QUEER AS FOLK {1st. Season} (DVD Review) - 31/3/08

Wanted to watch this for ages but it was so damn expensive on DVD, but managed to purchase all five seasons on a good deal! Following on from the British version of this series the First Season more or less follows in it's footsteps then veers off at a tangent into it's own creative flow instead.

From the pounding techno-beat opening titles to the skimpily dressed males draped all over the place, tongues poking into everything; this high quality drama puts forward a number of issues in a context that must have been a total slap round the face for American viewers. Amidst the highs and lows of this first slew of episodes I found myself laughing numerous times amongst the sad bits as this programme stepped up a gear and managed to surpass the original English series. Plentiful Special Features cover mainly the sixth disc with an Outtake Reel and Deleted Scenes, plus a Gallery, Trailers and DVD-Rom content but a couple of the other discs also have a Special Edition episode with a Commentary/Behind The Scenes chat track and interviews. Pushing a number of buttons the hard working cast really put a lot of effort into this and it shows from start to finish. Not only was this great to watch - The shock ending of this first series set up the show for Season 2. The tales of a group of gay friends in the city of Pittsburgh highlight the trials and tribulations of their everyday lives. Some funny and some sad, some melancholy and other's with more of a hint of danger from different angles and different perspectives. Mostly viewed with a positive view to a gay lifestyle but also showing the downturns as well - In fact just a normal life like any other!

RAMBO Film Review - 30/3/08

MR. PERIWINKLE DO NOT READ THIS: Extreme claret & syrup ahead!

Uummm! What can you say about this film? It's going under several different title's but most people will refer to it as "Rambo 4". After about 20 minutes into this film it just turns into an arcade game - Like someone has flicked the KILL switch and left the button depressed. Heads blow apart like ripe melons, legs and chunks of flesh fly across the screen, hands and limbs in general are lopped off here, there and everywhere. Bodies explode with gout's of gore and tattered clothing, children shot point blank range and bayoneted and subjects have large calibre rounds taking off arms and feet as people run for cover. Mortars shred flesh to tatters as strips of sinews and chips of bone fly all over and it goes on and on. Countless faceless victims whether good or bad literally pulped by massive guns going CHUNKA-CHUNKA-CHUNKA as swathes of blood drench various hacked bodies abundant with torn chests and bullet-ridden extremities. Mostly CGI effects cover this horrendous body count and to be perfectly honest I was gobsmacked by the unending and unremitting violence. I have absolutely no idea what to make of this film?

The John Rambo character is hauled out of retirement to help a group of Christian Missionaries on a Relief trip into Burma bringing food and medicine. Everything goes wrong and a horrific spate of death and destruction is unleashed by the Burmese Army against the local people and their helpers. Rambo goes in with a small group of mercenaries and adds further death and destruction so that everyone gets a chance to suffer one way or another?

WE OWN THE NIGHT Film Review - 25/3/08

Set in a neverwhere 70's/80's nightclub setting this charts the tale of two brothers - One on the side of the law and the other off the tracks completely. {LOOK AWAY MR. PERIWINKLE: Bullet in the head coming up!} After a police raid and the involvement of the Russian mob, a bullet in the head puts one of the brothers in a local hospital. Revenge tale kicks in and police story/family drama ensues. Dull, plodding and predictable this reaches nowhere fast in a seen-it-all before kind of way - That's not to say the performances aren't spot on - But it's the kind of role Robert Duvall sleepwalks through and Mark Wahlberg similar.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN Film Review - 23/3/08

