expected. It stars Ben Stiller which is usually a good indication of a terrible American brat 'comedy' movie that has zero laughs in it unless you come from the 'Wasn't Norman Wisdom endlessly gurning utterly brilliant' school of thinking. To my surprise this one had me guffawing out loud more than a couple of times, although it's not exactly a 'must see' or 'must rewatch' film by any means.

White Noise 2 featuring "that bloke off 'Serenity'" was slightly disappointing, but probably better than the first film in the franchise, which actually has nothing in common with this one other than the title. The film was let down by a silly ending, but worth seeing if you're a fan of the actress who plays 'Starbuck' in the new 'Battlestar Galactaca' series. She is always fun to watch and gets to play 'sweet girl' instead of 'aggressive tom boy' this time around.

The Invasion, a planned 'intelligent' character-driven remake of 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers', starring Nicole Kidman and Craig Daniels, is a movie that is totally ruined by last-minute 'action' reshoot insertions that send the whole thing off the rails. It's not hard to see why this has been held up for a couple of years and the end result is a real hatchet job of a film with obvious signs of too many different directors being called in to stitch the mess together. The film studio should have left the film with the original director and hoped it found its audience instead of trying to turn it into a film with endless 'Matrix'- like stunts and car chases between all the talky bits!

The region-locked, over-priced Blu-Ray format has won the high definition shiny disc wars so I've switched to buying that format given that it's the one likely to stick around before the dreaded 'pay for downloads' exclusivity kicks in. I enjoyed Ratatouille much more than 'Cars' but not as much as 'Toy Story' or 'Finding Nemo'. I certainly wouldn't class it as 'the film of the year', as some are claiming, because it's too slow and half an hour longer than it needs to be. It has its moments but lacks the charm of earlier Pixar efforts. That being said, it's definitely worth seeing, and Peter O' Toole is brilliant as the voice of a pompous food critic. On Blu-Ray disc it's as beautifully presented and a great advert for the high definition format.

I thought Rent was a mess of a film musical (but then I think it's outrageous that 'Chicaco' won the 'Film of the year' oscar, when the vastly superior 'Moulin Rouge' got nothing), but the accompanying documentary (which runs longer than the main film) was gripping and tells a much more emotional 'true life' story about the musical's creator (who struggled for four years writing the thing, dying very young and suddenly from a genetic heart condition the night before the show was due to open).

Across The Universe is another musical - this time artificially constructed around overly-familiar Beatles songs - that just didn't work for me. There are some wonderful directorial showcase scenes here, with great iconic imagery that reminded me of Ken Russel's "Tommy" in places, but like "Tommy" the whole thing comes across as a series of unrelated pop videos and 'moments' that just don't work as a filmic whole. "Tommy" had a much better basic through-line and unfortunately "Across the Universe" comes seriously unstuck about half way in. Dick Clement and Ian Le Frenais are very experienced writers but what they've done here is a complete mess. After the disappointing "Goal" movie I can't help wondering if the pair are well past their 'Sell by' date as writers.

The Brave One (on Blu-Ray) received luke warm reviews as a 'Death Wish' remake, albeit this time with a female protagonist in the form of Jodie Foster. I actually disagree with the critics who dismissed this film on theatrical release as just another 'Death Wish' rip-off. I think that Neil Jordan's film has a much more moral centre at its core, and while they never believed the 'transition' Foster's character goes through, I found it totally compelling. Foster is always worth watching, and does a good job here, although I'd agree that the moral ambiguities, especially in the ending, fail to really convince. And the annoying 'green desaturated' look is starting to get REALLY annoying now.

Run Fat Boy Run on Blu-Ray was much better than I was expecting, given how totally self-indulgent and unfunny I found "Hot Fuzz". David Schwimmer of 'Friends' fame did a good directorial job I thought and Simon Pegg more than delivered on the rather silly premise of a boy who leaves his pregnant girlfriend at the altar only to try and win her back five years later by running a marathon. The trailer had looked very weak and the title is completely ridicilous (Pegg is very thin and yet we're being asked to pretend he's fat?!!), but once you get past that this is a fun hour and 40 minutes of 'safe' British rom-com comedy with some genuine laugh-out-loud moments. It's not hard to see why, despite the critical mauling it received, it over-performed at the box office. Well worth a rental in my view.

Right, that's the catch up out the way. Back to work....

Router Problems

2008-01-27T19:17:00.000Z

It's been a fraught weekend. I always leave my accounts to the last minute and Saturday was spent mostly catching up on the last 3 months so I could file and pay my latest VAT return. For me this is a big improvement - I normally procrastinate and leave it to the last possible moment on the Sunday, which means it hangs over me all weekend. Not this time and I was feeling quite virtuous when the whole lot was done by 8pm last night.

By way of reward I watched the new HD-DVD release of David Finch's Zodiac which, in the director's cut presented here, clocks in at a mammoth 2 hours 40 minutes - but a thoroughly gripping and engrossing 2 hours 40 minutes it turned out to be. The film had more of a final resolution than I'd expected fromt the reviews that appeared around the time of the theatrical release, and a truly 'reference quality' picture (as one would expect given that the film was made using mostly high definition cameras). HD-DVD may be officially dead, but until Blu-Ray has the rights to films like this from Paramount and Universal the battle can't be considered entirely over.

Alas, plans to do some work/catch up on studying fell apart on Sunday when intermittent problems with my network router locking up every half hour, and then needing a 15 minute cool-off period each time, got to the point where I couldn't put off installing a new one any longer. What a nightmare! What with wired connections, wireless security, and far too many devices to be connected (laptops, MediaServer, XBox, Blu-Ray player, HD-DVD player) and the way British Telecom insists on configurations that are not "standard out the box" it's taken most of today, and a long phone call to BT, just to get the internet connectivity I've had in the past.

However, everything's up and running now, and the MediaServer automated backups that have been failing overnight on every single PC because of the router lockups are now zipping through like greased lightening.

Even better, Reiner the Nabaztag is now up and running. On the old router he just wouldn't play, but now I guess you could say he's a 'happy bunny', and sits twirling his ears, flashing his lights, and reading me the latest weather, newsflashes and text messages in very silly voices with even sillier music every 20 minutes. Cute for now, but I suspect by the end of the week I'll be sick of some of the more gimmicky alerts and turning them off!

It's not hard to see why Nabaztag has turned into a popular toy amongst the geeks, and at work they're seriously talking about using one to monitor the status of our builds - apparently there's a "Cruise Control" application that lights the rabbit's front up with green, yellow or red depending on the latest status of the build. Must have a look at the API some time to see what else he can be programmed to do.

R.I.P. Heath Ledger

2008-01-23T00:47:00.000Z

Some actors achieve notoriety and great fortune through endlessly repeating the same part (usually themselves) in every film they're given.

Then there are those who are different in every film they appear in. Even the turkeys ("Brothers Grimm" anyone?!) gain something by their participation.

Heath Ledger was one such actor - an actor whose name usually guaranteed a film's place on my 'must buy on DVD' list.

The oscar-nominated "Brokeback Mountain" may be the film which most of the newspaper obituaries are talking about, and it is a personal favourite to the extent that I have a framed poster from the film with Ledger's autograph, along with that of the other main cast members, on my living room wall. But Ledger gave memorable performances in a whole host of other films too. "A Knight's Tale", "The Patriot", "Casanova", and "Ned Kelly" to name just a few. I was looking forward to his performance in the Bob Dylan flick "I'm Not There", and even more so to his performance as The Joker in the forthcoming Batman film "The Dark Knight" which was already being promoted as the film that would lift his career into the stratosphere.

At the time of writing there are reports all over the web of 'a drugs overdose', although it's too early to say yet what the real story is. An interview with The New York Times, back in November, holds some depressing clues as to the possible reason for his death. He told the paper that the Dylan film stressed him out a little too much and he had trouble sleeping while portraying The Joker, whom he called 'a psycopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy'. Talking about his sleep problems the actor went on to say 'Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night. I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted and my mind was still going' before going on to say he took Ambien pills, which only worked for an hour.

Whatever the cause of death, today's news is not just sad, but depressing. We've lost an eminently watchable actor who never appeared to 'sell out' and appeared to inflict a punishing work schedule on himself, whether working on a big Hollywood production or a small indy film. It's sad that the cost of his performances, which always seemed to be of 'The Method' variety, appear to have exacted such a price on this genuinely talented actor.

Rest in Peace, Mr Ledger, and thanks for the wonderful movie memories!

