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« December 2004
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FAQ updates
[Posted 05:56 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Five new religion-centric questions have been added to the FAQ:
How can you know that there is no god? Isn't that just as bad as blindly believing in one?
I never said I knew for sure. I see no reason to believe in someone whose existence has never been proven. It's like asking me to believe that there is an invisible goblin sitting on your shoulder. I've never seen it or been offered any proof of its existence, so what possible reason could I have to believe it exists, just because someone has told me it has? I do not have religious beliefs. Not believing in something cannot be equated with believing in something. End of story.
How can you say such bad things about Christians? Many good people were Christians, for example Martin Luther King, Martin Niemoller, etc.
Ante Pavelic, Ed Gein, Jeffrey Dahmer... Get the point? Religions aren't good or bad. People are good or bad. The fact that a handful of Christians do a bit of charity work doesn't suddenly make that entire faith synonymous with the Forces of Good™. People like Martin Luther King should be praised for the great acts they did as human beings, not who their imaginary friends were.
It would be better for you to believe in God just in case.
I get this one all the time from Christians, and I'm fucking sick of having to explain it to them. To your average Christian, there are only two possibilities, Christian and non-Christian. Everything is slanted from the perspective of Christianity, and those who do not follow their particular belief are all lumped into the same category. They assume that we should hedge our bets with Christianity just in case it happens to be the right choice, but that to me is ludicrous. There are 19 major world religions, and as many as 34,000 different Christian cults if you want to be truly specific. Think the one you've chosen is the right one? Sorry, but I don't particularly like odds of 19 (or 34,000, if this God fellow is going to be picky) to 1.
If it wasn't for Christianity, we wouldn't have...
Not interested. Name me one thing that Christianity (or indeed any other religion) gave us that couldn't be found anywhere else. And no, someone who happened to be a Christian inventing or discovering something important doesn't count. Religions don't invent things, people do.
Christianity invented civilization.
Wrong. Christianity destroyed civilization. The indoctrination of Europe by this religion resulted in what are known as the Dark Ages, where the development of health, literacy, culture and civilization in general were halted in their tracks. Read Christianity and the Death of Civilization by Martin Willett for a fuller picture.
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Haute Tension
[Posted 09:47 PM GMT by Whiggles]
France: Alexandre Aja, 2003
****/*****
Haute Tension (Switchblade Romance to those living in the UK) is a fantastic exercise in tension, maintaining a superb sense of dread and stretching the audience's nerves to the limit in a way that is all too rare in horror movies these days. Clearly borrowing a great deal from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, writer/director Alexandre Aja spins a deceptively simple yarn and then lets things go from bad to worse before our very eyes, as heroine Marie (Cécile De France) is stalked by an anonymous killer with a penchant for offing people with a switchblade. Preventing this from getting a perfect score (which, I assure you, it came very close to receiving), is the cop-out "twist" ending, which had me rolling my eyes and has been absolutely done to death recently. It soured the film for me and was enough of a pain in the neck for me to deduct an entire * from the overall score. That said, this gets a high recommendation from me.
IMDB reference
PS. This is the second DVD in a row with a video presentation that has seriously disappointed me. The transfer itself is actually first-rate - one of the best I've seen in ages and one that would have received a perfect 10/10 score... had it not been for the fact that HUGE UGLY BOLD SUBTITLES ARE BURNED IN THROUGHOUT. I suppose it's fortunate that large portions of the film are dialogue-free, but still this is a very substandard way to treat customers and in my opinion is not something that can be excused. In the future I'm considering giving DVDs with burned-in subtitles 0/10 ratings for image quality.
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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
[Posted 06:46 PM GMT by Whiggles]
USA: Terry Gilliam, 1998
****½/*****
Two crazy gentlemen (Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro) fill their systems with various drugs and head for Vegas in this twisted mindbender from Terry Gilliam and pals. More a series of loosely connected vignettes than an actual storyline, this film introduces us to the delights of casinos, hitch-hikers, midgets and much more -- all from the perspective of two individuals who have consumed enough narcotics to fell a whale. Great, great movie. You should all see it.
IMDB reference
On a side note, this is probably the worst transfer I have ever seen on a Criterion DVD. Of course, some are better than others, but all of the others I've seen at least look good, whereas this one just seems incredibly mediocre: completely devoid of fine detail, overly dark and with some nasty edge enhancement. I'm going to assume that Universal simply handed them a crap master and they couldn't do anything else but plonk it on the DVD.
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American Psycho
[Posted 02:49 PM GMT by Whiggles]
USA: Mary Harron, 2000
****/*****
This wickedly perverse satire of yuppy culture is a thoroughly entertaining piece of work, perfectly capturing just what is so deliciously superficial about the lifestyle it portrays. Christian Bale portrays the enigmatic protagonist, an outwardly normal socialite who gets his kicks from committing multiple acts of murder, with frightening skill, and writer/director Mary Harron's dialogue and camerawork are wonderfully slick. The ending is perhaps a little disappointing, although to be honest I can't think of any better way of handling it.
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DVD Debacle
[Posted 12:21 PM GMT by Whiggles]
I'm got a little behind with announcing my recently received DVDs, but here we go:
On Tuesday January 25th I bought the Collector's Edition of Zatoichi (R2 UK) at Fopp. It comes in a metal case and includes an individually number film cel, art cards and a 12-page booklet. For some reason mine came with two booklets.
Yesterday, Don't Look Now (R1 Canada) showed up, as well as a review copy of the upcoming Bambi Platinum Edition (R2 UK), which unfortunately must be returned to Disney within 10 days. Having not seen Bambi since primary school, I was susprised to find that I didn't enjoy it anything like as much as many of the other Disney films of this vintage. Expect a full review at DVD Times within a week, but for now I'll just say that Bambi represents Walt Disney at his most mawkish. The quintessentially cute American cartoon, it is hardly surprising that so many people decry the studio's output as syrupy if this is their frame of reference.
Finally, this morning, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Criterion) and Switchblade Romance (proper title Haute Tension, R2 UK) arrived.