Written & Directed by Joel & Ethan Coen this film bites from the start - The only problem being that it is really laid back and slow and never actually finishes the storyline. Tommy Lee Jones is the tired & weary cop thrust into an investigation he doesn't want when a hunter (Josh Brolin) after game comes across a drug deal gone wrong and absconds with a case of cash. [STOP READING NOW MR. PERIWINKLE: Heads about to be shot and guts sprayed all over the place!] A hired hit-man Javier Bardem is sent after the loot and cuts through a swathe of bodies with palpable menace with a maniac's smile (Probably why he won an Oscar for a Supporting Role he is that good!) and a compressed airgun that he blasts a victim's head away with. Nonchalantly strolling from scene to scene his very presence is enough to get you going with a rather silent approach as he blows victim's away left, right and centre copiously shedding blood in this extremely violent movie. With more of his own conscience than anything else, he does exactly as he pleases with no consequences or remorse; in a very haunting portrayal of a man who does not have any limits. No only does nothing run it's course in this film nothing turns out as you expect - Especially after two hours and the screen fades to black to the credits after a dulled speech by Tommy Lee Jones about righting wrongs?

10,000 BC Film Review - 23/3/08

When Little Digger said to me this was much in the vein of "Pathfinder" I was like "Oh, Noooo!" With Warner Brothers spending several million on this piece of cod you would at least think they would get a decent story for that price? Forget the impressive Special Effects and CGI - The dreary story drones on for hours driving nowhere. In fact if Warner's had made a feature film with a talking arse and it was a worldwide smash success you could then expect another ten films to follow with a talking arse in it. This is tailgating one of these genres currently filled up with wall-to-wall Superhero movies and kiddie sci-fi/fantasy by the bucket-load. Anachronistic failures aside this brings nothing new to the table with the usual bilge about a chosen one and a prophecy. Semi-mystic codswallop that barely held my attention.

Stuck in an ice-bound valley waiting for the next mammoth to turn up so they can hunt, kill and eat it; a lonely tribe of hunters gets decimated by a group of slavers. Vowing to get revenge and bring back his sweetheart and the missing tribes-folk a solitary hunter and a motley crew of his mates set off after the bad guys. Traipsing across lush woodland they get attacked by a large chicken (I kid you not!) and end up in the desert. Following the trail further they end up in semi-Egypt and have a big punch up. All works out well and Hollywood lives happily ever after. Roland Emmerich this is definitely one of your misses!

JUMPER Film Review - 22/3/08

This film is about as entertaining as having a drill bit shoved between your eyes. Like opening a loaf of bread and finding it covered in green mould "Jumper" is even less edifying than that! Having eaten in my works canteen and chowed down on a portion of cauliflower cheese this film was like that portion - Mush! With absolutely no logical resonance this pastiche flits from scene to scene - In any world you create there are certain constraints in the logic of that world - With "Jumper" they just throw that out the window. Totally soul less with that typical money management arrogance; that you can see this turned into a TV series a year down the line (Minus the leads of course!) and then get cancelled within a season. Any film with Doug Liman's name attached as director to it will need serious consideration before viewing any of his further work. Samuel L. Jackson really was wasted in this - A bit like hiring Morgan Freeman and having him sit in the bog for an hour and a half? With no real explanation for any of the character's behaviour or reasoning this sadly needs to be thrown into the DVD dumpster pile for the "£2.99p Bargain Grab!"

Sammy plays a nasty man who hunts down 'Jumpers' people who can teleport from place to place in the blink of an eye. Being a bit of a nutjob he has a small army and a sackful of nifty gadgets to catch these evildoers. Up strolls Hayden as stupid youth with no brain who end's up on Sammy's radar because he is an idiot. The film continues in this vein for quite awhile all over the world . . .

SMALLVILLE {6th. Season} (DVD Review) - 16/3/08

A bit of a "Wham Bam" explosive multi-finale cliff hanger to the end of this Season 6 with numerous threads of the storyline left wide open and a hell of a ride through 22 episodes to get there! Amidst the double-crossing and back stabbing, multiple storylines coalesce as the story literally goes supernova. Machinations abound and you are not quite certain who is stitching who up alongside the slushy "lurve" heartaches amongst the central characters. New layers are slowly unpeeled with some interesting additions. I always wondered why the Boxsets were rated 15 - Presumably for the blood & guts that were no doubt trimmed for the TV showings? As with the previous Boxsets a selection of Special Features round off this 6-Disc set with numerous Featurettes & Deleted Scenes. So hurry up Season 7!