Some Shiny Disc Mini-Reviews

2008-01-20T13:01:00.000Z

It's been a bad start to the new job, with the dreaded stomach flu laying waste to most of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and meaning next week is going to be 'catch up on work' week instead of 'sort out dentist and blood pressure issues' week instead. In the meantime, here's some thoughts on a whole bunch of new shiny discs, which I've been watching over the last few days. Some of these viewings were interrupted by projectile vomiting or attacks of 'the squirts' (I know - too much information!) so that should probably be taken into account. And if you're wondering why so much coverage of releases on the reviled region-locked Blu-Ray format - HD-DVD is now officially all-but-dead, following Warner Brothers' Judas-like betrayal at CES in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

I hadn't realised how much I miss The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin's political masterwerk set in The White House, until this weekend. Officially released in a DVD boxed set tomorrow, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was writer Sorkin's first new TV series to hit the airwaves when The West Wing was axed, and itself got the chop at the end of its first season a few months ago, presumably because the average American viewer just isn't interested in intelligent, beautifully written drama. Not that we Brits are any better - at least if the endless fan 'blog post' ravings, license fee payer -funded ads and repeat commissions for infantile rubbish like Torchwood or Robin Hood are any indication!

There are several familiar faces from The West Wing appearing in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, but it's the writing rather than the acting that stands out and makes one feel one is watching a favourite old series again. In the UK we're very lucky to have Jimmy McGovern, whose excellent first season series of The Street is available on DVD at ridiculously low 'sale' prices of not much more than a fiver, with the second season due out in a few weeks. In some ways I guess you could regard Sorkin as the closest thing the Americans have got to their version of McGovern.

This time round Sorkin uses the ins and outs of a popular, weekly, Friday night comedy TV programme at one of the big broadcast corporations as the premise for his witty, politicial, humorous and amusing look at big business politics. I'm only four episodes in, but already totally hooked by strong characers, challenging storylines that intelligently debate the role of religion, sex and politics in broadcasting, and a cast able to deliver on the strengths of the premise. The only cloud on the horizon is that with four episodes down I have only eighteen more to go before it'll all be over.

Shoot 'Em Up

At the other end of the extreme I watched Shoot 'Em Up, which received a bit of a panning from British critics, despite it having a not-too-shameful score on imdb of 7.2 at the time of writing. On Blu-Ray disc, the release features some fairly generous extra's, including the picture-in-picture documentary feature that has been the exclusive domain of HD-DVD until Sony got their act together and released 'Profile 1.1' hardware (making all existing players, other than the PS/3 which updated itself via an Internet firmware upgrade, obsolete) earlier this month. On those extra's the writer/director of the film is at pains to point out that he was determined not to make a cartoon - which seems somewhat ridiculous since that's EXACTLY what he's produced, albeit one with real-life actors, notably Clive Owen, appearing in real-life sets. Having the central character continually chomping on a carrot makes things pretty clear from the get-go, as if the cartoon violence that explodes every few seconds on screen wasn't a subtle enough clue in the first place.

Shoote 'Em Up's script is laughably bad. The premise is that an angry hot shot 'shootist' witnesses some thugs attacking a young woman with a baby and gets stuck with the baby while the thugs chase him, determined to kill it. It's endless cartoon violence of the Wile E. Coyote variety with what little plot there is being completely ludicrous and as unbelievable as the 'oh! he's survived and got up again!' violence. At one point we are expected to believe that despite our following him from his first accidental encounter the 'hero' has somehow managed to manufacture off-screen an expensive animatronic version of the baby complete with tape recorder that's fooled us and the bad guys! Yup, you need to deposit your brain at the door before starting on this one. All that being said, it's a real romp of an action/cartoon-in-real-life movie and, thanks to its non-stop action and gimmicky cinematography, I enjoyed it a lot - not as much as Crank, which covered pretty much the same territory, but with more panache and wit - but a lot more than British critics had lead me to expect. Over on rotten tomatoes the US critics have given it a 66% 'fresh' rating, which seems about right to me. Definitely worth a rental if you like your films full of action and excitement, and possibly a purchase if you like lots of impressive, slo-mo explosions and flying stunts.

Kenny

I was much less impressed with Kenny, which received rave reviews when commercially released a few months back. A spoof-documentary about an Australian 'toilet plumber' this has the usual quips about 'shit' that one might expect from someone dealing with effluent, but little to differentiate it from a real documentary that one can see any night of the week on TV. 'The best comedy of 2007' the cover proudly proclaims - I'd like some of whatever 'thelondonpaper' were on when they made that comment, please!

Admittedly the film is quite sweet-natured, following a 'salt of the earth' good-natured plumber guide around as he performs his job and shares his philosophy on life. But I just don't get the point of it all! I smiled a few times, as one does at 'real life' incidents, but if I want real life I can go out and experience it or watch a real documentary, not a 'spoof' one. Truth is I'd expected some jokes, and even the back-stories they try and work in (the central character has a son from a previous marriage, and is totally oblivious to the way an air stewardess keeps trying to throw herself at him) but there are no belly laughs here. One is left feeling one has just watched a 'written' reality show like 200 other reality shows one's already seen. Why would you want to pay £13 to see that when it's on TV every night?

Superbad

I've mentioned Judd Apatow before - he seems to be 'flavour of the month', following the release of The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, seemingly because journalism is so bad these days that journalists are happy to peddle Hollywood marketing hype as if it were fact. Both those films were good, if nowhere near as 'intelligent' or fantastic as most critics made them out to be. This week the latest in the formulaic line, Superbad, is released on both Blu-Ray and standard DVD. Apatow's shctick is 'in your face' gross-out vulgarity of the kind pioneered by American Pie, albeit with underlying truths about the human condition which apparently makes it alright to laugh at racist, misogynistic and homophobic dick, fanny and arse jokes. This time round Apatow is only executive producer, with the script written this time round by Seth Rogan, who has starred in Apatow's previous work. There's a lot that's familiar here, and I have to admit I laughed a lot more at this than I did at what 'thelondonpaper' called 'The best comedy of 2007', but still think the hype over the movie is over-rated. In many ways it's like a comedy version of Shoot 'Em Up - cartoon-like stupidity that's a bit like fast food: enjoyable at the time, but one can't help wondering afterwards what the long term effects of mass consumption of this sort of fare will be.

Flyboys

And finally, a plug for Flyboys out on Blu-Ray disc this month. Mercilessly slated by the critics, this tale of World War I pilots can be accused of plagiarism and playing it far too safe - indeed it's a film we've seen several times before - but it's beautifully made, and the aeriel sequences are stunning. I found it infinitely preferable to the execrable Memphis Belle, which it riffs heavily on. The cast, especially James Franco, best known as 'Harry Osborne' from the Spider-Man movies, give good performances from an average script, and the cinematography is stunning. If you want an old-fashioned 'epic' it's hard to think of anything that's been released recently that fits the bill as well as this. I enjoyed it far more than the reviews had indicated I would.

Juno A Good Character Movie When You See One?

2008-01-13T16:40:00.000Z

Over the last week I've seen three films, all of which have several things in common:

They're all character focussed, rather than story-focused

They've all had rave critical reviews, but comparatively few people went to see them

If this all sounds as depressing to you, as it does to me, there are signs for hope. One of the three films, only just about to go on general release in the UK, is gathering momentum as the new Little Miss Sunshine - ie an indie film that could cross over through word of mouth. For the other two, released on shiny disc last week, one suspects that retail sales will be as weak as box office performance was because we live in a world where all anybody cares about is watching state-of-the-art CGI or reliving their youth through poor sequels to films made over 20 years ago.

The indie film is Juno - a film I would have gone to see based solely on the fact it stars Ellen Page, who made an impressive debut with my favourite film of last year, Hard Candy. She plays a very different teenager character this time round: a happy-go-lucky teenager who gets herself pregnant, and decides to give away her baby to adoptive parents. The plot sounds just like one of those 'gloom and doom' reality indie films doesn't it? Nothing could be further from the truth because this is in fact a sweet, if rather quirky, comedy 'feel good' film. It features some really outstanding performances from the whole cast, not just Page, who's performance is so natural that if one hadn't seen her previous work one could be fooled into thinking she isn't acting at all. It's tastefully directed by Jason Reitman, most famous for having written and directed the sleeper hit Thank you for Smoking last year. And it has a stand-out script from newcomer Diablo Cody. Now why can't we in Britain make fantastic, low-budget, films like this? If you get a chance to see this at your local emporium I'd recommend you do so - it has plenty of laughs, and I can't imagine anyone would regret seeing it.

The Walker is a more difficult film to like. It's notable mostly for the quite amazing performance from the central figure played by Woody Harrelson. The film is another in the 'variation on a theme' series' from writer/director Paul Schrader, a theme he apparently started with Taxi Driver and American Gigolo. I have to say I admired the film more than I enjoyed it, mainly because of its lack of coherent or believable plot, although I can see that it was always meant to be a deep character study. Harrelson plays Carter Page III, a society 'walker' whose job is to escort the wives of the rich and powerful to events their husbands cannot accompany them to. The wife of a liberal senator finds her lover murdered and Carter offers to pretend it is him who discovered the body to protect his friend and her husband, soon finding himself ostracised and deserted by those he'd thought were his friends. The central plot, together with a photographer boyfriend and rather silly skullduggery, never really convince and are merely the excuse to embark on a subtle character study of the 'walker' of the title. Critics are rightly praising Harrelson's performance as a career best, and if there were any justice in the world, or this had performed better at the box office, this one would definitely be up for an oscar. It's certainly worth seeing, but it's not up there with Schrader's earlier work, and I found it hard to empathise or even sympathise with the central character, such that the whole thing felt like a bit of a downer.

