PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Rodge and Podge - A Scare At Bedtime

I had seen a clip or two of Rodge and Podge before but I didn't know they did a series of short scary bedtime stories. They made 9 series of shorts for Irish TV that ran from 1997 to 2006. You can read more, and you should, on the Wikipedia. The show isn't going to be for everyone but if you like rude puppets, that swear a lot, then this might be right up your alley. There are 150 short episodes collected at the link above. There is a 2010 complete set DVD set but it's pretty pricey and I'm not going to buy it. I've only watched a few of them so far and they were funny. They're a nice combination of comedy and violence, with plenty of swearing, so it's not going to be for my mom. Ciaran Morrison and Mick O'Hara are the creators and writers and voices.

Ideal Series 1

I was more interested in watching Ideal than I was the SF show I watched today. I hadn't heard of Ideal until I saw a bad copy of the first episode on YouTube three weeks ago. I like Johnny Vegas and it got a lot of nice comments online. The DVD set, containing all 53 episodes, was less than 30 bucks delivered to me in the US. It arrived yesterday and I've watched the first 8 episodes of the first series and the Christmas Special so far. The first series aired back in 2005 and the show ran 7 series. The series was created by Graham Duff for BBC Comedy North. That's Graham in the black shirt above. He wrote the series and played Brian, a flamboyant gay man with many scrummy boyfriends. 

Johnny Vegas plays Moz, a low level pot dealer in Salford, Greater Manchester. The show is shot in Moz's apartment and all sorts of people come to visit during Moz's day. He sells nothing harder than weed or hash and that's what most of the customers want. Moz gets more of his product from a doper copper who gives him stuff skimmed off other drug busts. PC hangs out to suck on Moz's bong and play video games while he's on duty. Moz has a girlfriend and she's been banging PC on the side. Moz doesn't have that good a life and his challenges and struggles make me laugh. It's a bit dark, people do wind up dead. Often Moz gets in over his head with the local gangsters., add girlfriend trouble, customer trouble, family trouble, and it all takes it's toll on our rotund pal.

Johnny is great as Moz, the whole cast is great. The characters and their activities are wildly imaginative. That's Cartoon Head sitting with Moz, he's a hit man and part time serial killer, don't ask about his mask. It's apparently stuck to his head somehow, it's not removable, he eats through a straw. Most of the other cast members are more normal but I wouldn't need them coming around my place, know what I mean. Especially that Colin guy, he steals right from Moz's place all the time.

I was glad to have invested in the show. I know I'll want to watch these again sometime. The show isn't filled with belly laughs but I usually laughed out loud once or twice and other stuff made me giggle. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the episodes.

Science Fiction Sunday 441

The third season of The 4400 has more of the same as the first two seasons. The 4400 people that came back one day are in the grinder, all sorts of people want to control them and the powers they have. We learn a bit more about what was going on. IE: some people from the future took the 4400 and adapted them to fix a problem. Unfortunately they did it such a way that the outcome was unsure. They tried to fix that but it failed pretty poorly. The people of the future are divided, the haves live in a giant walled city and the havenots grunt it up in the outer wasteland. It's overly melodramatic, everyone is always emoting and crying, or getting stabbed. Lots of people are slaughtered and screwed up by one thing or another. I'm kind of speeding my way through the series while I work on my stuff for the comic con. I'll watch the last season but I'm still not going to buy the DVDs. I read it ends with a bit of a cliff hanger and there is nothing to tell you want happened after. I hate unfinished stories.

Friday Night Movies 632

Fright Night was our first feature. It's a 1985 vampire film that was written and directed by Tom Holland. It's his first film, he'd go onto direct Child's Play and a hand full of other movies along with some TV episodes on shows like Tales From The Crypt, Masters Of Horror and Twisted Tales. 

That's Chris Sarandon as Jerry the vampire, Jonathan Stark as Jerry's soft focus but trusty Renfrew, Stephen Geoffreys as Evil Ed, Amanda Bearse as Amy and William Ragsdale as Charley. Charley and Amanda have something going on and it's nearly going to get them laid but for the two guys carrying the coffin onto the newly rented house next door. If only Charlie had gone for the nookie instead of the mystery Evil Ed might not be dead.

Sadly, Charlie is that normal teen, one that's not very clever. It's surprising that he survives when confronted by a deadly vampire but lucky for him Jerry is the worst vampire we've seen in a long while. Charlie calls the cops on him when he sees that the dead girl on the news is the same one he saw through the window the night before. The police don't believe him and now he's got a pissed off vampire after him and his single mom.