I also received a customs bill for £18.70. I can only assume that this is my World of Warcraft Collector's Edition finally arriving. Why I'm being charged customs is a mystery to me, as the seller told me he would mark it as a gift. Rest assured that if their is evidence of foulplay I will contest the charge. I would also like to know why this package (if that is indeed what it is, and I can't think of anything else it could be), dispatched at the beginning of December, has taken nearly two months to reach the UK, despite being sent by courier. (The ParcelFarce website only lists details for the package's adventures in the UK when I enter the tracking number.)
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Do You Like Hitchcock?
[Posted 12:12 PM GMT by Whiggles]
I've put together a very brief preview article for Dario Argento's Do You Like Hitchcock? at DVD Times. It doesn't contain any information that isn't available elsewhere, but it tells you all the basics in bite-sized, easily digestible chunks, and includes many of my favourite shots.
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Michael Moore interview
[Posted 12:11 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Channel 4 screened Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 earlier this week, and later conducted a live web chat with him. The transcript is now available here, and it makes for some interesting reading.
Channel 4 innocently thought "Wouldn't it be nice if we had a film-maker do a webchat?" but unfortunately you don't live here.Certain Americans, when they learned of this webchat, did not see it as a webchat with a film-maker but as an interview with the devil himself. And they discussed throughout the week how and what they could do to stop it. So my apologies to the British audience who logged on Thursday night to have this chat (the only one I have agreed to this past year) only to be prohibited from having this discussion with me thanks to the lunatic Right Wing in the United States.
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First Hitchcock shots
[Posted 10:48 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Nick over at Dark Discussion has posted the very first screenshots of Dario Argento's latest project, the TV-movie homage to Hitchcock, Do You Like Hitchcock? The colour scheme and framing of many of these shots reminds me of Inferno, arguably Argento's most beautiful-looking movie, and as an Argento devotee, this has seriously brightened up my day (not that today has been bad or anything - on the contrary - but this has made it that bit better). My response to this project was until now a little lukewarm, but this has given me faith not just for Hitchcock but for The Third Mother. This shows that Dario and co are capable of delivering that classic look even with a TV-movie budget.
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Autopsy
[Posted 06:20 PM GMT by Whiggles]
I've reviewed the US release of Autopsy, a technically well-made but overwrought 1974 entry into the giallo genre by Armando Crispino, starring Mimsy Farmer. Anchor Bay's R0 DVD is reasonably good, but bare-bones.
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Idiot sues MGM over "fake widescreen" DVDs
[Posted 04:36 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Source: Home Theater Forum
It would appear that some idiot, calling himself a "movie buff", has filed a class action lawsuit against MGM for using matted pan and scan masters to created DVD transfers that are released as "widescreen". For someone who claims to know so much about films, he admirably manages to demonstrate that in actual fact he doesn't have so much as a fucking clue about the filmmaking process. Many, many films designed for 1.66:1 and 1.85:1 aspect ratios (and indeed a significant number of those designed to be shown at 2.39:1) are shot in the standard 1.33:1 Academy format and then matted for theatrical and DVD release. This then allows "fullscreen" versions to be created for Soccer Moms that, while destroying the director's intended framing, actually show more image rather than less. Our friend here, who clearly has more time and money on his hands than common sense, seems to think that these MGM releases should in fact be showing more information at all four sides of the image. What a complete and utter tool. This would be funny if it wasn't for the fact that everyday US citizens will no doubt end up footing the bill for this ridiculous charade of a lawsuit.
What an ass.
You can visit his web site (and download a copy of his claim and a list of the "affected" titles) here.
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The Cooler
[Posted 09:24 PM GMT by Whiggles]
USA: Wayne Kramer, 2003
****/*****
Erratic but largely enjoyable romantic drama starring William H. Macy as a man who seems to attract misfortune, employed at a casino as a means of shifting games in the establishment's favour. He hooks up with a sexy waitress, played by Maria Bello, who - coincidentally! - counters his bad luck with her good luck. This, of course, doesn't go down too well with casino manager Alec Baldwin, who plots to make sure Macy stays a perpetual loser by any means necessary. I started off not particularly interested in the film at all, and it certainly suffers from an inconsistent tone and focus, but the performances of the three leads kept me hooked, and by the end I actually cared about what happened to Macy and Bello's characters - not something that happens very often for me.
IMDB reference
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Blue Velvet
[Posted 03:20 PM GMT by Whiggles]
USA: David Lynch, 1986
****½/*****
David Lynch's psychosexual nightmare is a gripping and at times baffling piece of work, held together by a terrifying performance by Dennis Hopper and an ambiguous one by Isabella Rossellini. Although the narrative is significantly clearer than that of Mulholland Dr., the symbolism and real meaning to the piece are just as elusive. I can tell that this is one film I will need to watch several times before I can really get a grip on it. I'll probably order the DVD at some point, which will hopefully present the film in a better manner than Channel 4's grubby 1.78:1 crop job.
IMDB reference
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Cellular
[Posted 11:41 AM GMT by Whiggles]
I've reviewed the upcoming R2 UK release of Cellular, a substance-free and highly ludicrous but surprisingly enjoyable offering from the director of Final Destination 2, released on an above average DVD by EIV.
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Shivers
[Posted 09:47 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Canada: David Cronenberg, 1975
**½/*****
Interesting but ultimately disappointing parasite horror from David Cronenberg. In this, his first feature-length film, he introduces many of the key themes that would later become his trademarks (body horror, a fixation on sexual relations, etc.), but this early outing has none of the quality of filmmaking or acting that would characterize his later work. The budget is obviously low and the shooting style is decidedly unprofessional, with awkward framing and scene transitions, and none of the actors are really up to par. That said, Shivers does prove to be moderately disturbing, and nowadays works as a great metaphor for sexually transmitted diseases.
IMDB reference
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Super Size Me
[Posted 08:00 PM GMT by Whiggles]
USA: Morgan Spurlock, 2004
***/*****
Interesting but slightly patronizing documentary about the effects of eating nothing but McDonalds meals on the director/presenter, Morgan Spurlock. Unlike Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, to which it has often been compared, there is nothing particularly revelatory on offer here. We know fast food is bad for you - it's how bad it is for you that shocks. Spurlock himself is okay, but his presentation (and manipulation) skills are not on the same level as Michael Moore. To be honest, there's nothing hugely wrong with the film: watching it is a reasonable way to spend 95 minutes, but that's about it.
