TV

In sickness and in health…

Sometimes, it seems as if every horror fan apart from myself has seen Showtime’s Masters of Horror series in its entirety. Now with two seasons of thirteen episodes each to its name, it seems like everyone has an opinion on each and every one of them. Until recently, I’d only seen Dario Argento’s two offerings, Jenifer in Season 1 and Pelts in Season 2. My phenomenal disappointment at their lacklustre quality played no small part in my lack of interest in seeking out the rest of the series: after all, if my favourite director couldn’t manage to bring anything to the table, what hope was there for the rest of ‘em?

Recently, however, I picked up the first two volumes of Anchor Bay’s Blu-ray release of Season 1, containing episodes by John Carpenter, Stuart Gordon, William Malone, Argento, Lucky McKee and John Landis. Impressed by McKee’s theatrical debut, May, one of my favourite horror films of the last decade, I jumped straight to his tale, Sick Girl, not sure at all of what to expect.

What’s strange is that, although McKee only has two feature films under his belt (one of which hadn’t been released when Sick Girl aired, and which I’ve yet to see), it’s still clear from the outset that his “style” is all over the production in a way that it just wasn’t for Dario Argento with Jenifer. If you’ve seen May, you’ll immediately recognise this as the work of the same director. All of his obsessions are present: we’ve got quirky outcasts, we’ve got lesbians, we’ve got Angela Bettis (playing a quirky outcast lesbian - how’s that for value for money?), we’ve got gloomy old buildings, we’ve got a slow, building sense of dread, we’ve got Jaye Barnes Luckett’s off-kilter score, we’ve got a scene in which two lovers watch a movie that can only be described as the creation of a deranged mind… Essentially, Sick Girl is treading much of the same ground as May, but McKee has got this formula down pat, and I for one didn’t object to a second outing.

The plot focuses on Ida Teeter (Bettis), a throaty-voiced scientist whose speciality is bugs. So fond of her beloved insects is she that her apartment is filled with them, much to the disgust of her frosty landlady, Mrs. Beasley (Marcia Bennett), and, when an unusually large and vicious, and seemingly unknown, specimen is mysteriously delivered to her door, she can’t keep the excitement out of her voice. Things get going when Ida, egged on by her lab partner, Max (Jesse Hlubik), plucks up the courage to approach Misty Falls (Erin Brown), a shy, reclusive girl who spends each day drawing pixies in the foyer of Ida’s workplace, and ask her out. Quicker than Max can say “ladies in lust”, Ida and Misty are having hot, rambunctious sex on the sofa, and Misty is moving into the apartment. It’s all sweetness and fairycakes… until, that is, Ida’s new bug takes a liking to Misty and… well, you can probably guess what happens next.

Okay, not the most thrilling of plots, as I’m sure you’ll agree, but McKee handles it with applomb. Like May, it goes nowhere in a hurry, taking care to establish its characters and allow the audience to come to like them before the “horror” segment of this Masters of Horror episode gets going. And Ida and Misty are likeable. They’re both quirky and oddly charming, and McKee portrays them with affection rather than as grotesque parodies of social outcasts. Yes, they’re weird, but in an endearing and frequently amusing way.

Much of this is down to the performances of the two leads, with Angela Bettis, while not delivering to quite the same level as she did in May, handling the awkward and stone-faced Ida with considerable skill. Erin Brown, meanwhile, seems to be channeling Amber Benson, initially at least. Beyond the more obvious issue of her orientation, Misty is so similar to Tara in Buffy the Vampire Slayer in terms of shyness, clothes, hairstyle and mannerisms that it’s a wonder 20th Century Fox haven’t sued for plagiarism. She’s also very good in the role, though, and handles her character’s slow transformation effectively. I was surprised, to put it mildly, to discover that she is actually a porn actress, better known to her fans as Misty Mundae.

Once the horror elements begin to fly, they do so with abundance. The climax is a deliciously twisted piece of filmmaking, with one of the most over the top but strangely convincing transformation I’ve seen in a while, all created with practical effects (no CGI muck here). I read a review which described this as the David Cronenberg film that David Cronenberg never made, and I can definitely see the similarities between this and the likes of Naked Lunch (and, presumably, The Fly, which I should be seeing for the first time soon), in its merging of humans and prosthetic insects. And hey, just in case this sounds like a bit of a downer, McKee even throws a happy ending at us out of left field, albeit one laced with a hefty dose of black humour.

One of my main criticisms of Jenifer and Pelts was that their scenarios were too thin and inconsequential to fill an hour’s running time. With Sick Girl, conversely, I felt exactly the opposite: I wanted the episode to last longer, and I suspect that, if it had, it would have avoided the third act seeming so rushed. It might also have allowed more depth to be given to the secondary characters, Max and Mrs. Beasley, who are merely one-note stereotypes (the sex-obsessed man and the “degenerate”-hating old woman). Still, for what it was, I enjoyed Sick Girl considerably more than I was expecting to. I’m not quite sure how McKee got to be labelled as a Master of Horror on the back of two films, but this episode confirmed my belief that he is a filmmaker worth watching out for.

Movie madness

Yesterday was quite a delay for deliveries for me, starting with the arrival of the third and final season of Veronica Mars from DVD Pacific. Veronica Mars is not a show that I wholeheartedly adore, but I did enjoy the previous two seasons on DVD to varying degrees, and I found myself with a definite desire to hear how the story ends (although, by all accounts, there is little sense of closure in the final episode due to the amount of confusion as to whether the show would be picked up for a fourth season). If nothing else, the move out of the high school environment which dominated Seasons 1 and 2 should provide a much-needed change of pace, while I understand that, mindful of how difficult it was for viewers to get into the previous seasons midway, the producers broke Season 3 into several “mini-arcs” rather than going for one continuous year-long mystery.

