PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Cat

Back when we got our first color copier at work people would turn up looking for a random personal copy. Mostly it was boring stuff but occasionally someone would bring something fun to look at. I can't remember who brought this in, it was several years ago, but it's one of my favorite cat pictures. It's been up on the wall of our shop for all that time and it hasn't faded. When we reorganized the space I took it down and moved it. I scanned it with all the other stuff I've been scanning.

Transcendence

I brought Transcendence to Friday Night Movie Night and no one really wanted to watch it. I couldn't blame them, I wasn't even sure I wanted to watch it, it got pretty piss poor reviews and it's better to watch that sort of movie with the finger firmly planted on the speed control. Johnny Depp plays a scientist that works on AI programs with the idea of making a sentient computer. Some luddites shoot him with an infected bullet and, as he has a week to live, he loads himself into the main frame. He becomes the most powerful being on the planet and they kill the network and put the whole world back to the 19th century. It's kind of stupid story about a bunch of people who would rather destroy the world than let it get better. Johnny had created near immortality, superpowers and incredible super fixing nanobots that magically repair anything, including people. The director, Wally Pfister, is mostly a cinematographer, this is his first directorial job, and the movie looks flashy but it's kind of draggy. I didn't care for the characters much but that's more writer Jack Paglen's fault. It's his first script and it's too bad no one looked at it before they filmed it. I wouldn't recommend it to pretty much anyone.

Veronica Mars - The Movie

I watched the Veronica Mars movie the other day and enjoyed it for the most part. It's written by Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero. Thomas was the creator of the series and he's the director of the movie. Kristen Bell played Veronica Mars in the series and she's back for the movie. In fact she's back to her home town of Neptune after 9 years. She's been living in New York, has a boyfriend named Piz and a job waiting at a big ass law firm. She hangs out with her father and her old friends and works on the case against her old pal Logan. He's accused of murdering a pop star that was one of their old school friends. There's plenty of old characters that make an appearance, mostly at the high school reunion that Veronica doesn't want to go to. Her old enemy Madison shows Veronica's sex tape at the reunion and gets punch in the face for it. There's plenty of sleuthing and some fights and danger. It's a bit more grown up than the TV series was and that's ok. The mystery is no big thing but there you go, still a mostly enjoyable 90 minutes. I should get out the Veronica Mars DVDs some day soon but there's such a back log that I don't know when that will happen.

The Amazing Spiderman 2

I watched The Amazing Spiderman 2 the other day. I wasn't much more impressed with this one anymore than I was with the first one. It's written by four writers. Alex Kurtzman has co-written a lot of big blockbuster films that are over two hours and Spiderman is too. Roberto Orci writes with Alex most of the time and both of them worked on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys before they got into movies. Jeff Jinkner meet the other two on the TV show Fringe. He's also working with them on the 3rd Spiderman movie. James Vanderbilt is the last writer. He also worked on the previous Spiderman film in the trilogy but he's not listed as working on the 3rd film. The movie is directed by Marc Webb who also directed the last one. We watched it back in December 2013 and it was so long and dull that we couldn't watch another movie after it was over. That's why I wanted to tackle this one myself. It would let me watch it at 1.5 speed which shortens the agony a bit.

Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone return as Spiderman and Gwen Stacy. Jamie Foxx stars as Electro and Paul Giamatti stars as Rhino. Dane Dehaan is Harry Osborn who is also the Green Goblin. That's a lot of villains, more than might be needed, but then I thought the whole movie had more than was needed. At 142 minutes it seemed long. There's a lot of yakking, one of my issues with Marvel in general, and the movie kind of dragged for me. I was getting pretty tired of it about the 100 minutes mark and that was at the 1.5 speed. I got through it and sure wasn't much interested in seeing it again.

Science Fiction Sunday 324

Paradise Towers is the 146th Doctor Who serial and it first aired October 5 to 26 1987. It's the second serial of the 24th season and Sylvester McCoy is the 7th Doctor and Bonnie Langford is Melanie Bush. Stephen Wyatt wrote the script, which he based on the premise of J G Ballard's novel High Rise which was about a high rise building where the residents turned savage. I haven't read much Ballard over the years. I can't remember what I read without looking up what he wrote and I can't be bothered. Nicholas Mallett is the director, Andrew Cartmel is the script editor and John Nathan-Turner is the producer.

Mel wants to go swimming and the Doctor takes her to Paradise Towers. She doesn't realize that the Doctor won't ever take anyone anywhere where there isn't some trouble and they find plenty of it in Paradise Towers. The luxury complex has fallen into hard times and the people inhabiting it have broken down into small societies each with their own agenda and mythology.

Giant robotic cleaners roam the hallways and kill people to feed the monster in the basement. They are laughable and anyone who isn't acting could easily run away from them. Turns out that the architect of the building was crazy and he didn't want people, he thinks of them as vermin, in his building. The people in control have taken his brain and removed it from his body. It's trapped in the basement and it's the monster.