IMDB reference
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DVD Debacle
[Posted 07:59 PM GMT by Whiggles]
 
Lots of moving and shaking in the DVD world today. Crash (R1 Canada) arrived this morning. On my way in to university, I stopped off at Fopp and picked up a couple of other titles: Dans Ma Peau (In My Skin), to replace the standards-converted R1 release, and Super Size Me, that whimsical documentary about the man who took on McDonalds.
 
I ordered Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (R1 Criterion), Profondo Rosso (R2 Italy) and the new Suspiria Special Edition (R2 Italy). I know the Italian Profondo Rosso doesn't have any English audio options or subtitles, but I desperately want to see the proper Italian opening and closing credits, rather than the hack-job present on the Anchor Bay release, and it wasn't too expensive. Ah well.
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Wonderland
[Posted 03:19 PM GMT by Whiggles]
USA: James Cox, 2003
***½/*****
Interesting if muddled retelling of the true-life story of John Holmes, the notorious porn king with a huge wang, who spent his later years stealing and selling various drugs. The most obvious parallel to this film is Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights, whose central character of Dirk Diggler was very similar to Holmes in terms of his unnaturally large appendage, career, and fall from grace. The film is let down by director James Cox's relentlessly MTV visual style, which relies on fast cuts, dizzying camerawork and rapid changes in film stock to make its point, as well as the rather unfocused nature of the narrative, which is told from two different points of view sequentially. However, Cox's faithfulness to the early 80s period in which the film takes place is commendable, as are the excellent performances of the cast, especially Val Kilmer as John Holmes, Kate Bosworth as his young girlfriend, and Lisa Kudrow (in her first role that has not made me want to throttle her) as his long-suffering wife.
IMDB reference
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Labyrinth
[Posted 05:13 PM GMT by Whiggles]
USA/UK: Jim Henson, 1986
***½/*****
Coming straight from the exercise in bizarreness that was Dario Argento's Phenomena, Jennifer Connelly stars in a flick that is even more bizarre, albeit in a more mainstream way. As far as kids' movies go, they sure don't make them like this any more, with some genuinely disturbing scenes - mostly thanks to David Bowie camping it up and acting all menacing while abducting a screaming baby. It's all very silly but it's fun for the most part, but the special effects have dated badly and render some moments completely ludicrous.
IMDB reference
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Une Femme est une Femme
[Posted 01:53 PM GMT by Whiggles]
France: Jean-Luc Godard, 1961
****½/*****
My first introduction to the world of Jean-Luc Godard, my experience with Une Femme est une Femme was a baffling, frustrating and very rewarding one. Stylish, silly and groundbreaking, this is the sort of film that is very difficult to assign a rating to, as it is more an exercise in technique than in storytelling. Godard experiments heavily with sound, characters talk to the camera and on-screen captions reveal their emotions, to the extent that anyone who believes that the Hollywood way is the only way is going to be seriously annoyed by this film. Never before have I seen non-diagetic music react to on-screen dialogue, and vice versa! I'm at a loss as to how to explain Une Femme est une Femme to anyone who has never seen it. All I can say is that you need to watch it for yourself and make your own mind up about it. It might not be to your tastes, but this brave and imaginative experiment really is essential viewing.
IMDB reference
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DVD debacle
[Posted 11:42 PM GMT by Whiggles]
 
Murder on the Orient Express (R1 Canada) and Dead Ringers 15th Anniversary Special Edition (R0 Canada) both arrived today. The latter is, in all but packaging, a direct port of the out of print and now very expensive Criterion.
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Cellular
[Posted 03:52 PM GMT by Whiggles]
I got a review copy of Cellular through the door this morning. The full review should be up fairly quickly, but intil then here's my brief overview.
USA: David R. Ellis, 2004
***/*****
Fast and fun but somewhat empty action thriller in which a woman (Kim Basinger) is kidnapped and appeals to a random guy (Chris Evans) to help her when she calls his cellphone at random. Ellis, who previously helmed the schlocky and enjoyable Final Destination 2, shoots the film with panache but is unable to gloss over the script's bland and underdeveloped characters. A decent turn by William H. Macy as a disgruntled cop nonewithstanding, Cellular is light on actual content but enjoyable enough and, in this day and age of 3+ hour movies, agreeably short.
IMDB reference
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The Perfume of the Lady in Black
[Posted 09:23 PM GMT by Whiggles]
After something of a hiatus from the genre, I've returned to the world of the giallo with a review of the recent Italian R0 release of The Perfume of the Lady in Black, which is not exactly a giallo but which follows many of the genre's conventions.
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Wonderfalls: The Complete Viewer Collection
[Posted 10:39 AM GMT by Whiggles]
Yet another Fox show cancelled before its time... I've reviewed the R1 release of Wonderfalls: The Complete Viewer Collection, a quirky and largely enjoyable comedy/drama series. This DVD features the 4 episodes that were broadcast... and the 9 that weren't.
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The Year in Review: 2004
[Posted 07:08 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Ah, 2004. It's been and gone, and as usual we've had some fun times and some not so fun times. This round-up has been a little late in coming, but hopefully this will not detract from the drama that is 2004.
The Good
The BBFC, long a hotbed of bone-headedness, finally allowed multiple versions of the same film to be released at once.
Dario Argento's latest film, The Card Player, was released to mixed reviews, but turned out to be an enjoyable (if conventional) thriller that did reasonably well at the Italian box office. Oh, and I saw it at the cinema. Beat that.
I got a very cool new DVD player, the progressive scan capable Pioneer DV-668-AV-S, and Lyris got a progressive scan capable HDTV. Goodbye, interlaced uglies!
Dario Argento's long-lost TV series Door into Darkness was released on DVD.
The Liberal Democrats unveiled their extremely reasonable policy paper. It's probably just wishful thinking, but the thought that they stand any chance of being elected this year puts a big smile on my face.
I have broadened my movie-viewing habits significantly during the last 12 months, thanks in no small part to a little thing called the Criterion Collection.