I was much happier with Sherry Baby, which had a much more upbeat feel and ending than the advance reviews (who all loved it) had lead me to expect. Filmed almost documentary style, the film follows the life of Sherry Swanson, an abused single mother and drug addict, after she's released from a two year prison sentence and tries to rebuild her life with her daughter, being looked after by her brother and sister-in-law. Arguably featuring the 'Best Female Performance of the Year', Maggie Gyllenhaal more than steps up to the plate in playing the role of Sherry, and delivers a film that is at turns shocking, sad, funny and most-of-all incredibly moving. Definitely worth a rental if you like good movies!

Today is my last day of freedom before the new 'day job' starts up tomorrow, and already the weekends between now and my Las Vegas trip (primarily for a Microsoft conference event MIX08, but with 3 extra days holiday tacked on) are filling up. I've somehow managed to volunteer to film at the upcoming ALT.NET conference, which takes place the first Friday/Saturday of February (it's not so much the filming that worries me in terms of taking up time, it's the editing!), and then hope to knuckle down for the launch of the new Shiny Discs web site which I'm hoping will be a big improvement on what appears to be available at other DVD Review sites today!

All of which means I'm not quite sure when this blog will next get updated, but hopefully I'll still get time to post the odd DVD mini-review before Shiny Discs properly launches some time in March.

The Week Ahead (I have a new job!)

2008-01-07T12:13:00.001Z

Suddenly everything seems to have shot into overdrive. I had an interview over in Hatton Gardens late on Friday and start work for a company there next Monday. Very much looking forward to it, if slightly nervous at how much new stuff I will need to get up to speed with very quickly.

My last week of freedom is already filling up quickly.

On Wednesday I'm attending the BETT Show, apparently famous not just for its appallingly slow and almost unusable web site, but as an exhibition show for educators. I'm going there to meet Yevgeny Subotin from mitcorp who'll be on the Sony stand, to discuss green screen (chroma key) options for an upcoming project that will help launch the long-delayed Shiny Discs web site.

For the past few weeks I've been admiring the work of Philip Bloom. His blog (use his name above as the link) is an excellent resource for anyone interested in the new Sony PMW-EX1 camera, cinematography or just short film making in general. He has some quite amazing short films on his web site, all shot with a one-man film crew on digital camcorder - check out My Autumn's Done Come, Piccadilly Furs, and Kew Gardens/Lost Time to see artistic talent creating some wonderful visual poetry. When Phillip posted on the dvinfo forums that he was looking for 'a spare pair of hands' to assist on a personal project he was shooting on Thursday I rushed to volunteer. The project is currently on hold, pending some building approval, but fingers crossed things go ahead as I'd love the opportunity to witness first-hand how Phil gets the results he does.

Pretty much the rest of the week is likely to be spent playing with Sony Vegas Pro 8. Like many, I'm sick of Adobe's over-priced software and ridiculous upgrade pricing and appalling customer service (more like 'customer complete-lack-of-service') so resisted the temptation to just rush into purchasing Adobe Premiere, particularly since so many professional broadcasters seemed to be talking up the new video editing package from Sony (Aaaargh! I hate Sony!). Sony's 'Vegas' software is a fraction of the price of Adobe Premiere CS3, and allegedly a LOT more usable. I have to say that after just an hour or so playing with Vegas Pro I love it and am looking forward to getting more to grips with its more obscure features over the coming months.

I have some film clips and some 'toys' and training videos from the superb Digital Juice site (check out their 'DJ TV' video tutorials which are free) to play with, so suspect there will be little chance to see many new films or shiny discs this week, although I do have a preview screening of Juno, receiving rave reviews everywhere, to look forward to at the British Film Insitute on Wednesday evening.

Like I said, a busy week, with a schedule that's likely to get even busier once I start 'the day job' on Monday, with Microsoft's MIX08 conference in Las Vegas only 8 weeks away (yikes!)

Smile of the Day comes courtesy of a video from the opening keynote speach at CES in Las Vegas yesterday, given by Bill Gates. It's a send-up video of Bill Gates last day at Microsoft, starring not just Mr Gates but also Stephen Spielberg, George Clooney and Bono amongst others. It looks like money can buy you a lot of high profile friends! You probably need to check this one fast before it's taken down as usually the agreement with the celebrities etc on these videos is the stars only take part if it's NOT downloadable or available to the general public at large!

Farewell 2007!

2007-12-31T09:25:00.000Z

It's New Year's Eve and the holidays are pretty soon going to be over - although it's been hard to tell where work ends and holiday starts since I haven't been doing PAID work (through choice :)) since the end of October. Hopefully the New Year will change all that, although I'm going to miss relatively easy days at home in my study just learning (playing is probably a better word!) new stuff.

This is the time of year when it's traditional to make resolutions for the new year. For me it's going to be pretty much 'business as usual' - which means that, in the short term at least, blogging is going to be taking a bit of a back seat. Apologies to those who follow my various film/shiny disc review blogs - these are likely to remain relatively quiet, at least until I've made some progress on activities I've marked as higher priority for January.

At the moment stuff related to work is taking priority and the company web site is effectively the test bed for some infrastructure stuff that will make auto-updating of my personal web site and various blogs much less time-consuming. My Shiny Discs web site will be the ultimate benefactor of all this 'behind the scenes' work, but that is still some way off. Blame Microsoft, who seem to release new technologies and updates on an almost daily basis, such that keeping sufficiently up-to-date to know what's important and what isn't and trying to guarantee code isn't obsolete the day it's written is becoming increasingly difficult.

I have no real plans for New Year's Eve, other than to have another iteration of my CV so that it's ready to submit for some advertised contract vacancies on New Year's Day.

On the blogging front I intend to sort out my work-related blog first, if only because I'm way behind on stashing useful and essential work-releated links, an activity that needs to be accelerated given today's news that The Daily Grind (Larkware News) - a useful set of daily links for the .NET developer - is shutting down shop today. A new year's resolution is to make sure I update the work-related blog daily, with similar plans for this personal blog not likely to come to fruition until later in the year - in the meantime my Twitter 'tweets' (blog entries limited to 140 characters) are usually updated at least a couple of times a day.

Looking back, 2007 has been a good year after what was for me a very bleak year preceding it. Hopefully 2008 will be even better - for me, and for you, although I see Gordon Brown is already trying to spoil the party with warnings of doom and gloom.

Anyway, Gordon Brown aside, Happy New Year wherever and whoever you are (that doesn't apply to Christopher Lee or any of his family, obviously ;-))

P.S. Forgot to mention that I did a quick write-up on My Top 10 Shiny Discs of 2007 over on the rather excellent Filmstalker blog.

Christmas Carol/Lust, Caution

2007-12-15T11:26:00.001Z

This week I've had two excellent evenings out: one at the theatre in Greenwich, the other at the cinema in Clapham. Both productions were what I would call "real highlights of 2007" in their respective fields. Alas, both were presented in venues that could have easily benefitted from more 'bums on seats', and it's kind of depressing that work of the sort of quality I've witnessed this week isn't proving more successful on a commercial level.

On Wednesday, I went to see A Christmas Carol at The Greenwich Playhouse. To be honest, it's a production I went to see more because it was an adaptation by my friend Brian Sibley, than because it was something I felt I really needed to see: Greenwich is not the most central location (although thankfully, the theatre is right next to the main station) and A Christmas Carol is hardly an unfamiliar piece, trotted out on TV, DVD and in the theatre every December (there are three theatrical productions in London alone this year I believe). My mistake, because as it turned out this excursion turned out to be a genuine highlight of my cultural excursions in 2007: the production is genuinely new, innovative, exciting, fast-paced, and really, really magical!

Brian has taken a very familiar story and given it a new spin by making Dickens himself an integral part of the play. There's an emphasis on the social problems of the times in new scenes that I haven't seen in other versions, and some scenes that are so moving that several audience members could be seen dabbing their eyes at certain times in the production. No matter how familiar you are with the story, you'll find something new here.

The production itself is superb. The cast make excellent use of a small, but modern, space that gives an intimacy that just isn't there in West End productions. The staging, use of props, and use of puppets for the ghosts and the wonderful 'Tiny Tim' make this an incredibly complex production to perform, and I would imagine a complete nightmare to direct. And yet the small cast of eight manage complex changes and direction flawlessly, while all the time giving believable, real performances. The actors are all professionals, if not household names, and I can't remember a time where I saw a theatrical cast work so hard, or witnessed such a consistently high standard from every member of the cast. In short, it's a real family treat, and a 'must see' this Christmas.