Up next: the 2-disc Collector’s Edition of Mission Impossible 3 on HD DVD, also from DVD Pacific (dang, those guys should be paying me royalties!). From the brief glance that I took at it when it arrived, the transfer is every bit as good as I remembered - a virtually flawless presentation and one of the few times I can remember seeing a film photographed in anamorphic Panavision looking this good in high definition I suspect this is due to the fact that Panavision has lost a considerable amount of popularity with filmmakers in recent years, with Super35 tending to be the preferred process for shooting 2.39:1 titles these days. As a result, most Panavision titles released in HD are older, catalogue titles, many of which come from weaker masters. Not so with Mission Impossible 3, which is crisp and clear throughout, with nary an edge halo or soft shot to be found, and only a couple of compression issues preventing it from receiving full marks (we’re talking 9.9/10 stuff here).

The third and final delivery yesterday was the R2 Italian release of Inferno, from DVD.it. This particular release, which is very interesting, will be the subject of a dedicated post that I hope to upload at some point tonight.

Finally, today, the HD DVD release of Seed of Chucky arrived from, you guessed it, DVD Pacific. (Oh, shut up - I like this film, even if it’s in a “so bad it’s good” way.) I really wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of image quality for this one, but I’m pleased to report that it looks very fine indeed. It comes from a film element rather than a digital intermediate, but it’s one of the best film-sourced HD transfers I’ve seen recently, especially from Universal, who have churned out some decidedly underwhelming-looking catalogue titles this year. A handful of shots, and even a couple of entire scenes, look noticeably softer than the rest of the film, but at its best, it has a nicely crisp appearance without looking processed in any way. A very high 8/10, and it would have been a 9 if not for the softer scenes.

Blu-ray bonanza

On Friday, I received a couple of packages from DVD Pacific, containing the first two instalments of Masters of Horror: Season 1 on Blu-ray. Volume 1 contains John Carpenter’s Cigarette Burns, Stuart Gordon’s Dreams in the Witch-House and William Malone’s The Fair-Haired Child, while Volume 2 contains Dario Argento’s Jenifer, Lucky McKee’s Sick Girl and John Landis’ Deer Woman. Hmm, something slightly wrong about the first Argento title I own in HD is comfortably the worst thing to which his name has ever been attached (then again, I haven’t seen all of the pre-Bird with the Crystal Plumage westerns that he wrote, so there could be some clunkers among them as well). Still, we all have to start somewhere, and I wanted to pick these discs up, given that Argento’s shameful contributions are the only episodes I have seen of either season of Masters of Horror. I just hope some of the other filmmakers were able to bring a little more of themselves to the table.

As for the treatment of the episodes on Blu-ray, you may already be aware that, barring the audio commentaries for each episode, all of the extras from the standard definition releases have been dumped. Classy, Anchor Bay, real classy. Anyone would think you didn’t care about what you were putting out. Oh, wait a minute - judging by Halloween, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead and Evil Dead II, that much is pretty clear.

Anyway, unlike most Blu-ray and HD DVD releases, these discs are encoded at 1080i rather than 1080p. The reason for this seems to be that the closing credits for each episode scroll at 60 Hz, necessitating the episodes themselves to be stored as such. Personally, I’m glad Anchor Bay didn’t try to deinterlace them themselves, as such results are rarely pretty. As for the image quality, it’s reasonably good. All the episodes have a similar soft, rather diffuse look, but I suspect it may turn out that they look as good as the source materials allow.

I’ve also received a check disc for Tartan’s upcoming UK Blu-ray release of Oldboy. The image quality is… eh, passable. I’ve seen worse, but I’ve seen a lot better. Looks rather murky and edge enhanced. I’ve been tasked with reviewing the technical components of the disc for DVD Times - we already have plenty reviews of the film itself, so there’s no need to repeat what others have already said.

See you at the movies!

Bargain bin brouhaha

Don’t you just love unexpected bargains? There I was, minding my own business as I perused HMV yesterday during my lunch break (one of the nice things about working in the centre of town is the number of decent shops within a few minutes’ walking distance), and I noticed a copy of the DVD release of Fallen Angel, a rather good TV drama shown on ITV1 earlier this year, discounted to £5 from its original £20. This was presumably because the amaray case was slightly scuffed, in comparison to the two more pristine copies selling at the full price.

I also took the opportunity to pick up a double pack containing two Luc Besson films, Subway and Nikita, for a tenner. Unfortunately, the less said about their transfers, the better, but, given that I’ve enjoyed pretty much everything directed and/or written and produced by Besson that I’ve seen (even The Fifth Element, to some extent), I’m looking forward to checking out these two highly regarded earlier works.

DVDs I bought or received in the month of September

• 300 (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• Black Book (R0 UK, Blu-ray)
• Dawn of the Dead (remake) (R0 USA, HD DVD)
• House of 1000 Corpses (RA USA, Blu-ray)
• The Lives of Others (RA USA, Blu-ray)
• Silent Hill (R0 Germany, HD DVD)
• Underworld (R0 Germany, HD DVD)
• Waking the Dead: Series 5 (R2 UK, DVD)
• Zodiac (R2 UK, DVD)

Another month with high definition content in a dominating position. I’ve essentially stopped buying standard definition material unless it (a) stands no chance of being released in HD or (b) wouldn’t benefit from being in HD (e.g. TV series shot and/or edited in standard definition). Zodiac, the anomaly, was a free review copy.

Death on my mind

Well, I’m back from the research students’ induction meeting - it was essentially just nibbles, drinkies and a blather - and it occurred to me that I hadn’t mentioned either of my recent acquisitions.