Rock/punk fanboys the world over were unfuriated as Avril Lavigne released her second album, Under My Skin, daring to make their favourite genre of music popular with the masses.
Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 was a huge box office success, proving that, despite the majority of Americans being stupid enough to re-elect Bush, enough were interested in the alternative to see this excellent film.
I turned 21 and got a shitload of money. Unfortunately, at least some of it was spent on the Terrible TFT Tragedy (see below), and not all of it was recouped.
I discovered the music of Sarah McLachlan, easily my favourite singer/songwriter to date.
Ren & Stimpy was finally released on a decent DVD with much previously-cut material restored. Okay, so some new cuts snuck in, but overall it's a great package.
UK Customs & Excise got their knuckles rapped by the European Commission for stealing cars and booze from travelers.
John "Shitfaced Fuckbag" Ashcroft handed in his resignation.
The BBFC decided to become surprisingly liberal in the light of the appointment of new director David Cooke, passing uncut at '18' such films as Anatomy of Hell and 9 Songs, both featuring graphic non-simulated sex acts.
After long being regarded as one of the worst DVD companies under the sun, Tartan suddenly turned over a new leaf, releasing very good copies of A Tale of Two Sisters, The Cooler and Wonderland, among others.
The Bad
Terrorist attack in Madrid, tsunami in Asia... not good, not good.
Bush gets another four years.
Blue Underground announced that they were working on a DVD release of Dario Argento's long-lost Four Flies on Grey Velvet, only to later admit, rather sheepishly, that they didn't actually have the rights to it yet.
Disney closed their Florida Feature Animation division. You know, the one that created all the box office hits.
The UK altered the legal definition of "children" from those under 16 to those under 18, effectively overnight turning into kiddy-porn was was perfectly acceptable the previous day. Oh, and essentially stating that around 60% of the world's countries must be nations of paedophiles.
WB blockheads cancelled TV series Angel, leaving the producers no time to create a satisfying conclusion to a saga that ran for five seasons and covered nearly 300 years of mythology.
I formatted my computer multiple times throughout Spring and Summer due to continued bouts of resource hogging and slowdown. After something like the seventh format, I discovered that the problem was created by print jobs being queued up on the network.
I wasted a considerable amount of money on three TFT monitors, none of which proved to be satisfactory in the least. Eventually, I settled on a new CRT which, while far from perfect, is the lesser of two evils as far as I am concerned.
DVD Pacific became the victims of h4X0ring brigands who broke into their database and stole a bunch of people's credit card details, including mine. To the best of my knowledge, no-one died, but their reputation took quite a knock - a shame, because apart from this little kerfuffle, they are one of the best Region 1 DVD suppliers.
Sikh nutters in Birmingham rioted against a play that they decided was offensive, carrying out acts of violence and vandalism. Both the police and the theatre decided to bow to mob rule.
The Indifferent
Disney and Pixar agreed to part ways after failing to settle on a new contract that suited them both. I'm of two minds as to whether this is good news or bad.
The Horror Channel, a channel dedicated to showing all your favourite ghoulish delights, opened in the UK. Problem is, only Sky viewers get to see it.
An aunt of mine whom I had met perhaps twice in my life died. Whether or not this is a good thing, a bad thing or an indifferent thing I don't know, since the rest of the family seemed, for some reason, to hold her in contempt. After she popped her clogs, my uncle actually started interacting with the rest of the family, so I guess you could say it's not all doom and gloom.
I spent a substantial amount of time working on a lengthy dissertation and got a very respectable A3 grade for it. That's good, right? Well, yes, but when you consider that it's worth one-sixteenth of my entire degree it kind of puts things into perspective.
I experienced the splendour of IMAX for the first time. It was okay.
My cousin got married. Good for her, bad for the economy.
The Scottish Parliament voted in favour of a bill banning smoking in all enclosed public places. The bad news? They still haven't banned it in the streets, and it doesn't come into effect until 2006.
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Death Walks at Midnight
[Posted 02:13 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Original title: La Morte Accarezza a Mezzanotte
Italy: Luciano Ercoli, 1972
***/*****
Jaunty and lighthearted giallo with a fairly uninteresting story but kept entertaining thanks to its zany music score and an incredibly feisty performance by Nieves Navarro (a.k.a. Susan Scott). Although Navarro was often passed off as a second-rate Edwige Fenech, she was in my opinion the better actor of the two, and in this, one of her few starring roles, her acting is excellent. Her character is also completely different from most giallo heroines: hot-tempered, resourceful and a heavy drinker, she is the best thing about this otherwise unremarkable movie.
IMDB reference
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Il neige!
[Posted 10:25 AM GMT by Whiggles]
This morning I woke up to a heavy snowfall. How do you like that? We get a lighthearted and frankly fairly pathetic amount of snow at Christmas, then I'm only back at university for one week and we have enough snow to bring the roads to a standstill. The traffic wasn't moving at all when I set out this morning, and after standing at the bus stop for a good half hour I came to the conclusion that there was no point in going in. I'll go in for my next class at 2pm, when hopefully the roads will have cleared a bit.
Anyway, I got my Pragmatics essay back yesterday: 19/20, or an A2. This is the highest mark I've had for an essay since First Year, so as you can imagine I am rather pleased. Hopefully this will also mean that I don't have to do a second essay in this subject (we do two essays for each subject, and the best gets submitted), since I can't imagine myself bettering this before hell freezes over.
Oh, and it occurred to me yesterday that I hadn't done a 2004 round-up or a Best (and Worst) DVDs of 2004 feature yet. I'll get started on them ASAP.
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The Perfume of the Lady in Black
[Posted 06:57 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Original title: Il Profumo della Signora in Nero
Italy: Francesco Barilli, 1974
****/*****
Francesco Barilli's psychological/supernatural horror hybrid owes a great deal to Nicolas Roeg's seminal Don't Look Now and Roman Polanski's classic Rosemary's Baby, but in no way does it live up to them. The plot deals with a young woman, Silvia (Mimsy Farmer), who begins to lose her mind after she starts experiencing flashbacks involving her dead mother. I have a number of theories as to what is meant to be happening in the film, but none of them can explain everything that happens, as they all contain elements that would invalidate certain aspects of the film. Still, it's entirely possible that it's not meant to be explained, and it certainly isn't any the worse for the confusion. Barilli shoots the film in a solid but workmanlike manner - he's certainly no Argento or Bava - but the film is surprisingly mesmerising despite its lack of visual flair... although it does sport one of the most laughably bad English audio tracks in history (just try to take Jho Jhenkins, who plays the African gentleman, seriously).