The production runs until 6th January and tickets are a bargain at just £11 (£9 concessions) from the box office on 0208 858 9256. Do yourself a favour and go see it!

The audience I saw the play with were clearly as much in love with the production as I was, as apparently are the critics. But don't just take my word for it - check out the rave reviews and photo's that Brian's posted over on his blog.

Since he made that blog post more, equally enthusiastic, reviews have appeared in the local press. I sincerely hope that their enthusiasm for this production translates across into 'bums on seats' because it would be a shame if a production as good as this one didn't have a full house every night for the remainder of its run. More information can be found at galleontheatre.co.uk.

Last night I went to the Clapham Picture House to see a preview of Ang Lee's new film Lust, Caution which was followed by a satellite screening of a live Q&A with the director. It was quite depressing to see a cinema that was less than a tenth full, for a film that won the Venice Film Festival Film of the Year, and has received nothing but praise from the critics.

I've liked most of Lee's films, from The Ice Storm, through Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to Brokeback Mountain, and even including the poorly received The Hulk movie he made, but Lust, Caution is, I think, his most polished film to date - perfect in nearly every way.

In the Q&A session Lee described the film as his most personal, and certainly it's his most explicit, with three sex scenes that, while short (although apparently taking twelve days to film), leave little to the imagination. These may put some potential audiences off but they are more than warranted I think in helping to convey the depth of emotion that needs to be conveyed if the rather unbelievable outcome from the book is to be in any way believable. It's not a short film, running at two and a half hours, but I found myself gripped throughout the entire running time.

In many ways Lust, Caution is like two films in one, with a central violent event forming the 'hinge' of the two. The first half is what the director called an 'overly dramatic' melodrama, concentrating on the story of a group of actors in pre-War Hong Kong putting together a naive plot to assasinate a traitorous politician who's colluding with the Japanese. The second half is more a 'film noir', complete with subtle, but nicely done, homages to Hitchcock. Lee talked about his deliberate usage of more desaturated colours and natural performances for the second half, obtaining incredibly subtle, nuanced performances from his cast in a story that moves on three years from the first half, with the same characters attempting to finish what they'd set out to do in the first half.

The ending is shocking in an 'obviously not a Hollywood movie' kind of way, but all the more powerful for all that, and I'm struggling to get the film out of my head the next day. In the Q&A session after the screening Lee talked about the fact that his last six films have all been 'tragedies' and that he really needs to get back to the genre he started with in Taiwan - comedy. When the 'tragedy' he produces is as good as Lust, Caution it would be a pity to see him move away from a genre that he's so adept at, and which has the power to move audiences so visibly. The film goes on general release in the UK in January and I strongly urge you to see it.

A Conversation with Philip Pullman

2007-12-09T18:59:00.000Z

During one of the coffee breaks on the British Film Institute tour of the National Archive last Wednesday, a small group of us chatted about how often we go to the cinema. I repeated my oft-expressed view that with current home cinema equipment, timely shiny disc release dates, and the nightmare that is a trip to the cinema these days it was hard to justify any visits to the local fleapit. At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old git (again!) a cinema trip these days seems to mean having to watch a film surrounded by ringing mobile phones, kids asking dumb questions at the top of their voices, and individuals noisly chomping on huge buckets of popcorn that could feed a family of twelve. Since when did a trip to the movies become a meal time for the whole family? Add in some truly appalling prints, poor projection systems and ridiculously inflated ticket prices and travel delays courtesy of London's transport system, why would anyone not just wait a few weeks for the DVD?

After my trip to see The Golden Compass yesterday (reviewed here on my Movie Review blog, I have a new irritant to add to the long list of why cinema trips can be a nightmare - false fire alarms causing disruption and long delays in getting in to see your film! OK, so maybe this isn't a common problem and I was unlucky, but when the one or two inexperienced staff in charge advise all and sundry that there will be a 40 minute delay and it would be best to come back later, only to then start the screening 15 minutes earlier than they've just advised, you can perhaps see why people end up getting very annoyed (not me on this occasion as I've learnt from experience never to trust what poorly paid staff tell you!)

One way some of the specialist cinema's are trying to lure audiences back is through offering their own version of DVD Extra's and my local cinema, the Clapham Picture House, has taken to offering not just a great membership scheme with the occasional free preview, but also a series of 'satellite' interviews and Q&A sessions with key figures tied in with a film screening.

Next Friday they're offering a preview screening of Ang Lee's latest film Lust, Caution, with satellite transmission of a Q&A with the director immediately afterwards. Given that the film doesn't go on general release here until next year, this is a screening I'm certainly interested in attending, especially at the bargain basement price of £8.50 all-in, even if it is a 45 minute walk each way to attend.

Earlier this afternoon I followed up on yesterday's viewing of The Golden Compass, with a satellite interview with Philip Pullman, the writer of the original book on which the film is based.

Personally, I think the cinema missed an opportunity in not bundling this in with a screening of the film itself, and the half-empty cinema seemed to indicate that maybe £5 to watch one hour of someone being interviewed by someone rather nervous and inexperienced in the role was a little on the expensive side, particularly given that a Hollywood film running twice as long could be had for about the same price. That being said, the satellite screening, which was broadcast to cinema's across the whole of the UK, shows initiative and it will be interesting to see how much more of this sort of event local cinema's offer to combat the threat from home entertainment systems.

The Conversation with Philip Pullman was an interesting affair, mainly because Pullman has no qualms with deflating pompous rhetoric or theories about his work. At one point the interviewer asked if it was true he had several times walked out of interviews when he thought the questions were bad. "I'm far too well brought up to have done that", came the reply, and indeed it proved, although Pullman did manage to demonstrate without any fuss that he doesn't suffer fools gladly, and had no problems dismissing long, elaborate, pretentious theories about existential symbolism in his work, masquerading as questions with short, succint answers such as "I think that's complete tosh.". It proved to be an entertaining sixty minutes.

On the specifics of the film of the first book in his Dark Materials trilogy, the author made it quite clear that he is very happy with the film. When pushed and asked what he would have changed he could only think of two things: the final scene where he felt the conversation from Lydia is too long and should have been shortened, and that she and the bear should have shown more visible signs of what they'd just gone through by appearing more embattled, albeit determined and optimistic about the future; and a scene that was apparently shot but cut just after the witch appears to Lydia on the boat, in which her former lover appears and senses the witch's presence and talks of sensing 'a smell of the North'.

Most of the conversation centred around his writings, views on spirituality and philosophy, and perhaps most passionately his views on teaching (and the fact that the government have destroyed everything good about what teachers do with their insistence on 'measuring only things that can be measured, not the things that can't be measured and are actually more important' - he's not a fan of SATs!)

At one point the understandably nervous interviewer, having already delivered what seemed to be a 'gay rights' speech on the importance of Daniel Craig in speedo's retaining his inner child (WTF?!!), asked Pullman about the 10,000 girls who'd auditioned for the part of Lydia in the film before Dakota Blue Richards got the role. Unfortunately it was like watching a car crash in slow motion as he launched into patronising piffle about the importance of children following their dreams, at the end of which Pullman delivered the killer blow: "I doubt the 9,999 children who didn't get the role would necessarily agree with you". Brilliant stuff that was only spoilt by the interviewer suffering from a bout of hubris, trying to defend his position and persuade Pullman to agree that his point had been well made.

Pullman's honesty and refusal to kotow to the interviewer, while sometimes blunt to the point that some might consider rude, encouraged me to look out some of his work and read it. He freely admitted to 'borrowing' from a lot of sources, singling out a couple of scenes from The Magnificent Seven, apparently one of his all-time favourite films, which he'd 'borrowed' for his books.

The hour came to a rather abrupt halt before audience questions could really be asked, but one audience member wasn't going to leave without getting the answer to his question. 'What daemon would you have?' he shouted as the interviewer tried to wrap things up. Pullman's reply was short, sweet and to the point. 'A magpie', he responded, before adding by way of explanation, 'They steal things'.

Tour of the BFI National Archives

2007-12-06T01:46:00.000Z

I had a fantastic day today, taking a tour of the British Film Institute National Archives at Berkhamstead. The day was offered as one of the perks of having BFI Champion membership, but ordinary BFI members (it's cheap to join!) can also take the tour for a £25 fee, with the next tour due to take place in January, as detailed on the BFI web site in the Members area. More information about the archive can be found here. I highly recommend the tour if you have any interest at all in films and/or the restoration process that the BFI undertakes!

Eight of us had a fantastic tour that covered some of the memorabilia, films, posters, TV tapes and demonstrations of all the various stages of film and TV video preservation and restoration work that the British Film Institute undertakes. It was all very impressive, and we were even given lunch and a goodie bag as well!

I've posted my photo's as a Flickr slideshow (alas, I asked permission to take pictures AFTER we'd covered a couple of areas so some areas we were shown are not represented). Make sure you click on the photo (when an 'information' icon will appear) to see the description of what each photo is about. Unfortunately Flickr has chosen to display them in reverse order, so you can follow my tour backwards!