FILM REVIEW - THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH (1955 - REVIEWED ON 12/03/08)

Region 2 DVD cover.

A young couple called Jean and Matthew Spenser (Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers) play a young couple struggling to earn a living when out of the blue they recieve a letter informing them that a long lost uncle of Matthew's has died and that he has left them his business - a cinema in the town of Sloughbrough. They expect to make a packet by selling the site but when they arrive they discover that the "Bijou Kinema", which they have inherited is a run down old fleapit with three equally run down staff, the cashier, Mrs Fazackalee (Margaret Rutherford), the projectionist Mr Quill (Peter Sellers) and the doorman Old Tom (Bernard Miles), all of whom have worked there forever. The Bijou is competing with the Grand Super Cinema just over the road and its proprietor, Mr Hardcastle (Francis De Wolff), is offering them a pithy sum of money to buy the place so that he can pull it down and build a car park for his own cinema. Jean and Matthew acting under the advice from their solicitor decide to make Hardcastle think that they are renovating and reopening the fleapit so that he will increase the money he is offering. Unfortunately this little deception gets back to Hardcastle and the only alternative that Jean and Matthew have is to reopen the flea pit for real and try to make it a going concern again in order to force his hand so that he will buy the place for the price they want. However, this is not going to be easy since the Grand has every modern facility whereas the Bijou's equipment is out of the ark and Jean and Matthew have to contend with the constant bickering between Old Tom, Mr Quill and Mrs Fazackerlee...

Region 1 DVD cover

This British comedy from director Basil Dearden is quite simply an unmissable treat even after more than fifty-years since it was first released. It will appeal especially to those of us who are sentimental about the old days of going to the pictures when it meant a lot more than just being motioned into a characterless ten or twelve screen multiplex. This came out in the days when most sizable towns had two or maybe more cinemas and in most cases, one would be a super cinema whilst the other would be regarded as the local fleapit - "oh you don't want to go in there" would have been the reply from most local people living in the community. Margaret Rutherford, Bernard Miles and Peter Sellers are pure joy to watch as the old fleapit's long-serving staff who are always at each others throats but at the same time stick together. "Can't you do something about that old battleaxe Mrs Fazackalee, I can't stand having her around?" Mr Quill asks Matt when he takes over the day to day running of the place. "Are you suggesting that I sack her?" he asks. "Sack Mrs Fazackalee, you can't, she's been here since the silent days, she used to play the piano, how can you say that?" Sellers is absolutely hilarious as the drunken projectionist like when a train thunders past the cinema and he has to cling on to his projectors for dear life to prevent them from toppling over but the film's best scene is when the three of them are recalling their affection for the silent days to a deserted cinema with Mr Quill running snippets of old films which he has saved over the years, Mrs Fazackalee playing the piano and Old Tom sat in the stalls with a tear in his eye and the cinema's cat on his lap. This is an extremely touching scene that one cannot watch with a lump in one's throat . Overall, this is the kind of comedy that film makers have long since forgotten how to make, which will ensure its place in film history as a fondly remembered classic and as it is for sale on DVD for £5.00 in all the good megastores, it is too good a bargain to miss out on.

FILM REVIEW -THE SMASHING BIRD I USED TO KNOW (1969 - DVD REVIEWED - 10/03/08)

Region 2 DVD cover - this issue has been released under its alternate title School For Unclaimed Girls.