IMDB reference
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Oldboy
[Posted 09:51 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Oldboy
South Korea: Chan-wook Park, 2003
****/*****
Powerful if bloated revenge movie with an unusually imaginative style that asks interesting questions about memory, culpability and what (if any) catharsis is achieved through the act of revenge. In many ways in plays out in a similar manner to Kill Bill, with a similar motive and non-linear structure, but in many ways Chan-wook Park employs an even more outlandish style than Quentin Tarantino, although personally I preferred Tarantino's hodge-podge of different influences to Oldboy's more grounded, consistent tone. Excellent use of regal, classical music in scenes featuring moments of abject violence, and a nice ambiguous performance by Man-sik Choi as the film's protagonist.
IMDB reference
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My outing
[Posted 06:14 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Today was my good friend Marc's birthday, so a bunch of us met up today to go out for lunch. I decided to go into town early on and catch the 10.30am screening of House of Flying Daggers. I've seen the film twice before, both times on DVD, but I decided I really had to see it on the big screen before it stopped playing. Boy am I glad I did. The film plays completely differently at the cinema, providing a much more visceral, in-your-face experience, and because of the spectacle of it, the weak script doesn't seem anything like as much of a problem as it did on DVD. The final battle sequence ranks as one of the most spectacular pieces of cinema I have ever seen, falling snow and pouring blood and all, despite some ropy CGI. Shigeru Umebayashi's score is also absolutely fantastic in this scene, and I'm quickly becoming somewhat mad about Kathleen Battle's "Lovers" theme song. The only thing spoiling the performance was two old ladies who sat directly behind me and tutted loudly at every single act of violence and moment of love. I KNOW WHO YOU ARE, YOU OLD BATS, AND I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE. I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND SLAY YOU.
 
Before the film started, I also had the chance to peruse Virgin Megastore, and I picked up two CDs: Solace by Sarah McLachlan and Whatever by Aimee Mann. I now only have one more CD to get from each of them and I will have their entire library of studio albums (not counting live performances and singles).
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Harry Hitler
[Posted 06:29 PM GMT by Whiggles]
That paragon of good taste and journalistic integrity, The Sun, has published photos of Harry Windsor, the feckless grandson of the queen of England, attending a fancy dress party wearing a particularly awful Nazi stormtrooper costume. As usual, the mischief-makers are having a field day, decrying it as thoroughly insensitive and incredibly offensive, and to some extent I'm tempted to agree. Certainly, as a prominent public figure and someone who is (wrongly) seen as an "ambassador" of the entire country, it doesn't do anyone much good for him to be seen wearing a uniform that stands for one of the greatest attrocities in the history of humanity. Furthermore, it's not as if this is the first time the kid has commited a major faux pas like this -- I swear, if he wasn't a member of the royal family he would be clad in Burberry. That said, I can't help but think that, if it had been anyone else, no-one would really have cared. I don't really see how him wearing a cack-handed excuse for a Nazi costume is any worse than British comedies like 'Allo 'Allo, which have for years presented Nazis as comic figures. Yes, it's important that we remember the attrocities committed by the Nazis, but I think it's also important that the potency their symbols is devalued, and the best way of doing so (in my opinion) is to present them in a comedic light. The boy Harry is clearly a bit of a dolt, but he's said he's sorry (something he didn't necessarily have to do, since what he chooses to wear to a private social gathering is really his own business and no-one else's), so why the tabloids are drumming on and on about it escapes me. (Actually, wait a minute, I was forgetting that the tabloids were bloodthirsty hatemongers whose only purpose in life is to create mountains out of mole-hills.)
Or alternatively, lock the little twat up and throw away the key.
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CD Profiler?
[Posted 08:00 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Does anyone know of a CD database program similar to DVD Profiler? I've come to the realization that I now have enough CDs to need to keep a decent record of them. Something just like DVD Profiler would be ideal, but so far I haven't been able to find anything even remotely similar.
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Freeze Me
[Posted 12:31 AM GMT by Whiggles]
I've reviewed the R3 Hong Kong release of Freeze Me, a Japanese entry into the rape-revenge sub-genre that proves to be reasonably subtle but not particularly insightful.
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Whiggles.tk Daily Update #23
[Posted 10:23 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Well, I'm back at university now, so that means that for the most part this site will be returning to these large daily (or almost daily) updates rather than lots of little ones. I have a feeling that the next few months are going to be somewhat hectic as my finals loom ever closer. At least now I have something of a goal to work towards, because I've decided I'd like to do an MPhil in Screen Studies in the Film & TV department, if at all possible. I've always regretted dropping Film & TV (or rather, being made to drop it by my adviser of studies, the useless Dr. Hitchcock), and this will give me the opportunity to spend a year studying something I'm interested in, with the prospect of a job in film criticism or media research at the end of it.
DVD Debacle
My student loan came in yesterday, and I decided to celebrate by buying a bunch of DVDs in the Fopp sale.
Labyrinth Collector's Edition
Girl, Interrupted
Wonderland
The Cooler
Chinatown
When I got back home, I discovered that another three DVDs had been delivered. From Xploited Cinema:
The Perfume of the Lady in Black (R0 Italy)
Oldboy Final Edition (R3 Korea)
And from CD-Wow:
House of Flying Daggers Limited Edition (R3 Hong Kong)
Incredible package -- I can't believe you get all this for £30. I was shocked by just how big it was -- I had no idea what it was until I opened it. When I saw pictures of it online I assumed that it would just be slightly larger than a standard amaray, when in actual fact it's approximately 1.5 times taller, nearly twice as wide, and about three times thicker than an amaray. Here's the full contents of the set:
- 2-disc DVD set
- Bamboo pen
- 144-page full colour book
- Soundtrack CD
- Four bookmarks
- Individually numbered certificate (out of 2,000)
And here, to give you an idea of the size of the set, is the box next to the DVD case for the original release:
The transfer is a phenomenal improvement too. The blown-out contrasts are gone and this is a proper film-sourced NTSC transfer rather than a PAL to NTSC standards conversion.