Now Charlie is a big horror fan but he seems to lack any substantial knowledge on vampires. Charlie goes to ask Evil Ed, a nervous, high pitched noise he goes to school with, about vampires. EE has some knowledge and he gives Charlie a cross and tells him that vampires can't get into the his house without asking permission. Charlie returns home to find Jerry there, invited in by his mom.

Charlie goes to see the local TV Horror Host Peter Vincent, played by Roddy McDowall, his hair dowsed in flour, but Peter doesn't know anything much about vampires. He doesn't even believe they are real, he thinks Charlie is crackers. Ed and Amanda try to help but it all goes south as Jerry gets more bothered by the disturbances. Jerry eventually brings about his own doom. He gets too riled up and vengeful. Through sheer luck Charlie, and a revitalized Peter Vincent, learn to break the basement windows and the sun finishes off the Vampire who stayed up past his bedtime. A good ending, vampires need to be put down, they are chompy dicks after all.

A fun movie with some dumb characters, the jokes and the scares are equally dumb. Evil Ed was annoying and I didn't mind him getting the chomp. Amanda was cute but obviously too old for a high school gal. She was 27 playing 17 and William was 24 playing about the same age. It was nice to see Roddy hamming it up and then grow a bit of spine. He won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor. Nice, huh. The movie also won the Saturn Award for the Best Horror Film and Best Writing. I wonder what the competition was? Chris hasn't ever been an actor I much care for but he usually does a good job. He got nominated for a Saturn Award but did not win. The effects are pretty good, Richard Edlund had just finished working on Ghostbusters and brought a lot of knowledge to the production.

Dead End Drive-In is up next, it's a 1986 Australian science fiction horror film about a guy getting locked down in a drive-in turned concentration camp. It's 1995 in the movie, the world economy has taken a tumble and people are living in cities ravaged by street gangs of unemployed.

Unbeknownst to Crabs and Carmen, young lovers in a "borrowed" 1956 Chevy, the road to the Star Drive-In is a one way street. Once the park for the movie Crabs' tires get stolen by the police. The man at the counter is not every helpful, he's got a beer for Crabs, or some weed if he wants it, but it looks like he's stuck. Crabs feels a need for release and Carmen isn't going to satisfy that. He spends the rest of the movie looking for a way out past the electrified fence.

The movie is based on a Peter Carey story from his book The Fat Man In History. I don't know that book nor the writer but he might be big in Australia. I don't know, I didn't bother looking him up, I'll never get around to reading anything by him. Peter Smalley wrote the screenplay.

The movie is directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith and Quentin Tarantino says this is his favorite movie by BT-S. Brian says the movie is part Mad Max and part The Exterminating Angel. It doesn't live up to the Mad Max part, but it does have the trapped people living like animals down pat. It's more comedic than drama, an ironic laced look at the collapse of civil order with hot rods, attitude and big hair. 

The Drive-In is, of course, an allegory for the junk values of the eighties, which our hero sees as a prison. The last 20 minutes of the film - the escape - is the desperate blazing climax, but the whole film has a feeling of high style, of heightened or enhanced reality - a little bit over the top, but retaining a reality that the public will accept. - Brian Trenchard-Smith - the Wikipedia.

I don't think I was getting that while it was playing out but that's the trouble with the film in people's head. You can't see in there and they can't always create their vision well enough for the viewer to comprehend. After watching it I can understand why it didn't make money. Some people will like it more than others, it scores a 5.9 on the IMDb, I liked it a bit, I wouldn't need to buy a copy.

Yogi Bear 2010

I picked up a copy of the 2010 film Yogi Bear a couple of months back and today seemed like the day to have a look. I needed something easy on the noggin while I was working on my display for the comic con. It's directed by Eric Brevig, he's mostly a visual effects supervisor, the only other movie he directed was the 2008 version of Journey To The Center Of The Earth with Brendan  Fraser and a tie in video game. He directed an episode of Xena back in 1995. The writers; JR Ventimilia, Joshua Sternin and Brad Copeland have some interesting credits, much of it in TV.

Tom Cavanagh and Anna Faris are Ranger Smith and Rachel. She's a nature documentary film maker who's come to Jellystone Park to make a film about Yogi Bear. Dan Aykroyd play Yogi and Justin Timberlake plays Boo Boo. They sound enough like the originals that I went along with it.

Visually, the bears look like cartoon bears, I can deal with that, it might be better than a guy in a bear suit. The plot is a standard type, the town is going to sell off the park to lumber men unless the park pays off it's debt, the good guys have to rally around and save the park. It goes well to start but Yogi screws things up, the park looks doomed, everyone on the side of light is sad. They all have that last minute rally in the third act and beat down the mayor and his Yes Man. Bit of smooching, some picnic basket stealing, exit stage left. Totally average but still fun enough to sit though. Especially when you've got your hands full.