On Tuesday, I received my copy of the Blu-ray release of House of 1000 Corpses from DVD Pacific. It features a decent but not outstanding transfer, with a VC-1 encode (intriguing, given that all of Lions Gate’s previous releases have been MPEG2 or AVC). Detail is very good, and the compression is well-handled (the disc is a single layer BD25), but there is noticeable edge enhancement, and the image has been quite severely noise reduced. I haven’t noticed any visible smearing, but the frozen grain in the backgrounds looks decidedly unnatural and unfilmlike, making this transfer a 7/10 for me at best. Oh, and, much to my disappointment, they haven’t maintained the hilarious menus from the DVD release, which featured various members of the Firefly family instructing the viewer on menu choices. Obviously, since this material was shot in standard definition, it would have been somewhat problematic to port over, but it’s too bad the footage couldn’t have been incorporated into a standalone reel, because a lot of it really was very funny. “Pick a feature!!!”

I also picked up a copy of the fifth series of Waking the Dead. I was originally hoping to receive a review copy, but BBC’s home video distribution division, 2 Entertain, seem to be rather inconsistent when it comes to sourcing check discs. With Casualty, I was able to get review copies of Series 1 and 3 but not 2, whereas with Waking the Dead, I got copies of Series 2 and 4 but not 1, 3 or 5. Anyway, I’m quite looking forward to seeing this series again, which aired at around this time two years ago (for some reason, there were no episodes in 2006, with the rather disappointing sixth series airing in early 2007). My memory of it is that it takes a while to find its footing, having to cope with the departure of two key cast members, but eventually turns itself around with some very strong episodes in the second half.

Incidentally, this six-disc set, just released this month, has an RRP of £34.99, but I was able to find it at DVD.co.uk for a mere £17.95 - definitely worth considering if you’re planning on picking up this title.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8, Episode 6: No Future For You, Part One

Written by Brian K. Vaughan; Illustrated by Georges Jeanty

This episode begins the Faith storyline, and I’m pleased to report that it looks as if it’s going to be a good one. Any fears that bringing in a new writer would disrupt the tone of the series can be put aside, because Brian K. Vaughan definitely captures the correct feel: in fact, I’d argue that this feels more like vintage Buffy than any other issue thus far, given that, for the most part, it eschews the large-scale, superhero-like fights scenes and improbable demons (c.f. the fairies in The Chain) in favour of more understated character scenes.

The main interaction in this episode takes place between Faith and Giles, holed up in Cleveland, guarding its “second-rate Hellmouth”. They were always two of the strongest characters, and the dialogue is the sort of witty-yet-meaningful material that went on when the show was at its best. It’s nice to see them not shying away from Faith’s dark past, especially given that one of the biggest problems with her return in Season 7 was that this aspect of her character was given short shrift. The hints that are being dropped about her childhood and home life make me hopeful that we’ll get a deeper exploration of her character as this arc progresses, while the mission on which Giles intends to send her - to pass herself off as an aristocrat and attends a fancy dress party (“They seriously call their fancy dress parties ‘fancy dress parties’?”) in order to assassinate a rogue Slayer/heiress - is just ridiculous enough to offset the darker elements with some much-needed comic relief. So, Faith heads off to England (you know she’s in England because David Tennant and Billie Piper are wandering past a red telephone box in the establishing shot) to learn etiquette and be fitted with a ball-gown - most amusing.

The episode also picks up on an issue raised, briefly, in Angel’s fifth season, and it’s a pertinent one: if you give two thousand girls throughout the world instant Slayer powers, how can you be sure they’ll use these powers for good? The answer is that you can’t, and Lady Genevieve Savidge (great name) is a particularly nasty piece of work, kidnapping various people (including other Slayers) and hunting them down on horseback on her estate. This continues the theme that began in The Long Way Home of the world becoming less defined in black and white terms and more in shades of grey. It’s no longer a case of “good Slayer fights bad demons” - the later seasons of the TV show suggested that demons had it in them to be good, and now we’re seeing that a Slayer can just as easily be bad, and that, by sharing her power with these two thousand girls, Buffy has in fact populated the world with two thousand dangerous killing machines, with the choice of going either way.

Overall, an impressive episode. After a slightly shaky start, this new season actually seems to be finding its footing.

8/10.

The biggest comeback since JR rose from the dead

If you’ve been reading this site for any length of time, you’ve probably had the opportunity to observe me waxing lyrical about the medical drama Casualty and its fall from grace. In spite of featuring an excellent two-parter penned by former writer Barbara Machin, which were as good as anything the show had to offer in its prime, the most recent series was the worst ever by a long shot, and, not for the first time, I was just about ready to give up on it entirely. Last night, however, such thoughts were banished from my mind. The 22nd series began this weekend, with a two-parter spread over Saturday and Sunday, and, if their quality is in any way indicative of what we can expect from the rest of the season, this might just be the most miraculous return to form I’ve ever seen on television.

Casualty, in recent years, has been characterised by many problems, not least a gradual ramping up of the number of episodes per series (going from 24 to 48 in the space of a scant eight years) and a slow but steady decline in the quality of the writing, acting and characterisation, while the “medical drama” aspect of this medical drama became increasingly sidelined in favour of second rate soap opera storylines revolving around who fancied who and managed to knock who up. The influx of soap content was gradual enough that it took a few years for the problems to become readily apparent, but by the sixteenth series everything more or less fell apart.

Last night, however, it felt as if someone had turned back the clock. While I don’t know if the five-week gap between Series 21 and 22 can truly be considered an end-of-series break, these five weeks would appear to have been put to excellent use, as the new production team, which came in towards the end of the previous series, have performed a blitzkrieg on the show. Rather than gradually phasing out the soap, they have done what was in my opinion the only thing they could have done: obliterated it entirely in the blink of an eye. The opening two-parter focused around a bomb blast in the centre of town which left the hospital swamped with casualties and barely able to cope, and in the process reaffirmed everything that the show used to be about.