Religious Lunatics
In other news, religious nutter Stephen Green, the lunatic responsible for the hateful Christian campaign against BBC2's recent screening of Jerry Springer: The Opera, has admitted that it was perhaps an error of judgement to post the names and addresses of top BBC officials on his web site, but that he would not apologise, because "we know normal protests are channelled in such a way as to be ignored". He also attempts to claim that those responsible for making death threats against said BBC officials could not possibly have been Christians. Wanna bet? It seems to me that, all too often, it is the religious morons who claim to be anti-violence that are responsible for both threatening and instigating violent behaviour. The article is actually very funny, by the way, if a bit sad: the spurious statistics he provides are so far from reality that the whole thing would be hilarious if madmen like him weren't so dangerous.
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Fucked up the ass with barbed wire
[Posted 02:35 PM GMT by Whiggles]
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the BBC for continuing with last night's scheduled broadcast of Jerry Springer: The Opera despite numerous complaints from rabid Christian nutters as to its supposedly offensive content. While the show itself was only mildly amusing, its transmission marks an important step towards the beginning of a new age in which the opinions of religious lunatics are not allowed to take precedence over those of the more rationally-minded. In actual fact, it must have taken some balls for the BBC to go ahead with this broadcast, given that a small number of outraged Christians did what Christians do best and sent death threats to high-level executives. Anyone who is familiar with my site will know that I am hardly the BBC's biggest fan, but my opinion of them has risen substantially since last night.
If you enjoyed Jerry Springer: The Opera, or even if you didn't but just want to acknowledge your gratitude, why not send the BBC a thank-you email to help balance out all the hate mail that they will no doubt be receiving.
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Where Eagles Dare
[Posted 11:14 AM GMT by Whiggles]
That wonderfully over-the-top World War 2 action movie, Where Eagles Dare, is on Channel 5 this afternoon for the umpteenth time, so what better opportunity to take a look at Warner's R1 DVD release? Review at DVD Times.
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Freeze Me
[Posted 12:22 AM GMT by Whiggles]
Freeze Me (R3 Hong Kong) arrived yesterday).
Freeze Me
Japan: Takashi Ishii, 2000
***/*****
Decent if unremarkable rape-revenge thriller in which a woman finds interesting ways of disposing of three sickos who have had their way with her and are looking for more. The flick is very nicely shot, and all the performances are solid, but I guess I was looking for a little more. The film ultimately goes nowhere and seems to have no deeper purpose than show how far the title character, Chihiro, will go in order to conceal the fact that she was raped from the outside world. There is obviously something of a culture gap here, because the Japanese concept of "honour" really doesn't exist in the West, so Chihiro's actions don't make a whole lot of sense from my perspective. I have a feeling it probably plays better in its native land, but I still suspect that it will leave viewers feeling a little empty.
IMDB reference
Oh yeah, and today is the last day of my Christmas holidays. Boo!
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Alias: Season 1
[Posted 12:56 AM GMT by Whiggles]
I finished watching Season 1 of Alias on DVD tonight (well, yesterday, actually). Overall I enjoyed the show: it's certainly an entertaining, glossy and nicely-made piece of television, but I do have some reservations. To be brief, my biggest criticism would be the fact that the soap operatic moments of the show never really connect very well with the actual espionage aspects. The case in point would be a story involving our heroine Sydney's room-mate Francie, who discovers that her fiancé has had multiple affairs. This story continues on and off for the better part of the whole season, but it never seems to have anything to do with any of the main plots and eventually just peters out. Maybe it will be revealed to have some sort of significance in the second season -- I have no idea. My second complaint would be the goody-goody nature of the show. At times the characters might as well be saluting the stars and stripes and singing the US anthem. When you compare it with similar shows like Spooks, it does seem that the writers are doing their best to avoid any criticism of the government and/or its policies. Occasionally you do get someone going behind the administration's back or bending the rules, but this is always portrayed as somewhat reprehensible, and everything always seems to be neatly tied up as an "us vs. them" battle. Finally, I also felt that they tried a little too hard to have a cliffhanger at the end of each episode, particularly when you consider that most of them would then be resolved within minutes of the next episode starting. Sort of a cheap way to reel in viewers and make them tune in for the next episode, if you ask me.
Despite these criticisms, though, I enjoyed Season 1 and am looking forward to starting on Season 2.
****/*****
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Sholay
[Posted 11:03 PM GMT by Whiggles]
India: Ramesh Sippy, 1975
****1/2/*****
Colourful, energetic and lengthy Bollywood epic, very similar in terms of plot to The Seven Samurai but told with that special Indian style of panache. While in my opinion nothing tops the opening 30 minutes (Veeru and Jai's battle against bandits on a moving train, followed by their adventures in prison tricking a warden who looks a little too much like Adolf Hitler), the whole film is very enjoyable and so different in its approach from Western cinema that everyone really should see this at least once. Unfortunately the copy I saw was a horrible LaserDisc-sourced blurry mess, unmatted to 4x3 (from an intended 2.20:1) and with terrible audio quality.
IMDB reference
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Nutters object to Springer opera
[Posted 12:34 PM GMT by Whiggles]
(Submitted by Lyris)
According to that paragon of quality journalism, The Sun, the BBC and TV regulatory board Ofcom have been flooded with a record number of complaints due to BBC2's plans to air a screen version of Jerry Springer: The Opera on Saturday night at 10 pm. The show, which features 3,168 uses of the word "fuck" and 297 of "cunt", has led to several of the usual troublemakers -- including Conservative MP Peter Luff and the thankfully departed Mary Whitehouse's bully organization Mediawatch UK -- kicking up a stink and attempt to prevent the show from being aired.
Thanks for the heads-up, Mediawatch. Now I shall certainly tune in.