BBC Drama's

2007-11-19T16:07:00.000Z

Lots of work to do today, with the official release of Visual Studio 2008 - the latest version of the software tool I spend 90% of my working day in. But luckily I'd pre-prepared a review of Hotel Babylon Series 1 on Blu-Ray disc.

It's not just today's shiny disc review that comes courtesy of the BBC. Smile of the Day is taken from their Children in Need live broadcast from last Friday. Given copyright issues I'm not sure how long this link will work, but hopefull it will work so that you can see the eight minute sketch where David Tenant's Who meets Peter Davison's Who to great comedic effect. The sketch, which takes place between the end of Series 3 and the new series was written by the excellent Stephen Moffat rather than the God-awful Russel T Davies for those wondering why I'm recommending something that usually has me going into rant mode! Check it out here.

Blu-Ray Hi-Jinx

2007-11-18T11:52:00.000Z

Little new to report today, as I spent most of yesterday catching up on unwatched shiny discs - Hairspray and Die Hard 4.0 on Blu-Ray disc to be precise. Both were excellent, and it's good to see Blu-Ray FINALLY delivering the sort of picture quality the format promised but completely failed to deliver on early releases. Both also include generous and excellent extra's. Fuller reviews will no doubt appear over on my Blu-Ray blog at some point.

Just read that Blu-Ray owners have been screwed over yet again. Sony have effectively been pushing beta players onto the market at extortionate prices for a year now, simply as a spoiler to the rival completed HD-DVD spec. That much is pretty well known and should have been solved by now. Sony had promised that the Profile 1.1 spec, required to support a pretty basic 'picture in picture' feature would have to be a standard feature on ALL Blu-Ray players sold as from October 2007. It seems they've now relented and, as at the time of writing, not one of the players from manufacturers available in the UK, Sony key amongst them, appears to support this very basic format (and there is already a Profile 2.0 spec on its way, which will obsolete even those players IF and WHEN they finally become available).

One of the advertised features on the Hairspray Blu-Ray disc appears to be a picture-in-picture feature. It turns out that because the Profile 1.1 players needed to play this weren't ready in time that this disc, like a couple of others, achieves this by putting TWO copies of the film on the disc: one with the 'picture in picture' feature permanently embedded, one without. Now you know why the Blu-Ray format NEEDS that increased capacity over supposedly inferior HD-DVD disc format! Ridiculous! I suspect that in the run-up to Christmas a lot of gullible fools will get caught out buying players that this time next year won't be able to play many of the special features of the Blu-Ray discs being released. Buyer beware!

On my shiny disc review blogs high defininition reviews have taken a bit of a backseat to standard DVD reviews of late, mainly because trying to capture the required screenshots to accompany the reviews is such a time-consuming pain. With standard DVDs simple software like PowerDVD can be used to grab pictures from the actual disk. With HD-DVD and Blu-Ray I'm stuck with taking photo's from a plasma screen and then processing the heck out of them in Photoshop. And they still look dreadful. For some reason the original photo's always have a ridiculous green cast to them and life would be so much easier if Cyberquest's Ultra PowerDVD which plays HD-DVD and/or Blu-Ray disc offered the same screen capture facility as its older, and much cheaper, sibling product.

Today's shiny disc review is of the Disney classic The Jungle Book. You can check it out over on my UK DVD Review blog

Amongst the pile of shiny discs waiting to be watched, and at some point reviewed, are a couple of new Stephen Poliakoff plays, that were transmitted on the Beeb's terrestrial channels a couple of weeks ago I think. I'm a big fan of this series - there tend to be a couple of new ones each year - but have to admit I laughed out loud at today's Smile of the Day, which is Stephen Poliakoff's 'The Bill' from the excellent, if generally 'unsafe for work' (not this time), blog from Skip's Acorn Treasury. Brilliant stuff!

Beowulf in 3D

2007-11-17T16:06:00.000Z

Yesterday, I went to see Beowulf, one of those new 3D motion-capture computer-generated films, which has received little in the way of advance publicity, despite a collossal Hollywood budget, and which looked like it was going to be a car crash waiting to happen.

The fact that bloggers were being invited to a free pre-screening of the film in 3D at the London IMAX was an encouraging sign - the last time I got an invite like this was for 300, which is another film I doubt I'd have bothered making a trip to a cinema to see, but which absolutely needs to be seen on a big screen rather than waiting for the DVD.

This time around I was abroad on vacation when the screening was scheduled, but faced with mounting evidence that this was a good film (early marks in the high 80's and early 90's from public and critics on imdb and rotten tomatoes) I took advantage of early afternoon ticket availability and shelled out for a ticket.

I'm glad I did. The film's not perfect but as a 3D experience it's pretty jaw-dropping. I suspect that even on a dull old 2D screen the film pretty much works, but if you're going to see this film you really want to move heaven and earth to try and see it in 3D, preferably on a mammoth IMAX screen. Watching this, it's not hard to see why the talk in so many film magazines over the last six months has been of 3D 'saving' cinema's in a world where many homes are getting home theatre environments that can easily rival, if not outperform, the local multiplex fleapit.

There are a few things in the film that don't work and are just plain wrong. I'm still not sure why a medieval picture features Angeline Jolie in high heels (fans of hers should be warned that her screen time measured in minutes is just single figures) when everything else appears authentic to the period. Nor do I understand why there's a rather ridiculous Austin-Powers 'hide the weenie' fight scene included as the laughs this raises are clearly out of whack with the rather serious nature of the film. But for the most part I was thoroughly entertained, blown away even, and have no hesitation in recommending it FOR THE OVER 12'S!

That last little disclaimer phrase is a bit of a sticking point with me. For reasons I cannot fathom the film has been licensed 12A which means anyone can see it. As has become usual with my IMAX excursion the first 15 minutes of the film were for me totally ruined by the two stupid women who took their young kids to see what is a very scary, and gory film that is full of not just violence but sexual innuendo too. As if the constant questions from a young girl in the party drowning out the film dialogue weren't bad enough, the group of 4 then disrupted everyone's viewing by finally realising about 20 minutes in that perhaps this film wasn't suitable for young children after all and standing up to make a long, noisy exit from the middle of the row.

I appreciate the film cost a lot to make, and that the film-makers wanted as young a rating as possible to maximise their audience, but someone at the BBFC should be fired for giving this film such a low rating, with the official excuse apparently not being 'We were given back-handers' but that 'It's fantasy violence'. Ah that's OK then! Given the level of reality now available with these computer generated images (although, somewhat confusingly, the Ray Winstone-voiced Beowulf has a six pack and the face of Sean Bean) presumably we can expect the kiddies to be able to enjoy full-on hardcore porn in this format in the next year or two, simply because it's computer-generated rather than 'real'!!!

Today's shiny disc review (read it by clicking on the title) is of The Golden Door on UK DVD.

Smile of the Day comes in the form of a rather smutty joke, courtesy of Andy Jarrett. I know I shouldn't laugh, but I did. Check out Coma Cure on Andy's blog.

No Country For Old Men

2007-11-16T10:49:00.000Z

If ever there was a title that cried out to me and my views of Britain, then the Coen Brothers' new film, No Country For Old Men is surely one!

Thanks to Brian Sibley I got to attend a preview of the film, which hits British cinema's any week now, last night. With an imdb score over 8.9 and a Rotten Tomatoes rating in the 90's (yikes!) I was looking forward to this new film, and I wasn't disappointed, although the film certainly won't be to everyone's taste, much like their career-best Fargo struggled with some audiences who couldn't quite 'get' the quirky characters at the film's core.

I had meant to mention The Coen Brothers in Tuesday's review of The Good German on my UK DVD Review Blog but forgot. In 2001 they made one of my favourite films The Man Who Wasn't There - the PROPER way to do a 1940's -styled film noir for the modern age. This under-rated gem can be had for a bargain price on DVD and is well worth checking out.

No Country For Old Men, like most Coen Brothers movies, is all about characters, and quirky characters at that, albeit at the expense of formulaic story-lines or predictable endings. With some excellent performances from the rather odd-looking Javier Bardem (the stand-out actor in the under-rated Goya's Ghosts) and Tommy Lee Miller it's not hard to see why this is winning awards all over the festival circuit. Well worth seeing when it finally gets its UK theatrical release. I really need to write a filler review for my UK Film Review blog, but with a backlog of shiny disc reviews already waiting to be written it'll have to wait!

I've managed to get ONE new DVD review published - my review of 'The Flying Scotsman' is now up on my UK DVD Review blog. DVD reviews of The Jungle Book, Lost Season 3, Jekyll, Show Business - The Road to Broadway on standard DVD, Die Hard 4.0, Hotel Babylon Series 1 and 28 Days Later on Blu-Ray, and Talk to Me and Eyes Wide Shut on HD-DVD will be forthcoming once I've made rather more progress than I have done to date on the studying/work project front!