Like last Christmas’ two-parter, the same storyline was told from two different perspectives, the first episode being shown entirely from the point of view of wide-eyed, bumbling new recruit Toby (Matthew Needham, a shockingly good screen debut), and the second through the eyes of world-weary Charlie (Derek Thompson, the only actor to have been there since the first episode), who, having lost all sense of purpose in the job he does, receives a generic letter commending him on 35 years of nursing. Showing the same events from two different points of view might seem like a cheap gimmick (and, when I first heard about it, I was worried that this would simply be an attempt to replicate the more superficial elements of the Christmas episodes), but the effect is extremely powerful, the first episode throwing the audience into the thick of an extremely confusing situation and the second adopting a perspective of jaded detachment.

In the first episode, the decision to feature a new character in every single scene certainly helped make a character who, on the surface, was quite annoying, more sympathetic. I felt that some of the narrative contrivances were a bit silly (Toby just happens to be in the vicinity of the bomb blast, then just happens to run into not one but two people in need of urgent medical attention on his way home), but by and large I found it incredibly effective. This was a properly character-driven episode, the like of which we haven’t seen for a long time. Oh, and the banter between the regulars was some of the best and most natural I’ve heard in a long time.

As good as the first episode was, the second just blew it out of the water, surpassing it in every way imaginable. If Episode 1 was trying to be the Casualty of old, Episode 2 actually was the Casualty of old. This was a true nursing-oriented episode, with not a shred of soap in sight: just 60 minutes about a normal guy trying to get through a job he no longer believed in, only to have has passion for it re-ignited before the end. Just as with Toby in the first episode, the way in which it was structured really helped get inside Charlie’s head, and the benefit of him being such a familiar face made it all feel that bit more real. You could really feel his total sense of displacement and uselessness, being treated like a spare part (oh, sweet justice, the writers finally seem to have noticed how they’ve been treating him for the last couple of years) and pushed around by people who didn’t value his experience and expertise. Seemingly innocuous moments like him lighting up a cigarette outside the hospital entrance, something he last did way back in Series 2 in 1987, hammered home just how close to breaking point he had come.

As for the terrorism storyline, it was handled quite well. Originally, the idea was for the perpetrators to be Islamic fundamentalists, but this concept was nixed by BBC standards and practice goons, who decided that it would be too “controversial”. The result? The bombers are now animal rights activists, who accidentally detonate their explosive device in a crowded street rather than at its intended destination. (I’m not sure why this is any less controversial - more likely, the BBC bosses are less scared of reprisals from animal rights activists than suicide bombers.) However, it ended up working a lot better than I was expecting, and the fact that one of the bombers was by far the most sympathetic of the guest characters (a superlative performance by Nigel Terry) gave the episodes a much-needed angle of balance, avoiding any sanctimonious hand-wringing.

On the technical side of things, the show has now finally abandoned the cheap-looking, interlaced video format used for the previous 21 years and switched to a progressive, film-like appearance. The film effect (actually the result of shooting in 25p DigiBeta) is a big improvement on the tacky “remove every second line so everything looks like a jaggy mess” technique used on most TV shows shot on video but made to look like film, including sister show Holby City, which recently adopted this look. It actually looked like film on some occasions, and I thought the design of the bomb site, with all its smoke, debris and monochromatic colour palette, was hugely effective. For some reason, no director was credited for these episodes, but, whoever he/she was, they did a sterling job. They decided to shoot the scenes in the aftermath of the explosion in the manner of a horror film - a very effective choice. Yes, the overuse of clumsy, hand-held shots and haphazard editing remains, but the filmic look, coupled the more dramatic lighting, helped make it less objectionable than it has been for some time.

Seriously, I could rave and rave about these episodes all day, but I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice to say that, if the rest of the series is even a smidgen as good as this, I will be more than satisfied. I never thought they’d pull it off, but they really have brought Casualty back from the dead, and my faith in the programme has been restored, just when I thought there was no hope left. While I doubt that anyone could maintain a further 46 episodes of this quality, I would like to think that the ideology they represent will remain in place. Writers: please, please keep things going in this vein and don’t be tempted to go back to the soap and silliness.

DVD review: Spooks: Season 5

Season 5 comes across as Spooks’ weakest so far, sacrificing credibility and its ensemble cast in favour of increasingly unbelievable situations and an annoyingly narrow focus. The DVD release, likewise, is the most disappointing of the bunch, making the high £39.99 RRP seem particularly extortionate given the lack of bonus materials.

In preparation for the launch of its sixth season on BBC1, I’ve reviewed Contender Home Entertainment’s DVD release of Spooks Season 5, presenting all ten episodes on five discs.

DVDs I bought or received in the month of August

• Angel-A (R2 UK, DVD)
• Arlington Road (R0 USA, Blu-ray)
• Mr. Bean’s Holiday (R0 UK, HD DVD)
• Red Road (R2 UK, DVD)
• Spooks: Season 5 (R2 UK, DVD)
• Trafico de Menores (R2 Spain, DVD)

A relatively quiet month, but I did get a free DVD out of it, and another for the price of a review.

DVD debacle

I got my hands on a few DVDs over the last couple of days. First of all, I received check discs of Spooks Season 5 for my upcoming review of the soon-to-be-released set for DVD Times. The only problem was that the public relations company responsible for supplying review samples neglected to send me a copy of Disc 1, instead providing an apology note to the tune that they didn’t have any left. All well and good, but unfortunately it’s rather difficult to review only part of the package and still feel that you’re providing readers with something approaching an authoritative perspective. Luckily, though, Disc 1 did turn up on Thursday, putting me somewhat behind schedule but thankfully now in a position to get the review done.

