November 2006

Peep peep!

Series 3 of Peep Show arrived this morning. With a new series apparently now not showing up until some point in 2007, rewatching older episodes of this extremely funny comedy is going to have to tide me over.

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I thought Series 3 was a step down from its two predecessors, and that feeling was maintained when watching it again today. It just don’t think it consistently hits the high notes as well as the likes of Series 2, although admittedly, when it’s funny, it’s really funny - the third episode, Shrooming, being a particular highlight. Still, I’d say that, on reflection, it was better than I’d remembered it - 7/10 material rather than 6/10, if you will.

Oh yeah, and I cancelled my order for V for Vendetta on HD DVD from DVD Pacific and re-ordered it from Amazon, who actually have it in stock.

Update, December 19, 2006 06:12 PM: Fixed dead link.

Man to Man with Dean Learner

This Saturday’s episode was substantially better than the previous two. No, it wasn’t great, and it’s still nowhere near to achieving the status of must-see TV, but at least it wasn’t as cringe-inducingly horrendous as the disastrous second episode. Maybe there’s hope for this show yet.

Update, December 19, 2006 06:14 PM: Fixed dead link.

I am very cooooold

I haven’t mentioned this before, but our bathroom is currently being redecorated. The process began around March or so, with a view to it being finished at some point over summer. Unfortunately, by September, the only work that had actually been done was that all the wallpaper had been ripped out and the bath replaced with the base unit for a stand-alone shower with a makeshift curtain hanging round it. Over the past few weeks, therefore, the real work has been underway, with the entire room being tiled at an extremely slow pace.

This, unfortunately, has meant that, for more than a week, we’ve been without a shower or an upstairs toilet (great if you wake up in the night needing to relieve yourself; worse if, like me, you have an infection that causes you to constantly need to relieve yourself). These problems, however, pale in comparison to the fact that, because the bathroom radiator has yet to be fitted, we’ve been unable to turn on the central heating so far this year. Result: the house is freezing, and the entire family has flu-like symptoms.

The heating and shower are apparently going to be installed at some point today, which will be a relief to say the least. It just goes to show, though, that his sort of thing never goes to plan.

Remember, remember…

…the fifth of November, the gunpowder treason and plot.

I would have liked to be watching V for Vendetta on HD DVD tomorrow night in order to do my bit towards celebrating what is arguably the most famous botched terrorist attack in British history, but, as so often seems to be the case with HD DVD releases, copies are thin on the ground and DVD Pacific are still awaiting stock. I should probably be glad, as it would seem to suggest that demand is so great that there aren’t enough copies available to satisfy it, but I’m a little peeved nonetheless, given that I ordered my copy almost as soon as it was announced.

Lyris is 20 today

Go and wish him a happy birthday, ya bastards!

He got a whole bunch of DVDs - so far we’ve watched the R4 Australian release of the latest Pixar film, Cars, and we still have Futurama Season 3 and Home Movies Season 4 to look forward to.

Meanwhile, I’m feeling slightly better today, i.e. not having to piss quite so much. Of course, every time I say that, I end up suffering another setback, so I’ve probably just jinxed myself again.

Life update

This morning I finally got written confirmation of my degree award. Unfortunately, my online account has yet to be updated, so I still don’t have the transcript that one of my prospective employers asked for nearly a month ago. Presumably, it’ll show up at some point, although given the number of SNAFUs that have occurred regarding administrative issues, I’m beginning to wonder. Anyway, I was back at the university today to register for graduation, which I will be doing “in absentia” (their needlessly pompous way of saying they’ll post your degree to you rather than you having to parade about in a cape) this year. Anyone who read my less than amused account of my previous graduation will know that these are not the sort of events I go in for by a long shot.

In other news, I still haven’t licked this urinary tract infection, making that three weeks as of today. This afternoon, I got the results of the sample that was sent off to the labs for testing: all clear. In other words, no-one has any idea what’s wrong with me. I’m going to give it till next week, then I’m going to head back to the doctor and try to get an appointment with a urologist.

Asterix and the Vikings

My copy of the recently released R2 French release of Asterix and the Vikings arrived this morning from Amazon.fr. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the French release is unusual in that it caters to English speakers by including not only English audio but also subtitles. Like Asterix Conquers America, the film was animated to an English dialogue track. As is usually the case with the Asterix films in English, all the roles were once again recast, with a selection of A- and B-list actors providing the voices. Asterix is played by Paul Giamatti, Obelix by Brad Garrett, Justforkix by Sean Astin, Abba by Evan Rachel Wood, and Timandahaf by John Di Maggio.

Of these, only Garrett and Di Maggio have had any particular experience providing voice-overs for animation, and to be honest it shows. As I said in my review of Corpse Bride yesterday, live action stars generally do not make good voice actors, because providing voice-overs requires a completely different set of abilities (since, naturally, they have to rely on their vocal performance alone instead of also drawing on things like body language and appearance). The voices are generally competent, but none of them really feel like they’re coming organically from the characters, and a number of the actors are guilty of overacting. This is especially true of the individuals playing Vitalstatistix and his brother Doublehelix (the guilty parties aren’t listed on IMDB, and the DVD includes only the French credits, so I’m not sure who’s responsible). It’s bizarre, but the French track, which is dubbed, feels a lot more natural than its English counterpart.

As far as the Asterix films go, this is one of the better ones. This is a series that really hasn’t had a particularly rosy history in the cinematic form, mainly because the mood and humour of the comics is so precise that it must be very difficult to convey it adequately in animation (and the less said about the two live action adaptations the better). As such, Asterix and the Vikings may not be perfect, but it’s certainly not a travesty by any means - and it’s definitely better than Asterix Conquers America, which, produced in 1994, was the most recent animated effort before this one. In terms of animation and technical prowess, this is definitely the most attractive of the bunch, although the garish colour palette is a little overdone. Plot-wise, it varies between being extremely faithful to the source material (so close, in fact, that entire pages are literally lifted from the book Asterix and the Normans with only minimal changes), and coming up with completely unique material, including a bunch of new characters and situations. Unfortunately, like Asterix and the Big Fight, the jokes are fairly infrequent, and those that are included aren’t hugely funny. It’s nice to see Asterix back on the screen in an animated form, however, and it blows the live action iterations out of the water.

Transfer-wise, this release is a bit of a disappointment. The digitally sourced transfer certainly looks vibrant (too vibrant, in fact, although this is most likely the result of the colour palette itself rather than any additional goosing for the DVD release), but the image has a very harsh look. Noticeably filtered and edge enhanced, lines are rough and jagged rather than smooth, with massive amounts of stair-stepping on display. This gives the image an oddly low resolution appearance, looking a little too much like a poor scaling job for comfort. At least the compression is reasonably competent, though, and the banded gradients that show up so often in digital animation are thankfully kept to a minimum.

Update, December 19, 2006 06:15 PM: Fixed dead link.