Smile of the Day comes courtesy of YouTube once again. If you're a fan of Riverdance, or even if you're not, check out this fun video of the show as peformed by dancing monkeys

Back From Cyprus

2007-11-13T18:15:00.000Z

The week's holiday in Cyprus was great, thanks largely to the weather being much better than expected at this time of the year (late season). I managed to get a tan, and also visit haunts from my childhood (I was in Cyprus aged 5 to 7 and a half) such as Episkopi and Troodos, thanks to having a hire car for the week. I'd like to say it brought back a lot of memories, but it's scary how much more my sister (18 months younger than me) remembers (or claims to remember!) of the time. What few memories did return were extremely vague ones of the place rather than any distinct new personal memories.

What does hit you about the place is how British it all is - or rather how 1960's British it all is. The British influence is obvious in the side of the road they drive on, the electrical plugs they use, the low crime rate and good manners everywhere. It's not hard to see why so many Brits buy holiday homes and then emigrate there. Returning to Gatwick, with the plane circling forever before being allowed to land, whereupon we were able to join ridiculously long queues for passport control and wait an eternity for baggage, I found myself wondering why on earth so many of us choose to stay in this country!

Now that I'm back I've managed to post my review of the DVD of The Good Shepherd which came out last week, over on my UK DVD Review Blog

Smile of the Day comes courtesy of YouTube. Check out Medieval Help Desk.

Las Vegas Here I come!

2007-11-09T12:06:00.000Z

I'm in the middle of one holiday (currently in Cyprus, staying at my sister's flat near Limassol, back in the UK on Monday) and I've already booked the next one (sort of).

The Venetial Resort Hotel Casino and a ticket for Microsoft's MIX08 conference in Las Vegas are now booked. Hotel is booked for the week 3rd March to 8th March, with the conference just taking up 2.5 days at the end of that week. I've never been to Las Vegas so looking forward to a couple of days R&R beforehand. I missed MIX07 last year because I'd booked Microsoft's PDC conference in L.A. for later that year but then they went and cancelled it, so this year I'm not taking any chances. The UK version of the MIX conference which I attended a few weeks ago here in London was a pale shadow of the US version of these things and it's better to go direct to the source, especially as they're usually timed to coincide with major new releases from Microsoft.

Will book flights when I get back to the UK (late on Sunday) - not sure at this stage whether I'll also be able to fit in a trip to Los Angeles as well.

What Hi-Fi?/Stuff Show 2007

2007-11-03T11:20:00.000Z

The What Hi-Fi?/Stuff show, taking place this weekend at The Novotel in Hammersmith, West London, is a bit of a misnomer for me as its main appeal is around home cinema rather than hi-fi.

There are very few shows or even shops in London that let you see the latest offerings from manufacturers that the magazines are all currently reviewing, so it's a good chance to actually see the different products 'in the flesh' and compare them.

I went last year for the first time but came away extremely disappointed. The show was split confusingly over several floors, poorly sign-posted, with small over-crowded stands and ridiculously small demo rooms that involved very long queues if you wanted to get information from an actual person or see a demo. It seemed a bit of a rip-off, given the ticket price of over a tenner, and the need to take a day off work on Friday if you wanted to avoid the even bigger crowds over the weekend.

This year, with me being available to attend anyway, I decided to spend the £13.50 or thereabouts and go again, if only because it's a good way to get all the latest brochures. I arrived a little bit earlier this year, just before the show opened, and had a much better experience, although my complaints about the poor demo rooms and terrible layout and sign posting are the same (in fact, if anything, the signposting was worse this year and I found myself far too often having to act as unofficial ambassador for the show, directing people as to how they could see what they'd come to see and couldn't find).

Sony

I hit the Sony stand first, since with nobody other than staff around, there seemed a good chance of getting some basic questions answered. Alas the staff seemed just as clueless as your average local sales assistant. A simple question like 'What's the difference between the V, W and X models you sell in all the different sizes of your Bravia LCD TV's?' drew a blank 'I don't know. If you wait I'll find someone who knows'. Given that the Sony stand was there displaying nothing but V, W and X versions of Sony's Bravia range of LCD TV's, is it too much to expect their on-site staff to understand even the basics of the product they're selling?

Fortunately, with the stand being empty of other show attendees, the manager of the Sony area was on hand, and he did know the product range they were showing off (although a bit lost when it came to knowing prices - a bit odd when I'd have thought that was the one thing most people need to know upfront?!).

Although the Bravia range is nice, I saw nothing to convince me that LCD has surpassed (or even equalled) plasma, but have to admit that the 72" LCD that was in pride of place appeared to come pretty close. That assessment has to be taken with a bit of a pinch of salt since it was displaying brightly lit scenes and no night time scenes that invariably show how poor LCD technology can be, particularly when viewed in low lighting conditions.

Regular readers will know I dislike Sony with a vengeance - they use the public as their QA department and nearly all their products seem to miraculously fail just a month outside their guarantee period, with the repair cost invariably being close to the cost of buying the product again as new, with TV's being perhaps the one exception to this general Sony rule. The other 'gouge the public' Sony rule is one of obfuscation with a 'style over technical specs substance' design that is best left to the likes of Bang &Olufsen or Apple.

I asked the cost of the 72" Bravia. "2,999" came the reply. Now, I know LCD is cheaper than plasma, and prices everywhere have come down, but even so... I was impressed. Maybe I've been too harsh on Sony. Alas, not! The salesman quickly realised his mistake. "I'm sorry, I've got a digit wrong. It's "29,999"!

Now I know there are people out there with more money than sense (name your favourite major league football player here) but even the Davd Beckham's of this world must realise that's a ridiculous price to pay for a decidedly inferior technology. A superior 65" plasma can be had for a fraction of that cost. Who on earth are the intended audience for this thing? (which apparently has won awards from What Hi-Fi already! The mind boggles!)

Denon

Next stop was Denon. I'm a big fan of theirs since I was a user of their DJ mixing decks (and helped them launch one particular model at a very posh do at a country house many years ago), and have a solid and reliable mini hi-fi system from them, but don't currently have any of their components in my home cinema system despite the constantly enthusiastic reviews from thee magazines.

Alas, my aging and monstrous Yamaha DSP-A1, at the time I bought it, their flagship model, is proving a weak link in my home cinema system. The LCD display has pretty much died which is annoying in a 'flagship' product less than 10 years old. Worse, it's suddenly taken to letting lose the most ridiculously loud pops at the most inopportune moments. But perhaps most importantly of all it doesn't have the much-desired HDMI inputs.

It looks like Denon will have some very nice possible replacements that are THX-II certified and do everything needed (the new gimmicks like 7 speaker support, zones, network connectivity, iPod native support, full HDMI 1.3 etc), if not now then next year which is the timeframe I'm looking at.

In one corner of the Denon show area were their latest CD/MP3 mixing decks, designed to look much more like traditional Technics vinyl mixing decks - the products have obviously moved on a long way since I last looked at them. I resisted the temptation to try and live the old days at 'Heaven' and have a play!

Pioneer

My visit to Pioneer was pretty much as expected. I've been pleased with my 'third generation' 50 inch plasma (although watching Fargo the other day it's clear that all those scare stories about plasma burn are not totally without foundation), but it lacks the essential HDMI inputs (Blu-Ray looks worse than DVD through my system because of the inability to connect through a PC-like terminal) and doesn't go above 720p high-def when HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs play at 1080p. Pioneer have their new 'eighth' generation Kuro range available now and have at last recognised the fact that people want 1080p resolution sets. After several years with my 50 inch model it's starting to feel small, so it's good to see they now have a 60 inch model (and selling for two thirds the price that my 50 inch model cost when originally purchased). Given the rave reviews (and essential multiple HDMI 1.3 inputs) I suspect that either this (or the equally well reviewed Panasonic 65 inch model) will be by next upgrade purchase. Unfortunately Panasonic weren't at the show for me to look at their model to see if it was up to the quality I deserve (giggle).

Sim2

I then made the mistake of attending a Sim2 demonstration up on the second floor. They make 'the best' projectors and I'd heard nothing but praise for them and their demo so decided to make sure I attended it this year.

To say I was totally blown away is an understatement!

They ran four demo's, using HD material from a Tony Bennett Blu-Ray disc, an excerpt from a 'Planet Earth' Blu-Ray disc, an excerpt from the 'Transformers' movie on HD-DVD and finally a demo of 'Hot Fuzz' on HD-DVD, using four different models of their projector, and a variety of screens that siltently slid up and down from the ceiling.

The four-disc/four-projectors demo started with their entry level projector coming in at not far off £1,500, and ending with their latest '1080p with anamorphic lens' jobbie at £20,000! Apparently this time last year the less feature-complete 'flagship' model was being promoted at £40,000 so prices are, as with the plasma and LCD technologies, falling, to say the least!

To say these guys know their stuff and how to demo it is an understatement, and one particularly nice touch was the way they pointed out the flaws in highly detailed scenes from 'Planet Earth' which most of us would never notice (mist problems down to difficulties of encoding).