The Killer Snakes 1974

The Killer Snakes is a 1974 Shaw Brothers movie. It's written by Kuang Ni and directed by Chih-Hung Kuei. I haven't seen many of his films but a guy I know is giving me a few to watch. I did see his 1980 movie Hex recently. The Killer Snakes is about a young guy called Keto, he gets beat up, and robbed, by a whore and the creeps she runs with, twice, then he looses his job because the creeps beat his deliver basket to death. There's hardly anyone in the movie to root for, maybe the nice girl with the market stand. Keto lives next door to a snake seller. Some of the snakes get out of their cages and find their way through the walls to Keto's apartment. He sews one up, the snake guy had taken the gall bladder out, and the snake becomes Keto's pal. Soon, he has an army, a small one, of snakes, and the neighbor is wondering where his snakes have gone. When he finds out, Keto kills him. Things aren't going very well for Keto, this new power over snakes isn't quite as handy as you might think. Keto has a crush on the nice girl with the market stand but her father dies and she gets drawn into whoring to make a buck. This drives Keto to murder her and then he takes revenge for her by killing the whore and the creeps. Add in plenty of snake action, naked ladies, women beating, reptile fights and snake mutilation. On top of that Keto is a bit of pervert when it comes to women, not that it matters much anyway, he comes to a bad end. It's not for everyone but it has it's goofy moments that made me laugh. There's a lot of snakes and some folks wouldn't like that too much.

Bewilderness 2001

Bewilderness was Bill Bailey's second tour and it happened back in 2001. Nice that the DVD is still available and so cheap. I paid £2.59 on Amazon UK, with shipping it was about 5 bucks.

Bill opens the show yakking at the audience then there's a bit of Belgian jazz for the random Belgian that might have wandered into the theater. Then comes more talking and jokes. Bill's from the West Country and he pokes fun at that, imagine Darth Vader with a West Country accent like actor David Prowse would have had. There's plenty of gags that have music worked in there somehow. Sometimes a bit of helpful info comes along, like it isn't that good of an idea to play Take 5 at a funeral "because the unusual time signature detracts from the solemnity of the event." Nice to know.

Bill takes a poke at the Welsh and their national dish, Cheese on Toast, before he gets on to take the piss out the English. And he plays the guitar occasionally. And the kazoo. I got a bunch of giggles from it and a few laughs. I'd be glad to re-watch this sometime.

We're Doomed! The Dad's Army Story 2015

We're Doomed! The Dad's Army Story is a 2015 BBC production about the creation of the highly popular BBC TV series Dad's Army. I'd watched the whole series a while ago and really enjoyed them. I've seen the recent Dad's Army film, in fact, it was while looking up details on that film that I stumbled on We're Doomed. I ordered a copy from the UK. It was only about 10 bucks, including shipping.

That's Paul Ritter as Jimmy Perry and Richard Dormer as David Croft. Back in 1967 Jimmy Perry was a struggling actor who had an idea. He wrote the first script for Fighting Tigers, a sitcom about members of the Home Guard back in World War 2. The title got changed by the Head Of BBC TV Comedy. It was a bit of a job to get the program into production. Some people liked it and ran with it. The TV controller isn't too keen on the show. He also won't let Jimmy act in the show. He almost left the show. David Croft is Jimmy's friend, the BBC hires him to help Jimmy write the first series. Over the years the two continued to work together. They wrote 8 more series of Dad's Army and then moved onto other TV sitcoms. They had a couple of hits with It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Hi-de-HI! but I don't think they were as popular as Dad's Army.

John Sessions plays Arthur Lowe and Julian Sands as John Le Mesurier. Both men do a nice job playing the characters, I could hardly see John under all the make up. I'm less familiar with most of the other cast members but they do a good job too. There's plenty of good sets and props. The room below is very like the original.

The show had plenty of things stacked against it, the hardest one to watch was Arthur Lowe struggling to remember his lines in rehearsal. Everyone was worried, there was talk of replacing him. Having just watched the series and knowing how good Arthur is in the role made his struggle all the more real. It's some of John Sessions better work. Somehow on the day they recorded the show it turned out all right. Lowe's Captain Mainwaring remains one of the most popular characters in the history of British Television. I enjoyed the program and was glad to have ordered one. It wasn't on YouTube so I took a chance and the gamble payed off.

The League Of Gentlemen Series 3

The 3rd Series of The League Of Gentlemen came out in September and October 2002 and there were 6 episodes. The stories in each episode all tie in together. Each episode is about a different character, or characters, and their story leads them to a corner in Royston Vasey where death is waiting.