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Delivery debacle
[Posted 11:54 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Today was the first day of mail delivery since New Year's Eve, and as you can probably expect, the mailman had a fairly hefty pile of packages for me:
Where Eagles Dare (R1 Canada). I watched it this afternoon: as silly and downright entertaining as I remembered it. You can find a mini-review in the Movie Checklist section, and you can expect a full review at DVD Times soon -- hopefully to coincide with its airing on Channel 5 on Sunday.
Alias Season 2. I'm on Disc 5 (of 6) of Season 1, so I probably won't get stuck into this until next week at the earliest, but I'm certainly looking forward to it. I'm very impressed with the show overall. They manage some pretty impressive feats given the budget, and they have some good guest stars. So far I've spotted Quentin Tarantino, John Hannah and Roger Moore. Who's next, I wonder?
Wonderfalls: The Complete Series (R1 USA). This is a review copy for DVD Times. I haven't seen the show and don't know much about it, except that it was cancelled after only a few episodes (most of what is included in this set was never aired), and that Tim Minear of Angel fame worked on it.
Afterglow Live. This is Sarah McLachlan's latest album, a composite of performances from her latest tour. What's cool about this release is that it includes a "bonus" DVD of the actual performances themselves. This was only £8.99. Alternatively, I could have paid £13.99 for the DVD with "bonus" CD. That's right, exact same contents, different price. Don't ask me why, but I got the cheaper one, and I'm not complaining.
My brother also got the DVD of Sholay, the Bollywood epic that is apparently the most successful and popular Indian film of all time (he's doing an essay on it for his Film & TV class, I think). Great stuff: the spectacle of Indian cinema is so different than its Western counterparts, and it makes a nice change to see everything played out as an outrageous pantomime rather than trying to be serious all the time.
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Age of Empires III
[Posted 08:39 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Well, this one caught me completely unawares. Ensemble Studios have announced Age of Empires III, the third installment in a quite excellent series of real-time strategy games. I had always assumed that the rather mediocre Age of Mythology was "AOE3", but it seems that Ensemble have a completely new game coming out, continuing from where Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings left off.
IGN has an exclusive 2-page preview featuring interviews with designer Greg Street and lead programmer Dave Pottinger, and it looks like a great game. Judging by the screenshots, though, I shudder to think what sort of system will be required to run it at a playable speed. I'm planning on holding off my upgrade (which I was originally going to do as soon as possible) until later in the year, in the hope that hardware prices have come down a bit and/or faster CPUs are available.
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Mail delivery: a rant
[Posted 04:49 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Curse Christmas and New Year's Day for both falling on a Saturday this year! It has resulted in a total of four days without any mail delivery for Saturday through Tuesday on both occasions.
First, to explain how mail delivery works in the UK, for those who are not familiar with it. On this blighted isle, there are no deliveries on a Sunday, and the postal workers only work in the morning on Saturdays. This is, of course, fair enough, and the reason for the longer than usual amount of time without any deliveries this year is the result of making sure that the employees actually get their alotted holiday days rather than them simply having them on the days that they would have got off anyway (although I note that they are actually getting an extra day off). However, in my opinion the Royal Mail really should employ additional workers so that mail is delivered 365 days a year. It's a fairly essential service, in that people are often dependent on receiving mail for a number of vital things (bills, items they need for work/study, etc.), and I have for a long time felt that only getting mail 6 days out of 7 is a bit annoying. Would it really be so hard for them to employ a few extra people who would work on Sundays and get a different day off? Of course, this is the service that loses 1 million letters per year, so perhaps I'd be as well waiting for pigs to fly.
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The Heroes of Telemark
[Posted 08:21 PM GMT by Whiggles]
UK: Anthony Mann, 1965
***1/2/*****
Decent if unremarkable World War 2 thriller about a pair of Norwegians who plot to destroy a factory producing an atomic bomb for the Nazis. Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris take are the leads, and are fairly good (although I feel that Douglas is miscast as a man of science), but the length of the movie (131 minutes) means that a number of sequences drag. Some very nice scenery and nice use of silence make for some solid set-pieces, my favourite being an extended ski chase which takes place in almost total silence. The film also has that inimitable grandiosity associated with the WW2 movies that Rank Film made in the 1960s, and that has to count for something.
IMDB reference
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Mozilla Firefox
[Posted 08:07 PM GMT by Whiggles]
For the past 24 hours or so I've been using Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer and Mozilla Thunderbird instead of Microsoft Outlook. I've been told on innumerable occasions that Firefox is so much better than IE because of its proper HTML/CSS compliancy, tighter security and better functionality. Well, I've tried Firefox on a number of occasions, but this is the first time I've been able to make myself stick with it for any length of time, because while the better compliancy and security can't really be questioned, I personally think that the browser itself handles like a dead kipper.
Many of my complaints about it are undoubtedly the result of someone who has used IE for many years having to get used to a new interface, but a huge number of other complaints have nothing to do with "getting used" to anything: the problem is that many aspects of the way this browser works are borderline stupid.
1. The integration of the mouse wheel is idiotic in the extreme. For example, when scrolling through text in a frame, moving the mouse outside the frame will immediately scroll straight to the bottom. Furthermore, when a text field (e.g. the boxes into which you enter text when posting on a forum) is selected, the mouse wheel is render useless for the rest of the page: you actually have to click outside of the field so you can scroll the page up or down. Quite apart from all of this, scrolling by holding down the wheel and dragging the mouse (the fastest way to peruse a page) is jerky as hell, even when when the "smooth scrolling" option is enabled.
2. The search function is worse than useless. It completely ignores any text in a field.
3. No "edit with..." option. Surely, the ability to quickly edit the page you are currently looking at in another program, be that Frontpage, Dreamweaver or Notepad, is a prerequisite on any browser. Firefox has a "view source" option, oh yes, but you can only view it: you can't edit it at all.
My experience with Firefox has been nothing but frustrating so far. Let me tell you, if the next release of Internet Explorer brings it more in step with HTML/CSS compliancy, I'll go back to it in a second.