There are some color coded girl gangs running about and the Doctor gets caught by the Red Kangs. He makes friends but they aren't too keen on Mel. Well, who is? There's a goofy guy, called Pex, who deserted the military because he's a coward. He's trying to make up for it by claiming to be a hero. He isn't but he does give his life to kill off the monster at the end of the serial.

Richard Briers plays the Chief Caretaker. They are the jack booted guards in the building. Richard gets drubbed for his over acting but I didn't think it was too off the beam for the story which is cartoony and theatrical. I did enjoy the goofiness but it's not going to be a favorite.

There's a commentary with host Mark Ayers, director Stephen Wyatt, actor Judy Cornwell and sound effects guy Dick Mills. There's a making of, a deleted scenes, some continuity bits, an interview with Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Sophie Aldred who comment on the state of women in TV in the 1980s, there's a piece on casting Sylvester McCoy, a photo gallery, info track, an alternate score and the Radio Times listing.

Friday Night Movies 515

Our first film is Miss Meadows, staring Katie Holmes. It's written and directed by Karen Leigh Hopkins who's created a drama about a vengeful vigilante. It's a fairly low budget film, $2 million, about a substitute school teacher who kills bad people. She kills one right away, he pulled a gun on her and tried to force her into his car, then the movie slips into drama mode and it spends it's time on character development. The local sheriff falls for her but the evidence against her continues to mount. What to do? Especially when Miss Meadows gets pregnant by the sheriff. It's only a 90 minute movie but it seemed to drag for me. There's nothing special about it but I did like the cute little girl who plays one of Miss Meadows students. The rest of the actors are all good, it was nice to see Mary Kay Place again. It's kind of an interesting idea, not quite a serial killer movie, not quite a crime movie, more weighted to the drama, but with an odd sense of humor. It scores a 5.7 in the IMDb and I don't find that out of place. The majority of it's votes were in the 5 to 7 range. The critics seemed to hate it, 22% of them on Rotten Tomatoes gave it a positive review. I'd only recommend it a bit, you know, once you've seen more of the better movies out there.

Lucy, our second feature of the eve, would get a higher rating from me, but not a much of an increase over our first film. It scores a 6.4 on the IMDb and that's about where I'd put it. It's ok, fun to watch, but not that great. When I was watching it I was thinking it's like writer - director Luc Besson is taking different movie elements you're familiar with and blending them to create something familiar, fairly enjoyable, but lacking. From his Statement of Intent for the film: Besson stated that he intended for the first part of Lucy to be like Léon: The Professional (which he also wrote and directed), the second part to be like Inception and the third part to be like 2001: A Space Odyssey. That's some whacky shit, huh? It's that kind of thinking that makes Besson a hit or miss kind of guy for me. I can't stop enjoying The Fifth Element, even after watching it more than a dozen times, and Léon: The Professional is outstanding. More recently I've enjoyed The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec but a lot of his other films have left me disinterested in seeing them again. I wasn't much of a fan of the Arthur And The Invisibles series. I had read the two books that were turned into the first movie and thought they were sort of dull and uninteresting.

Lucy is a bit more interesting than Arthur but nothing near TFE. Scarlett Johansson plays a woman who gets tricked into delivering a brief case to a Korean drug lord. They kill the guy that tricked her and then turn her into a mule. Her job is to carry a supply of an artificial growth hormone called CPH4 that's been hidden in her abdomen to the USA. CPH4 is normally produced by pregnant women to active something in the fetus brain to stimulate development. When Lucy is beaten before her flight the bag bursts and the drug gets to work. Lucy starts to activate the unused parts of her brain. Morgan Freeman plays a scientist who studies brains. He thinks that people only use 10% of their brain. I read on line that he's wrong. We apparently use all our brains, just not at the same time. Too hot, we'd melt. Luckily for Lucy she's is able to use the drug to control her body and keep going before she becomes one with everything. It's all pretty goofy and some of it makes little sense but there are plenty of gun's shooting and bullets flying. When it was done I figured I probably wouldn't need to see it again. I'd rather watch The Fifth Element.

Wolfblood Series 1

I got the first series from the library. It's a British TV show about a family of wolfbloods that are living in a small town. Wolfbloods are humans that change to wolves when the full moon comes. They aren't werewolf's in the traditional sense. The daughter Maddy, played by Aimee Kelly, is just about to have her first change when we join the series. No one in the town knows that the family are wolfbloods and the family wants to keep it that way. They have a secret room in the basement with bars to keep the wolves indoors for the night. That way no one gets hurt and the family doesn't get hunted down. There are wolfbloods that live on the land and hunt game. They are marginal people given over to their more animal side. A common theme in werewolf stories, especially on fantasy TV shows.