*This comment may contain spoilers*

A 16-year-old girl called Nicki Johnson (Madeleine Hinde) is scarred by the death of her father seven years previously at a day out at the fair. It occurred when the father (David Lodge) took her for a ride on the merry-go-round, which frightened her and she pleaded with him to take her off. When he tried to reach her in order to comfort her he was accidentally crushed to death and ever since, Nicki has suffered from a guilt complex. Things are made worse when Nicki's mother, Anne (Renee Asherson), has an affair with Harry Spenton (Patrick Mower) who is in fact a crook known for seducing women and then getting money off of them under false pretenses. Nicki dislikes Spenton intensely and after an argument between them occurs, she stabs him and is sent to a remand home where she meets several teenage girls of her own age with different problems. Here she strikes up a friendship with Sarah (Maureen Lipman), who ran away from home at fourteen because her mother was having several relationships with different men and one of them tried it on with Sarah. Then later Sarah was taken in by a woman who was good to her but unfortunately she died and her brother would not let her attend the funeral, which sent Sarah into a violent rage hence why she is in the remand home. Both Sarah and Nicki are able to understand each others problems and they decide to try and break out of the home. Sarah is caught and brought back but Madeleine succeeds in getting away to her boyfriend, Peter's (Dennis Waterman), place in Oxford. Peter tells her that she must face up to her problems and she finally sees that he is right. But as they drive along the road in Peter's car, tragedy strikes!

A bizarre piece of sixties exploitation cinema courtesy of director Robert Hartford-Davies, an unsung hero of the British horror wave as anybody who has seen the delightfully demented Corruption (q.v) will most likely concur. The Smashing Bird I Used To Know is a rather odd prison drama in that it is never quite sure about how to take itself. In the style which was rather typical of this director, he insists on a series of sensational repeated flashbacks of the death of Nicki's father and the subsequent stabbing of Spenton saturated in a wash of psychedelic colours which seem a lot like somebody having an LSD trip, which are supposed to depict what's going on in Nicki's mind as she mulls things over in her guilt complex and at times it seems to settle down into a more bland and straight drama during the scenes in the remand home. I couldn't help but think that a more conventional style of film making would have suited the film better as there are plenty of opportunities in the script for emotional drama but most of the performances from the largely young cast while competent are not really sufficient to stir our emotions including Madeleine Hinde who clearly lacked the dramatic range to make the audience sympathise with her plight. Patrick Mower plays it suitably smarmy in the role of the money grabbing and lechrous Harry Spenton but the acting honours go to Maureen Lipman who offers a genuinely moving performance as troubled teenager Sarah.

Overall, The Smashing Bird I Used To Know is not very good in itself but collectors of obscure British films of the sixties will most likely have a ball in watching the hallucinogenic directorial style and its young cast, a number of whom were destined to enjoy greater fame on TV such as Dennis Waterman (Minder), Maureen Lipman and even Joanna David has a small part in there somewhere. Trivia buffs should also note that in a little scene where Mower's Harry Spenton meets one of his girlfriends outside of a cinema, the film being advertised for showing is Hartford-Davis's own film Corruption!

STARGATE THE ARK OF TRUTH (DVD Review) - 9/3/08

"It was okay!" is what I can say about the first of the 2 films produced by MGM Studios to tie up the loose threads from the final series (The tenth) of Stargate SG-1 after they cancelled it and decided not to run with an eleventh season. Always convenient to find a lost artifact millions of years old just in the right place when you need it when it usually takes an entire season to find? Feeling like any other episode it just pulls together some bits and pieces and ends off the long-running Ori storyline. Unfortunately it doesn't feel like a movie (That they sold on DVD only first) and even adds some mediocre plot threads to pad it out. Nice to see that at least they bothered to finish off the story unlike other TV shows that ended on a cliff-hanger and were never resolved to the audience's satisfaction. Top notch SFX as always that we have come to expect from this series and a nice selection of Special Features which run with an opening prelude (More to play catch-up than anything else) and a nice Making Of Featurette that covers the film's Production. A Commentary plus a Comic-Con Spot and a handful of Trailers with the usual 5.1. Dolby Sound plus Dolby Surround in French/Spanish and Subtitles in English/Spanish. Widescreen Close Captioned Region 1 NTSC Not Rated. Colour 2008 - 102 Minutes Runtime. 883904102908.