I also inherited a copy of Red Road, the Glasgow-based feature directing debut from Oscar-winning short director Andrea Arnold. I know next to nothing about the film, other than that the plot makes heavy use of CCTV, and that, when I saw a preview for it last year on Film 2006 (or a similar cinema television series), I thought it looked quite interesting. So, I’m looking forward to sitting down and watching it.

Oh, and, yesterday, while I was on my lunch break (I work Saturdays, remember), I decided to kill some time by wandering around Borders and looking at their overpriced books and DVDs. In addition to the discovery that they have a Blu-ray section (£24.99 per disc - as if!) but no HD DVDs, I came across the rather more reasonably-priced DVD release of Angel-A, which, when released in 2005, was the first film Luc Besson had directed in over seven years (after the debacle of The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc in 1999 he, somewhat wisely, some people might say, decided to concentrate on writing and producing). I’d been meaning to pick it up for some time but never got round to it.

Anyway, I’m exceedingly glad I did, because I watched it last night and enjoyed it immensely. I originally only popped it in to get some idea of how the transfer measured up (reasonably good, as it happens, although I’m increasingly finding it difficult to say anything positive about standard definition transfers unless I lower my expectations tremendously), but after watching the first five minutes, I found myself completely hooked. The plot, which involves a leggy angel (Ria Rasmussen) descending on high to help a hapless immigrant living in Paris (Jamel Debbouze of Amelie) overcome his debts and insecurities, is a bit hokey, but the whole thing is beautifully shot in breathtaking black and white (stylistically, this is a major departure for Besson), and it manages to be both funny and touching in its portrayal of this decidedly unconventional “odd couple”. It may be a little too obviously influenced by Patrice Leconte’s excellent La Fille sur le Pont (another French-language love story shot in black and white with an attempted suicide on a Parisian bridge as its inciting incident), but originality is overrated these days, and in any event the execution is hard to criticise. Highly recommended.

Universal, where have you Bean?

If you’ve been following the coverage of the high definition formats recently, you’ve probably noticed a fair amount of negative press surrounding many of Universal’s most recent transfers, with many agreeing that their treatment, especially of catalogue titles, has left something to be desired. For the record, I thought The Skeleton Key and The Bourne Identity looked fairly decent, whereas Lost in Translation, The Game, Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind could charitably be considered average-looking. Every now and then, however, Universal puts out a disc which reminds us that they really can deliver the goods when they feel like it. Their latest is Mr. Bean’s Holiday, which features a visual presentation that I’m sure many are going to say is better than the film itself deserves. My copy arrived yesterday from Play (its UK street date is tomorrow), and, barring a terribly minor amount of filtering, which leads to the occasional bit or ringing on high contrast edges, it looks absolutely perfect: a very high “9” on my HD image quality scale and just about on par with the much-lauded Blu-ray release of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (without the noticeable edge enhancement, into the bargain).

As for the film itself, it’s no masterpiece - but you probably knew that already, didn’t you? The critics gave it a complete slating, but in my opinion it’s really not that bad, and considerably funnier than The Simpsons Movie, the only other 2007 comedy I’ve seen so far. I actually laughed out loud several times, and if the plot doesn’t appear particularly substantial, then at least it’s more faithful to the original television series than the previous movie, which rather clumsily shoehorned Mr. Bean into an American family and a rather unconvincing storyline. This one is mainly an excuse for Rowan Atkinson to indulge in various extended episodes of physical comedy, and as a result it really does feel as if someone has given the TV show a larger budget and plonked it on the big screen. Like the previous film, it tends to reuse gags (with Atkinson even delving into a routine from his stand-up days on one occasion), but it’s undemanding, and its good-naturedness is quite infectious.

Super mega DVD extravagant announcement extravaganza

There were quite a few exciting announcements on the DVD front during my period in the wilderness, so, to make things simple, I’ve decided to summarise them all in one post. The first of these is Season 5 of Spooks, due for release on September 10th 2007 in the UK from Contender Home Entertainment, presumably to roughly coincide with the launch of Season 6 on BBC1. Personally, I felt that Season 5 was a bit of a step down from Season 4, sacrificing some of its realism in favour of increasingly large-scale and preposterous situations (the opening two-parter featuring a hostile takeover of the British government and an attempt to kidnap the Prime Minister’s son), but it was still hugely enjoyable and remains, for me, one of the best things on TV. As with previous DVD releases, the ten episodes will be spread across five discs, although extras seem to be fairly limited this time round, with only two commentaries, interviews, trailers and a video diary preview for Season 6.

On the Italian front, we now have confirmation of the release date and contents of Starz Home Entertainment’s next Mario Bava box set. Due out on October 23rd, The Mario Bava Collection: Volume 2 will feature new versions of Baron Blood, Lisa and the Devil, Roy Colt and Winchester Jack, Four Times That Night, Bay of Blood and 5 Dolls for an August Moon. This is a definite must-have for me, and includes three titles that I’ve never seen. Speaking of which, I really need to get round to watching Kill, Baby… Kill! and Black Sabbath in Volume 1…

Keeping things Roman, Severin Films have also announced that they intend to bring Lucio Fulci’s little-seen Seven Notes in Black to DVD on October 30th, under the considerably less classy American title of The Psychic. Bonus materials will include “a never-before-published interview with Fulci as well as interviews with cast and crew”. I already own two copies of this title - the (ahem) unauthorised Alfa Digital release, which is in fact a pirate copy of the initial French DVD with an English track attached to it, and the more recent French 2-disc special edition from Neo Publishing. I always felt rather guilty about paying for a bootleg copy that allowed Alfa Digital to take money for other people’s hard work, but I desperately needed a copy in English. Now it looks as if I can finally bin it and pick up this authorised version.