Maddy has two best friends, Shannon and Tom, who don't know anything about her being a wolfblood. Shannon has a fixation on "the beast," that she believes lives in the local forest, but all of her attempts to gather evidence have failed. Her getting close to Maddy's secret plays out through the series. Tom is more interested in Maddy but she's just wants to be friends. He's the more level headed one of the trio. Just before her change Maddy discovers another wolfblood has come to town and Rhydian doesn't seem to know anything about what's going to happen to him. He finds out a lot from Maddy and her parents. The parents, Emma and Daniel, just want to live a human life and lock up the wolf for the night. They want the same for their daughter and so far they have kept things quiet. Rhydian, along with post change Maddy, disturbs their security and they nearly have leave town in the last episode. Maddy isn't very good at the whole impulse control and she makes trouble for everyone. There's a good cast in both the main characters and all the supporting roles. The scripts are ok, with lots of familiar themes and story plot points. Aimee Kelly has a delightful Geordie accent which I enjoyed hearing. I might remember to check out the second season when it shows up at the library but I wouldn't need to pick up the DVDs.

So This Is New York 1948

So This Is New York is certainly the most droll movie I've seen in quite some time and it's not even British. It's a 1948 comedy written by Carl Foreman and Herbert Baker. Carl had written a couple of the East Side Kids films before this and he would go on to write some interesting films, a few of which I have seen. It was Herbert Baker's first film, he would write 3 Martin and Lewis comedies, a couple of Elvis Presley films, and 3 of the Matt Helm films with Dean Martin.

So This Is New York is based on a Ring Lardner novel called The Big Town. I had read some short pieces by Lardner back in the 1970s but I never warmed to him and never continued the relationship. It's directed by Richard Fleischer who would direct a lot of fairly good films over the years. It was the first producing job for Stanley Kramer. A lot of interesting talent in the mix.

Henry Morgan is a cigar salesman who lives in 1910 South Bend Indiana with his wife, played by Virginia Grey, where he has a nice peaceful life. It gets interrupted by the arrival of a huge pile of cash for the wife and her sister, played by Dona Drake. The ladies are nice but not so bright. Virginia gets it in her head that they should go to New York City and find Dona a rich husband. Henry is against the idea but he goes along for the ride with the idea of keeping the girls from spending all their cash. He doesn't have much luck and neither does the sister. They meet some prospects but they aren't any good at all and a lot of money is spent. The final straw is the girls backing of a really bad play. All along Henry is providing a nice commentary on his lot in life. Rudy Vallee and Leo Gorcey play a couple of the beaus.

I found it quite amusing and was glad I had picked it up from the library shelf. I hadn't heard if before and got a nice surprise when I watched it. You can see it on YouTube. Worth a look for the comedy fan.

AAAAAGH!!!

A couple of people had posted this picture on Facebook so I went and found a nice big one and saved that. In case you missed it. Made me laugh.

Zatoichi 12 - Zatoichi And The Chess Expert

Zatoichi And The Chess Expert is the 12th of the series of 26. It came out December 24 1965 and it was directed by Kenji Misumi. He directed 6 of the series, more films than any of the other directors, except Kimiyoshi Yasuda, who also directed 6. As usual it stars Shintaro Katsu as the blind masseur Zatoichi.

Zatoichi is up to his old tricks while travelling on a small sailing ship. During a dice game he takes the cup and people bet against him. He's usually pretty good at the game but occasionally he tries a trick where he lets a set of dice fall outside the cup. People think they can take advantage of him because he's blind and doesn't know the dice are exposed. When he goes to lift the cup he "finds" them and pockets them. The betters lose, the dice under the cup are of opposite of what they bet on, and they get all noisy. He bitches them out for trying to cheat a blind man and takes their money. Sometimes it turns into a fight and his opponents die. This time he blinds the eye of one of them and cuts the other up a bit. On the boat he meets a samurai who plays chess.

In the town of Hakone the two men attack Zatoichi and a little girl gets hurt. Zatoichi takes care of the girl and her aunt for a while. The woman falls in love with him but he tells her he's dirt and he doesn't want her to get all muddy. There are some other men looking for the woman, and sadly for them, they find her. He meets a nice young and his servant while they are at the bath house. Soon after the servant is killed. We know who did it but Zatoichi is puzzled for a while.

Plenty of pure chance leads him to the killer and there's plenty of sword fighting and slaughtering on the way. There's a bit of melodrama with the lady and her niece, sad when they have to part. It has to be, Zatoichi isn't ready to settle down. It's a great looking movie, plenty of nice scenery and scenes. I liked the story and all the characters. It's always been one of my favorites but I like the whole series a good bit. There's a link in the title above that takes you to YouTube where they have the movie for free. It's worth looking at.