PS. The sanctimonious nature of many Firefox users (who behave in a manner not unlike street preachers) is also getting on my nerves, although their behaviour would undoubtedly annoy me whether or not I was using their browser.
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New section
[Posted 02:22 PM GMT by Whiggles]
I would like to take the opportunity to unveil yet another new section at Whiggles.tk: the DVD Transfer Hall of Fame. I set up this page as a means of singling out DVD transfers that I consider especially impressive and giving them the praise they deserve, as well as to show people what a really good transfer looks like. So many people, who watch their DVDs on substandard equipment, simply see all transfers as looking the same and have no idea what the format is actually capable of. Only the best transfers are showcased here -- i.e. those that are deserving of a 10/10 rating -- no second-best efforts here.
The page only has a few titles on it at the moment, but I will be adding more very soon. Hopefully you'll find some decent eye candy here.
Head over now and check it out!
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Mimic
[Posted 12:07 PM GMT by Whiggles]
USA: Guillermo del Toro, 1997
**/*****
Bland, forgettable Hollywood horror assembly line product featuring some icky bugs, the fetching Mira Sorvino and very little else. This isn't one of those movies that immediately seems like complete crap so much as it's the kind that just leaves you wondering where the last two hours went. I pretty much lost interest half-way through the film, but kept with it until the end, against my better judgement. It all looks fairly glossy and professional (although many of the 3D bug effects are embarrassing - which I'll forgive them for given that this was made eight years ago), but there is absolutely nothing to gain by watching this when there are far better creature horror movies on offer.
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Latest movie reviews
[Posted 09:58 PM GMT by Whiggles]
For the time being I'll post movie reviews here as well as in the Movie Checklist.
Midnight Express
UK/USA: Alan Parker, 1978
****/*****
Harrowing dramatisation of the real-life story of Billy Hayes, an American tourist imprisoned in a Turkish prison for trying to smuggle Hash. By all acounts the script, written by Oliver Stone, is highly inaccurate, something that Hayes himself as vehemently stated, but this is a pretty engaging drama. Brad Davis is pretty good as Hayes, and Irene Miracle (of Inferno and Night Train Murders fame) is around just long enough to get her boobs out, but the vast majority of the characters are one-note stereotypes. This isn't necessarily a problem, as it is Hayes' story after all, but a more even-handed approach would have been appreciated. However, as a shocking look at how much pain and degradation human beings can endure, this is a solid piece of storytelling.
The Rachel Papers
UK: Damian Harris, 1989
**1/2/*****
I caught this movie in the wee hours of the morning. Adapted by Martin Amis' book, it's passable, I guess, but I'm not quite sure why I stayed with it for the duration of its running time. Something of an English American Pie before its time, it deals with a nerdy kid who decides he must win the adoration of his attractive American classmate. This would all be pretty reasonable, of course, if not for the fact that our "hero" is one of the most unlikeable twats in movie history. His head is jammed so far up his own backside that I actually decided he deserved to be a social misfit with no friends, idiotic parents and a face that would make babies weep. Half-way through, when our hero somehow manages to woo his Transatlantic idol and get her into his bed, the film becomes something of a soft-core romance, although the sight of our charming lead with his shirt off pretty much kills any potential sexiness. It was okay, when all said and done, but painfully bland.
Battle of the Bulge
USA: Ken Annakin, 1965
***1/2/*****
This World War 2 action movie seems to be something of a cult classic, although personally I think it is a little overrated. It's slow to start and the action element is somewhat drawn-out, but I can't deny that it is well-shot, making excellent use of the Cinemascope frame (which unfortunately was compromised in the 1.78:1 crop I saw on TV today), and the battles are well-staged and choreographed. The individual characters that are focused on have a decent amount of humanity in them, but for sheer visceral WW2 thrills I much prefer Where Eagles Dare.
Rebecca
USA: Alfred Hitchcock, 1940
*****/*****
The last time I saw Hitchcock's first American production I was too young to remember much of it, and indeed almost the entire second half of the film came as a complete surprise to me when I watched it tonight. Superb casting throughout - Laurence Olivier is charismatic and Joan Fontaine is radiant - and the cinematography is some of the moodiest in Hitchcock's entire career. I've watched a great deal of films recently that I've given the 5-star rating to (Sex and Lucía, Moulin Rouge! etc.), but Rebecca is perhaps the most deserving of this accolade. While I don't enjoy it quite as much as North by Northwest or Dial M for Murder, which remain, for me, my favourite Hitchcocks, this one is not far behind either of them.
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Amazon.co.uk mega-sale
[Posted 08:11 PM GMT by Whiggles]
Amazon.co.uk have a massive number of titles available for excellent prices at the moment. DVD Times have set up a page that dynamically searches for titles in specific price ranges and displays them: head over and take a look at the expensive list. Myself, I've ordered Alias Season 2 for £19.97. I'm only half-way through Season 1 at the moment, but based on the strength of what I've seen so far, and this excellent deal, I decided the opportunity was too good to pass up.
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New section
[Posted 02:46 PM GMT by Whiggles]
I've just spent the last couple of hours setting up a Movable Type system for a brand new section for the site: the Movie Checklist.
I was inspired by a thread at Mobius asking members how many films they had watched in 2004, since I came to the realization that until now I have had no concrete archive of films I've seen. This new addition to the site is designed to be an archive listing every single movie I see for the first time from January 1 2005 onwards. Films I have already seen recently don't count so won't be featured, although I will include films that I haven't seen for many years and therefore don't remember much of. I will be including a rating for each film (in stars, out of 5), and for the most part, I hope to be able to include a brief 1-2 paragraph review of each film, although due to time constraints that won't always be possible. Still, this section of the site will hopefully serve both as a useful archive for myself and as a means for visitors to look at my recommendations.
Please note that the dates given correspond to the day on which I saw each film, which is not necessarily the same day that I added the entry.
Why not head over now and check it out?
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Sex and Lucía
[Posted 02:00 AM GMT by Whiggles]
I've reviewed the R1 unrated release of Sex and Lucía, a powerful and mesmerising erotic drama/character study in the mould of Swimming Pool and Mulholland Dr., presented here on a decent DVD with an excellent transfer, solid audio and some interesting extras.
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