Finally, it looks as if Alex Infascelli’s most recent film, H2Odio (a.k.a. Hate2O), will be coming out on DVD in the US on November 20th. It’s from Tartan Video, so a UK release is also a strong possibility. This is another disc that I’ll definitely be picking up, given how much I enjoyed Infascelli’s 2000 giallo, Almost Blue (his 2004 offering, The Vanity Serum, was less impressive but still interesting).

Oh, and it seems that Dario Argento’s Inferno is finally being released on DVD in Italy, making this only the second DVD release of this film in the world (unless you count that bootleg German DVD with the weird cover art). The artwork chosen for it couldn’t be worse, and no English audio or subtitle options appear to be forthcoming, but I’m somewhat tempted to pick it up, (a) to see what it plays like in Italian and (b) on the off-chance that it has a superior transfer to the Anchor Bay release.

Casualty: Series 21 - a.k.a. the flogging of a not quite dead horse

Last Saturday, Casualty, the longest running medical drama in the world (unless you count the US soap opera General Hospital, which I don’t), reached the end of its twenty-first series. I’ve been a fan since around Series 8, way back in the mists of time in 1993, when I was a scrawny young thing of 10, and, over the course of the past 14 years, I can count the number of episodes that I’ve missed on one hand. Generally, it’s been a rewarding process, although over the past few years I’ve been increasingly wondering why I still bother. My reaction to the most recent series has been overwhelmingly negative, and while there were definitely some good and even great moments (more on those in a moment), this has ultimately been, for me, the worst series in Casualty’s 21-year history. Storylines have been poorly thought-out, characterisation non-existent and the overall execution of just about every element so bloody amateur that I can’t believe no-one in a senior position stopped and said “What a minute, something is seriously wrong here.”

The highlight of the series was, undoubtedly, the two-part Christmas special scripted by a former regular writer on the show, Barbara Machin. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: for a show in its 21st year to produce episodes of this calibre, which not only compare favourably to anything else I saw on TV in 2006 but would also easily make it into my list of the top ten episodes of all time is an amazing feat. What Machin did was incredible: she took a show that was festering in the gutter, and characters who had either been ransacked of all their complexities or were just never convincing in the first place, and somehow managed to produce two of the most enthralling hours of television I can remember seeing in years. These two episodes were everything that Casualty used to be and should still be: dramatic, funny, moving, truthful and believable drama about real human emotions and situations, not manufactured soap opera twaddle. Brilliance, sheer brilliance, and, if nothing else, it gives me a small degree of optimism to know that the show can still be capable of this level of quality. Unfortunately, despite accepting a position as a “series consultant” on the show, she doesn’t appear to have exerted much of a positive influence on the scripts to date, and has yet to write another episode, leaving it to the Ann Marie Di Mambros and Paul Cornells of this world to ransack the programme’s dignity and pour sewage on all my fond memories.

The problems? In short: an emphasis on soap opera rather than actual drama, with seemingly every plot revolving around who’s screwing who; a complete lack of continuity, with storylines being developed for several weeks and then unceremoniously dumped or completely altered with a blatant lack of regard for what had previously been established; non-existent characterisation, with personalities being changed to suit the requirements of moronic storylines rather than the other way round, and well-rounded, established characters being sidelined in favour of bland or unbelievable new arrivals. This was supposed to be the show’s triumphant 20th anniversary - an amazing milestone, to be sure - and yet, from the end results, I can only deduce that primates were calling the shots. To have four or five (at a charitable estimate) out of a total of 48 episodes stand out as worthy of saving from the dumpster is a truly depressing legacy for what was, at one point, one of BBC1’s flashship dramas.

Here is a rundown of may ratings for each episode. Unusually good and bad ones are in bold:

21.01: Different Worlds: Part One 5/10
21.02: Different Worlds: Part Two 5/10
21.03: Waste of Space 8/10
21.04: Heads Together 7/10
21.05: Sons and Lovers 7/10
21.06: Angels and Demons 5/10
21.07: What You See is What You Get 5/10
21.08: Born to be Wild 6/10
21.09: To be a Parent 7/10
21.10: It’s Now or Never 6/10
21.11: All Through the Night 7/10
21.12: No Place Like… 6/10
21.13: The Edge of Fear 6/10
21.14: In Good Faith 6/10
21.15: Killing Me Softly (Part 1 of 2) 10/10
21.16: Silent Night (Part 2 of 2) 10/10 (best episode of Series 21)
21.17: The Sunny Side of the Street: Part One 6/10
21.18: The Sunny Side of the Street: Part Two 7/10
21.19: Fish Out of Water 2/10 (worst episode of Series 21)
21.20: Stormy Weather 4/10
21.21: The Personal Touch 3/10
21.22: Countdown 6/10
21.23: The Silence of Friends 6/10
21.24: No Return 4/10
21.25: The Miracle on Harry’s Last Shift 4/10
21.26: The Killing Floor 3/10
21.27: Combat Indicators: Part One 3/10
21.28: Combat Indicators: Part Two 4/10
21.29: Sweet Charity 6/10
21.30: A World Elsewhere 3/10
21.31: Stitch 4/10
21.32: Life’s Too Short 6/10
21.33: Day One 5/10
21.34: Lost in the Rough 5/10
21.35: Lush 7/10
21.36: Aliens 6/10
21.37: Close Encounters 7/10
21.38: A Long Way From Home 3/10
21.39: The Apostate 4/10
21.40: Communion 7/10
21.41: Brass in Pocket 6/10
21.42: Entropy 5/10
21.43: It Never Rains… 7/10
21.44: Lie to Me 5/10
21.45: The Fires Within 6/10
21.46: Walking the Line 3/10
21.47: Seize the Day 4/10
21.48: To Love You So 6/10