After this demonstration, I can understand why true cine-enthusiasts poo-poo the whole plasma TV approach to home movie viewing. It may be inconvenient to have to sit in the dark, but when the experience is as good as demonstrated here, you start to see why people go the projector/screen route instead. This was a 'cinema' experience that equalled the best I've had - inside or outside the home.

The 'Hot Fuzz' demo was as good as the presentation I'd had in a digitally upgraded 'state of the art' cinema in the West End. Not cheap when screens, sound-proofing and speaker set-ups are taken into account, but even so.... I need to start doing the lottery!

What Hi-Fi? 'High Definition' Demo

What Hi-Fi? ran their own 'hi-def' demo which is featured in a prominent position on the ground floor. This had ridiculously long queues and wait times last year, and it wasn't too dissimilar this year, even though overall the show was much quieter. I made the effort to see it this time though, and queued for about half an hour.

I left rather disappointed, probably because I'd been spoilt by the far superior Sim2 demo (the What Hi-Fi demo also used a Sim2 projector). The What Hi-Fi? demo was all about comparing two versions of a very long clip from the 'Transformers' movie (similar to the Sim2 clip, but longer): an 'upscaled' standard DVD with Dolby Digital sound (which is compressed) and then comparing it with the HD-DVD version which features True-HD sound. I guess it was a good demonstration of the difference in sound ('Transformers' is a VERY noisy film anyway), but a very poor one for trying to convince anybody to upgrade for the supposedly dramatic improvements in picture quality.

Despite being a 'reference' disc for HD-DVD, the film clip chosen has bad contrast, non-stop shaky camera-work and rapid cutting that makes it almost impossible to follow what's going on. Therefore, I would dare to suggest, NOT a great disc for showing the improved picture quality detail that becomes available with high definition formats. There is one 'less than a second' clip of skyscrapers from a helicopter shot in the long sequence that was used that DOES help to highlight the difference well, but the presenter didn't draw attention to that. The guy next to me (a Blu-Ray games player who was also into his movies) said he thought it was a pretty poor demo if it was meant to promote high definition. I couldn't disagree with him.

Elsewhere around the Show

Stand-wise, there were less companies than last year (Toshiba, who had a big stand last year, were missing - is HD-DVD already THAT dead in the water?!) but some interesting smaller stands, including Picture House Plasma TV Fireplaces. I have an eyesore of an old fireplace below my wall-mounted plasma, covered by some Lord of the Rings 'cloth' posters and my rack system. This company for 'between £3000 and £5000' make very nice fireplaces that incorporate motorised compartments for big plasma's so that they can be hidden behind the fire between use, offering useful shelf real estate as well. Very nice and I suspect I'll be looking at using them once I've got an estimate for removing the old fireplace and fitting a new one.

I managed to pick up a cheque for £11.98 for my old mobile phone - one of the advertised features of the show is that you can take your old mobiles in and get cash. - I hadn't realised they wouldn't take the power supply and case as well so had to bring those back home. For me then the ticket price was almost covered by that, and the first 500 entrants got a free pack of triple A Mallory batteries, which I laid claim to up on the second floor. All-in-all it was worth the cost of attending, but I question how long the show will survive. The layout is appalling, and too many of the key players were missing. All the problems I raised about the show over on The AV Forums, last year are still there, even though some of these are easily fixable. A more central London venue would attract far more 'passing trade' and that in turn would attract more of the vendors. The decreased attendance this year compared with last (at least when comparing the two Fridays) must mean this show is running on limited time unless the organisers get their act together. But if they DO have the event next year I'd probably attend, if only to take advantage of some of the offers available at the show (between 5% up to 20% off from some of the 'third party' companies that were participating).

Closing Thoughts

The show runs until tomorrow (Sunday) so if you're reading this the weekend of 3rd November you still have a chance to go. You can find all the details at the official show site (which is pretty dreadful!).

Yeah, but where's Smile of the Day and the new Shiny Disc Reveiw?

I'm running late for a meeting in central London with some friends, so no Smile of the Day or new DVD review yet. There will be an update to My DVD Review Blog when I come back so check that later today for a review of The Good German, which goes on sale on Monday.

So that was Halloween

2007-11-02T01:11:00.000Z

I spent most of Halloween watching a very funny film on DVD which I've just finished reviewing on my UK DVD Review Blog. It's a French film (ie with the dreaded sub-titles) but well worth seeing anyway, especially if you like 'laugh out loud' farce. It's called Poltergay

This entry is being written very early in the morning (or late at night, depending on your viewpoint) as I've got an early morning start to go and attend the What HiFi?/Stuff Show. I've little interest in Hi-Fi, but a lot of interest in the new 1080p High definition plasma's from Pioneer (60 inch model) and Panasonic (65 inch model). My current Pioneer 50 inch model is looking a bit long in the tooth, and lacks the HDMI ports I need to get a decent picture from my Blu-Ray and HD-DVD decks. It's also limited to 720p resolution, so it'll be interesting to see how things have improved between my 'third generation' plasma and the 'eighth generation' screens that are now available. I went to the show last year and thought the admission price was a bit extortionate, given how small it was, but it is one of the few places where you can actually see the new models performing, and pick up the latest brochures.

Smile of the Day contains a four letter word, but is otherwise safe for work, despite the worrying title. It's a sketch from a couple of comedians, one of whom works on one of the big American chat shows. Check out Glory Hole on YouTube.

Stuck on the Phone

2007-11-01T10:19:00.000Z

I am spending far too much time this morning on 'hold' lines trying to find out why delivery companies claim that a delivery was attempted when quite clearly it wasn't. So today's DVD review of Cellular over on my UK DVD Review Blog seems particularly appropriate, even if it is of a DVD that actually went on sale for the first time a couple of years ago.

Smile of the Day today is a BBC News Report on the visit of the King of Saudi Arabia to the UK. It's meant to be serious, but the music selected to greet the King on his arrival to meet the Queen, as featured at the beginning of the report is pure genius. I have a horrid feeling whoever made the choice might get sacked now that the Beeb have highlighted it - hopefully not!. You can see the report on YouTube here

Flood

2007-10-31T00:24:00.000Z

Today's new review is of Flood, over on my UK DVD Review Blog. The DVD went on sale on Monday this week.

Smile of the Day is another video clip/song. Although I own an XBox 360 I haven't yet succumbed to buying Halo 3 (although I have Halo and Halo 2) - there are just aren't enough hours in a day. Looks like I made a wise decision, at least if this Blame Halo 3 video is anything to go by!

Days of Glory

2007-10-30T08:41:00.001Z

I finally got around to writing my first review of a film on Blu-Ray last night! I published the review of Days of Glory, over on my Blu-Ray Review Blog.

Smile of the Day comes courtesy of Jacqui, a friend I met when I visited New Zealand a few years ago. If I hadn't told you she lived in New Zealand you could probably have guessed after watching this YouTube video. It's very silly and very juvenile, but I challenge you not to find yourself smiling at it!

Kiss of Death

2007-10-29T06:36:00.000Z

Going to bed relatively early (well before midnight - a first for me since I started my 'time out' from paid work to catch up on new technologies) is the kiss of death for curing my insomnia. I woke up 'wide awake' at 5am this morning. Needless to say as I type this, at around 6.30am, I'm feeling a lot less fresh than I was an hour or so ago.

I've published a new DVD review, of the 1947 'film noir' classic Kiss of Death which was released just a couple of weeks ago. You can read it here.

Today's Smile of the Day is a Dilbert cartoon, which was actually published a few days ago, but seems to so accurately describe my life I couldn't let it go by without comment!

Clocks Go Back/The Reaping on HD-DVD/Pachelbel's Canon

2007-10-28T09:27:00.000Z

Guess who only just found out the clocks went back an hour today (doh!) - nice surprise to find there's an extra hour in the day though!

Have updated my HD-DVD Review Blog with a review of The Reaping

Smile of the Day is not so much humorous (although some might disagree) but something that put a smile on my face this morning. This YouTube video of someone performing Pachelbel's Canon put a smile on MY face this morning, as it's one of my favourite classical pieces of music, although the performance of it on electric guitar may not be to everyone's taste!

New Line at 40

2007-10-27T14:43:00.000+01:00

Shiny Disc Reviews Kick Off Again

I finally got the shiny disc reviews going again today, with my review of the DVD for Tell No One being published on my UK DVD Review Blog and an HD-DVD review of The Reaping almost finished, ready for publication on my HD-DVD Review Blog tomorrow. When I get to finally publish a review on my Blu-Ray Review Blog (probably not until Tuesday) I shall feel I'm 'back in the saddle', caught up again and finally back home for good (just in time to depart to Cyprus next weekend for a week long break with my sister).