It's a dangerous town, Royston Vasey, one where you might really never leave. It's also filled with some fucked up people who have problems that make you laugh. Hopefully. Some of the jokes might be a bit too much for the weak hearted or squeamish. I'm a bit of a sick fuck, so I got a few laughs from the show. I did like how they tied the stories up at the end. Nice bit of planning that went into that sequence.

Glad I'm watching the series, sad that it's mostly done. There will be some special and live shows yet to watch and there was just an announcement that the gang is planning a return to the series. Not much details and it will be a while. Oh, well, something to look forward to, perhaps.

What I Read In May 2016

May saw no increase in the number of books read over April. Only 8 titles again.

The Mystery Of The Bamboo Bird by Carolyn Keene is one of her less known Dana Girls Mysteries. It's version from 1960 and not the slightly rewritten book of the the second Dana Girls series. An Asian student at the boarding school the Dana Girls attend has her room ransacked and a little bamboo bird stolen. It leads the girls to Thailand where they solve the mystery of that little bamboo bird. Entertaining as always. I almost prefer the Dana Sisters to Nancy Drew, though they have an annoying character in one of the other girls at the school. I'm collecting the series. I have quite a few of them but still less than half the series. Not that I'm in a hurry.

Hello Mrs Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald is more of the short stories devoted to changing childish behavior by magic. It's turning out to be a dull series for me. I don't know what people liked about the series, all the stories are the same.

Bulldog Drummond by HC "Sapper" McNeile is the first novel of the series. I read it on my kindle. The whole series was free or 99 cents. I can't remember what I paid for them. McNeile wrote ten books in the series before he died in 1937, only the first 9 are in the 9 book set for the Kindle. Why do they do that? I suspect that the 10th book is still in copyright as the Kindle edition is $3.50. Very frustrating and I probably won't be buying it. After McNeile's death another man wrote 9 more books. I don't care much for the writing but the plot is fairly interesting. Bulldog Drummond and his gang of friends cross paths with a psycho criminal. Sadly "Sapper" rambles on in places describing things I don't need to know about. There's plenty of action, violence and murder. When I read it I was hoping the writing got better, in retro, it did but not by much. In someways I rather watch the Bulldog Drummond movies.

Mrs Piggle-Wiggle's Magic by Betty MacDonald is yet another in the series. It's going to go into the get rid of pile.

The House On The Borderland by William Hope Hodgson is another thing I got for the Kindle. It was free on Amazon but other places have it for free too. I know I read it back in the 70s but couldn't remember anything about it when I read it last year. I can't remember anything much about it now, a year later. Two English gentlemen on a fishing trip find an old weird house in rural Western Ireland. They find a journal in the damaged house and it recounts some strange tales of swine men from under the Earth's surface. The men try to find out more but there isn't much to learn and they leave the area. I didn't find it that horrible or anything like that. I doubt that I would read it again and it's making me think I might give a miss to some of the other Hodgson that's out there. 

Dagwood and Blondie's Adventure In Magic by Chic Young is a weird little thing. It's a1944 Whitman novel with Blondie and Dagwood of the newspaper comic strip. One site says that the book is a novelization of a story in the comic strip but I can't find any other info on that with a quick search. There doesn't seem to be a checklist of Blondie comic strip stories. Because of the format, novel over comic strip, it reminds me of the Blondie movies instead of the comic strip. The Bumsteads go see a magic show and Dagwood believes in Magic. Like it was real, magic. The whole story hinges on him believing that magic was real. It's 1944, were American's that dumb then? The rest of the plot involves some counterfeiters and Mr Dither's. That's Dagwood volatile boss. What an asshole that guy was. It's got a bit of humor and a few laughs but Dagwood is so stupid that it's troubling. More than just being a bungler, he's a out and out idiot. There are three other books in the series and they are all under 5 bucks each on Amazon. I doubt I'll be picking them up soon.

The Enormous Egg by Oliver Butterworth was a lot of fun. It's a bit slight, more a novella, but the story of a kid and his pet Triceratops was entertaining. I might have read this as a kid, it would have been the sort of book I would have picked up at the library.

The Illmoor Chronicles - The Shadewell Shenanigans by David Lee Stone is the third of the series. I like the series, there's some humor and plenty of silly antics. The main characters change from book to book but most of the action centers around the town of Dullitch. There's plenty of goofy characters and some evil shenanigans too. Like a lot of these book series I find I just wait until they fall into my lap, I can't waste any time on specifically hunting them down. It might be more efficient to get the last three from the library at this point. I've made myself a note.

Eight more books finished. That will pick up in the future.