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8, Episode 5: The Chain

Written by Joss Whedon; Illustrated by Paul Lee

This season of Buffy is full of surprises. Who would have thought that the best “episode” so far would turn out to be a one-shot stand-alone affair rather than one with something to do with the main arc? Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that it will prove to be relevant to the bigger picture in a thematic sense, but for the most part this is a self-contained story, and, to date, the only episode not to feature Buffy. Actually, the only regulars we see are Giles (briefly) and Andrew (even more briefly, thankfully, although he manages to be as infuriating as ever in his one-page appearance). The narrative, this time, focuses on one of two Slayers posing as Buffy in order to confuse her enemies, and it actually manages to be quite touching in the space of its 22-page duration. The theme seems to be the loss of identity: as the heroine puts it, “You don’t have to remember me. You don’t even know who I am.” This is a continuation of the “everything is connected” mantra of Season 7 that eventually led to Buffy sharing her power with all the potential Slayers, although it’s a lot less happy-sappy and touchy-feely than what we saw at the end of Chosen. The point is that, in a war, the grunts are expendable, and most of the time, no-one will even know the names of the ones who make a real difference. It’s not a pleasant message, but it’s a truthful one.

By the way, this episode was drawn by a different artist, Paul Lee. He tends to stage his action more coherently than Georges Jeanty, but his characters seem less “alive”, and his rendition of Giles is way off (his Andrew his considerably better, although, given how I feel about the character, I’m using “better” in the loosest possible sense of the word). Jeanty returns for the next episode, which will kick off the Faith arc written by Brian K. Vaughan. My hopes for this arc are actually somewhat higher than they would have been had Whedon been writing it - I’m looking forward to seeing whether new blood can put a fresh spin on things. And hey, it’s Faith. What’s not to like?

8/10.

Remember me?

No updates in over a week! You thought I’d forgotten about you, didn’t you? Nothing could be further from the truth, as it happens. I did forewarn you that updates might be scarce until I’d got past my unusually busy work period, but I never for a moment thought that I wouldn’t post anything at all. As it happens, though, this ended up being the best solution, because it meant that I wasn’t forcing myself to make half-hearted posts in my state of perpetual weariness. I now have Thursday and Friday waiting ahead of my completely free, so you can expect a variety of posts on all sorts of exciting subjects, including the latest information on Starcraft II and Hellgate: London, a review of Episode 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s eighth season, news on some exciting upcoming DVD and HD releases, an overview of Casualty’s recently-finished twenty-first series, some of the rare gialli I’ve managed to get my hands on, and much more.

First things first, though, the employment front. I started my new job at the Gallery of Modern Art library on Wednesday August 1st, but I didn’t actually finish working with the NHS until yesterday. I thankfully managed to wrangle a few days of paid holiday, covering the days during which the two jobs would overlap (and Thursday and Friday this week, as it happens - yay!), but that doesn’t mean I haven’t had my plate full recently. I really am absolutely shattered, with the past three weeks having felt like a blur of early starts and late finishes, thanks to my parents leaving me and Lyris in charge of the dogs for a week when they went on holiday, seguing immediately into my moonlighting fiasco. Even last Sunday wasn’t much of a reprieve, as we went on a family outing to watch my cousin’s first child being forcibly inducted into a weird cult called Christianity, when I just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep. I got there in the end, though, and I got a nice send-off from the NHS, with two lunches out an impromptu party complete with carrot cake!

Anyway, I think I’m going to like working at the library. It’s surprisingly tiring work, since I’m basically on my feet all day, but time passes much more quickly at the NHS, the work is more varies, and, hey, it’s only two days a week! The breaks are also extremely generous, with 20 minutes in the morning, an hour for lunch, and a further 20 minutes in the afternoon. I suspect my “weekend” will end up being Sunday and Monday once I get started on my PhD, since I’m working Wednesdays and Saturdays, and intend to make myself adhere fairly strictly to a five-day week.

Anyway, it’s good to be back.

When the Starz go Blu

Source: High-Def Digest

Hot on the heels of the news that Starz Home Entertainment (formerly Anchor Bay) had tossed its hat into the high definition ring with the announcement that the first season of Masters of Horror would be coming to Blu-ray, the company has now provided specs for this release (a set of four BD50s, 1080p transfers, PCM 5.1 audio, and “comparable extras” to the standard definition counterparts), as well as the news that Halloween, plus entries in the Evil Dead and George A. Romero’s original zombie trilogy will be showing up in October (the article states that we’ll be seeing “three to four” titles, so exactly what will be released seems to still be up in the air).

I have to say I think it’s really good that Starz are debuting with some of their big guns. I’m not sure how long it’ll be before we see some gialli in high definition (I’m hoping for those long-promised special editions of Tenebre and Phenomena), but things do finally seem to be on the move for fans of the more obscure side of cinema.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8, Episode 4: The Long Way Home, Part Four

Written by Joss Whedon; Illustrated by Georges Jeanty

So the first “arc” of Buffy’s eighth season reaches its conclusion. Given the dramatically different nature of comics as a medium versus television, it’s difficult to say precisely how these issues would relate to an episode of the TV show, but, allowing for how much longer it takes for action to unfold in dramatic form versus on the page, I’d say that this four-part opening arc feels somewhat akin to a 90-minute two-parter like Bargaining (Season 6). By that I mean that a similar amount of ground has been covered: too much for these four issues to constitute a single episode, but not enough for each issue to operate as an episode in its own right.