Screen International

My weekly copy of Screen International, the weekly industry broadsheet for the film industry, arrived on the mat this morning. The paper is a bit of a disappointment, given the high cost of subscription, and usually comes across as an extremely thin content-free Variety or Hollywood Reporter wanna-be, with little of real interest to those not trying to make money or be a 'mover and shaker' in the film industry. But in this week's issue a few stories I'd missed on the various web sites I usually rely on for my news caught my eye.

Goal! 3

A big surprise is the news that principal photography has started on Goal! 3. The first film in the planned trilogy was a rather tired cliché 'poor boy makes good' coming of age story, and received luke-warm reviews with correspondingly disappointing box office performance, despite being the first football film to be given 'behind the scenes' access to the stars (including David Beckham, who with his 'deer in headlights' performance showed that any rumours of him moving to LA for a possible future career in acting are hilariously out-of-whack with reality).

Goal! 2 lost the writers of the first film, but tried to up the ante by shooting in Spain and having even more of the big name footballers make an appearance, with some clever CGI work meaning that we got to see the star of the film play in a real match. Alas, the film was even worse than the first, was universally panned by the critics, and disappeared within days of opening at the UK box office. Large amounts of money must have been lost, so it's somewhat surprising to read that somehow the financing has been found to complete the 'trilogy'. However news that the originally planned director Michael Apted has been replaced by Andy Morahan doesn't auger well for the project rescuing what, until now, has been an extremely wasted opportunity to present a woefully-unrepresented sport well on the big screen.

Another Dr Who -associated Rant (I can't help myself!)

Other surprising news is that the Adulthood follow-up to Kidulthood is already underway, with the lead 'actor', best known for his performance as Dr Who's side-kick 'Mickey', now taking on both director and lead actor duties. I guess I shouldn't pre-judge based on an appallingly bad performance on TV's most seriously over-rated science fiction show, but one can't help wondering whether the sequel has been commissioned based solely on the cronyism that seems to run rampant throughout the BBC and Dr Who in particular, rather than the commercial prospects or talent involved in the venture!

Stephen Moffat on Tin-Tin. Hoorah!

On a happier note, the one shining beacon in the cesspit of writing that has mostly been the new Dr Who, has been Stephen Moffat and it seems I'm not the only one who thinks so. While Billy Bunter (aka Russell T Davies) may be oblivious to his talents (one meagre story per season of Who), Stephen Spielberg and Peter Jackson are not. The writer has been hired to perform writing duties on the new Tin-Tin franchise of movies that the two directors are working on together. Suddenly I'm excited about a cartoon character's big screen debut, where before I had little interest at all!

40 Years of New Line Cinema

Talk of Peter Jackson neatly brings me on to the subject of New Line Cinema, who receive a special 40 Years of... story in the current issue of the afore-mentioned Screen International. I love a lot of the company's output, if not the man at the top, Bob Shaye. For one of the worst examples of underling sycophancy I've ever seen, check out the extra's on the recently issued DVD of the man's The Last Mimzy - a text book example of why executive officers should NEVER be allowed to direct their own films as some sort of vanity project. The continual fawning from the cast and crew about their director's talent would be amusing if the evidence of him 'handling' his actors weren't so much in evidence elsewhere in the extra's, even if you were to ignore the car crash of a film that was the end-result. It almost makes one want to take Peter Jackson's side in the ongoing, and very public war of words between the two over accountability and ripping people off (I say 'almost' because let's not get carried away here in what has clearly been a case of two pots repeating to each other "You're a kettle and you're black!").

What's fascinating about the piece is to see what the company's biggest box office successes, Lord of the Rings aside, have been over the years. It's a real mixed bag with 2007, 2005, 1997 and 1991 (the years of Rush Hour 3, Wedding Crashers, Spawn and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II) generating good profits from absolute dreck when contrasted with 2004, 2001-2003 and 1995 (the years of The Notebook, The Lord of the Rings movies and Seven respectively.

Interesting film history aside, what I like most about the piece is the lack of mention of the wretched Hobbit project (it's a childish, inferior piece of work that just isn't going to meet expectations set by the Rings franchise so please let's stop encouraging them to do a 'Star Wars' and just set out on a ridiculous money-making venture that just rips off everybody involved) and the war of words between Bob Shaye and Peter Jackson.

Smile of the Day

I make no excuse for making this post's Smile of The Day a link to an advertisement! I'm a big fan of Despair.com's products, and have several of their famed 'de-motivator' posters framed in my office at home. But their DespairWear Blogging t-shirt seems particularly apt, given the amount of time I seem to have spent blogging over the last few days! Check out the counter underneath the slogan. Genius!

Fires in LA and San Diego

2007-10-24T08:38:00.001+01:00

It's funny how you only really take on world events when they affect you or someone you know directly.

Last month, my friend Brian Sibley blogged about the fires in Greece (he was holidaying in Athens) and how great tracts of land were being destroyed and we Brits weren't helping out like other countries. It made a minor item in the news which would barely otherwise register on my radar suddenly seem more important.

This morning I got a shock going to read my friend Susan (Mooch)'s blog.

Susan and her family came over to stay in London last Summer. I'd met her and her family on my first trip to Los Angeles for the Fellowship of the Ring oscar party, and she's been a great friend ever since. Meeting up with her is always a highlight of any trip to that part of the world, and I've been the guest of her and her family in their home at San Diego more times than I care to remember.

Reading about her sudden evacuation, along with the very real threat to the family home, brings that 'minor' news item about some fires in California (almost universally angled at the celebrities whose homes in Hollywood are affected) to life in a vivid, horrid and personal way.

Thankfully, as you can see if you read her blog, she retains her wonderful sense of humour and understands the importance of these things vs what could have happened (so glad that one of the other 25 copies of the Viggo picture of Elijah Wood that I have hanging in my lounge has been saved <giggle>) in the face of what must be very worrying circumstances.

It does make me wonder what we've done to our planet, and how we could have got to a state where even now far too little action is being taken to avert a longer term catastrophe with global warming.

Blogs and Lovely Bones!

2007-10-24T02:00:00.000+01:00

I'd hoped to have one of the shiny disc blogs updated today with a new DVD or HD-DVD review, but alas! most of yesterday was spent chasing up paperwork, sorting out PC's and generally trying to sort out my somewhat broken company web site.

My New Work-Related Blog

This attempt to fix the company web site turned into a 'tidy up the blogs' exercise with another new blog to cover work-related stuff set up at irascianwork.blogspot.com and a general tidying up of this blog too, at least in terms of the links and general contents of the right hand margin of this blog. I'll be trying to keep the new work-related blog up-to-date with daily updates, in much the same way as I'm trying to do with this personal one (well it beats studying! ;-)). If nothing else it'll put pressure on me to keep on track for certification preparation/new technology learning over the next few weeks.

Twitter

I know this is supposed to be my personal blog, as opposed to my work-related one, but in trying to catch up with new technologies I came across Twitter, which at first glance came across as a pointless blog for people who like to use SMS text messaging (and severely limited, in that no blog entry can be more than 140 characters long!) before I realised its main use - giving people the ability to track where you are and what you're doing at any given time.

It's a bit over the top of course, but what's really cool is that you can add Twitter updates to blogs like this one (just click on a link from within Twitter and it's pretty much done!). If you look to the bottom of the right-hand margin of this blog you'll see a section labelled Twitter Updates. This is automatically updated (so long as I remember to keep updating it) with details of where I am and/or what I'm doing at the moment (or least fairly recently). It's a handy way of keeping friends and family aware of what you're doing - particularly if you're adept at sending SMS text messages.

I wonder how long it'll be before I tire of updating it!

Yet another Peter Jackson Fall Out

In a desperate attempt to have some film-related news in this blog post, I guess I can mention yesterday's story that Ryan Gosling has left the set of Peter Jackson's latest film, The Lovely Bones, owing to 'creative differences'. It never ceases to amaze me how fickle and stupid 'fans' of the Lord of the Rings films can be when it comes to news about Jackson, despite the mounting evidence that the man is not quite the naive, cuddly geek he likes to pretend he is in public. Forums are already full of bile for Gosling, with claims that he has been 'let go' because he can't act (try watching ANY of his films before making such ludicrous claims). Follow this argument through to its logical conclusion and presumably Howard Shore was 'let go' from King Kong at the last minute because he can't compose, and Viggo Mortensen keeps returning to make films with David Cronenberg, rather than Jackson, because he can't act!

In the meantime a film I might have been interested in seeing, despite the involvement of one of the most self-indulgent directors of our age, suddenly becomes one to avoid with the news that Mark 'Marky Mark' Whalberg is now taking over the part of Gosling's role. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!

Start the Day with a Smile

For today's 'start the day with a smile' link, I can't help but point you at the Lesbians and Lunges article on the hilarious Glitter for Brains blog. You may have heard that a couple of days ago J K Rowling 'out'ed Dumbledore as being gay. In the post I've linked to Lee reacts to the news, as well as giving an outrageous update on how he's getting on with his new personal trainer. Warning: This link is probably not worth following if you're a homophobe who's had a sense-of-humour bypass!