In some respects, things have moved a lot faster than they ever did in the TV show. Already we’ve been introduced to three potential villains and a vast number of Slayerettes, seen Buffy sent into a deep sleep and then awakened by the kiss of true love Sleeping Beauty style, had Willow engage in a whiz-bang mid-air duel with Amy, be kidnapped and subjected to an array of horrific tortures (which for some reason leave her completely unscarred - thanks to her new post-Chosen powers, perhaps?), and a whole lot more besides. And yet, at the same time, I’m not all that convinced that a great deal has happened. We’ve had snatches of characterisation (I hesitate to call it character development at this stage), true, but it’s mostly been smoke and mirrors. With the change in medium, I get the impression that Whedon is intent in converting Buffy into more of an action superhero, devoting more time than ever before to the fight scenes. It doesn’t help that these fight scenes don’t always read very well on the page, with the staging at times making the action rather incomprehensible. Then again, I had exactly the same problems trying to follow the action in V for Vendetta, so perhaps it’s a problem with me rather than the artwork itself. Either way, I’m impressed by the way that Jeanty manages to capture the essence of Willow/Hannigan, Xander/Brendon and, some of the time, Buffy/Gellar in his artwork. Dawn, Amy and Andrew (who, mercifully, doesn’t appear in this issue) are a lot shakier, but it’s no mean feat to be able to take the likenesses of real people and translate them into fairly flat drawings while ensuring that they remain recognisable. That said, Jo Chen’s cover art is really on another level. (I wonder if the actors get royalties for the use of their images?)

Unfortunately, letting it all down for me is the fact that Whedon has, for some inexplicable reason, decided to bring back Warren, one of the worst villains in the history of the show - if not the worst. He’s not as annoying as Andrew, true, but his presence leaves a foul taste in the back of my throat, bringing back unpleasant memories of Seasons 6 and 7. At least, as a leering, skinless cadaver, he has become slightly more interesting, at least on a visual level.

Right now, I find myself at something of a crossroads. I can’t deny that I want to find out where this is all headed, but at the same time I have a sneaking suspicion that Whedon is making this up as he goes along (since the comics began production, the series has ballooned from a 22-episode season into a 50-plus issue epic), and, if this is true, I suspect that the end result will be as dramatically unsatisfying as the final two seasons of the TV show. I hope I’m proved wrong, but, at this stage in the game, I think that the fan-written continuation The Chosen has done a better job of capturing the tone of classic Buffy while taking the characters and their storylines in new and satisfying directions. Some will probably hold this opinion to be absolute heresy - after all, it’s Whedon’s baby and the comics are canon while The Chosen is not - but so sue me, Seasons 6 and 7 have severely diminished my opinion of the creator’s storytelling abilities, and Season 8, for far, has not done a great deal to allay this.

Oh yeah, and Ethan Rayne is dead. This being the Buffyverse, though, who wants to bet how long it will be before he gets resurrected as some sort of ghoulish otherworldly being?

5/10.

Have some cake

My birthday is looming on the horizon - just over three weeks away, in fact, and I’ve set about deciding what sort of goodies I want. It’s been quite hard this year: somewhat unusually for me, there were no major purchases that I wanted to make (having already bought my new computer only recently). Eventually, I decided that DVDs never let me down when it comes to birthday fun, so I decided to order Seasons 6 and 7 of The Simpsons from DVD Pacific. Personally, I think that the last truly great season of that show was Season 5, but I was watching some episodes from Seasons 6 through 8 (or thereabouts) on Channel 4 recently, and came to the conclusion that there was still much to enjoy, even if the slide into mediocrity had already started. You may remember that, in 2005, I ended up with a review copy of the viciously mangled UK release of Season 6, which I promptly passed on to the first person that would take it off my hands, but I’m fairly confident that the US version won’t be affected by such heinous vandalism… and if it is, well, at least it won’t be a nasty NTSC to PAL standards conversion.

My only regret is that the Region 1 release of Season 6 is only available in that hideous plastic Homer head variant, with the mail-in replacement scheme for a standard cardboard version not being open to those outside North America (schadenfreudes).

Not letting the high definition side down, I also ordered Crank on Blu-ray and Black Snake Moan on HD DVD. I know next to nothing about either of these films, but surprises can be fun, if they turn out to be pleasant ones, and in any event, Crank sounds like it could be the new Shitty Movie™. If nothing else it should, as a digital-to-digital transfer, serve as useful demo material (we’re getting a bit sick of dragging out Corpse Bride every time).

Oh, and because I like a challenge while I’m whiling away the days (I’ve booked a week’s holiday from work to coincide with my birthday), I decided to also order my first new Lego set since Christmas 2005: the recently released Café Corner. With 2,056 pieces and a recommended age bracket of 16 and over, this should hopefully occupy me for a good few hours while offering something slightly different from my collection of medieval castles and pirate ships. If nothing else, it should offer a bit of fun.

Mother of all picture galleries

A lavish gallery of promotional stills for Dario Argento’s upcoming Mother of Tears has appeared online at Italian movie site Occhi Sul Cinema. There are potentially some major spoilers, but if you don’t mind about that sort of thing, then it provides a rather interesting insight into just what we can expect from the final part in the Three Mothers trilogy. Obviously, as photographs taken on the set, these shots haven’t gone through the digital grading process to which the final film will be subjected, but I sincerely hope that we get more in the way of primary colours than what has been seen so far. I’m also slightly wary that the gore seems to adhere to the “squirt as much blood as we can” philosophy of Jenifer, Pelts and Non Ho Sonno rather than the more imaginative, lyrical violence of Suspiria and Inferno, but I will of course reserve judgement until I see the finished film.

If nothing else, it looks set to be an audacious and explosive finale. Will it be anything like the first two instalments in the trilogy? Probably not - we are, after all, talking about a gap of almost 30 years - but at least it looks as if we’ll be getting something more daring than Argento’s last few efforts (both film and TV).

By the way, a couple of shots from this gallery were removed shortly after being uploaded, but Dark Discussion member SilverSurfer had the foresight to save them, so they are now available here.

Update, June 16th, 2007 08:21 PM: The gallery appears to have been taken down, but some low resolution versions have been saved at GoreZone (scroll down to find them).