Well, I realise I have not posted for a while (not that I am deluding myself that there are people out there hanging on my every word - are there?), so as I have not seen many movies recently, I thought I would go back to the vault of memory and retrieve some more shows from the past...
7. Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
Perhaps an obvious choice really, for someone as keen on the genre as I. It had the lot - big space battles, corny humour (they had alien races called the Gerkhins and the Kiwi!), cool spaceships, great the
me song full of cliches (click the link to a weird DJ mix), some early CGI and featuring the voice talents of the fabulous Jerry Orbach. Who could ask for anything more - besides more than two series perhaps?
Influences: I think my love of Sci-Fi was well and truly established by this point, but it was very good to have it reinforced by such a totally cool show.
DVD: Two series, both at Amazon. So, so tempting...
8. Dungeon & Dragons
It took me a long time before I actually started to play the game itself, and I don't think I ever really abandoned myself to it as much as some others have (perhaps the lapsed Catholic in me keeping Satan at bay), but the TV series of Dungeons & Dragons (that came up on the Amazon search for Galaxy Rangers, oddly enough) was something I really loved. I remember Steve Parr and the rest of the "dawn years" of What Now getting in the way of this show, as TVNZ broke up the cartoon in installments throughout What Now's two hour running time, and sometimes across Saturdays (yes, What Now used to be on a Saturday, once upon a time). The resulting confusion on my young brain meant that I either missed crucial episodes, or else just forgot the story line, meaning I was left with hints of greatness but never really "got" the overarching story (if there was one of course). It is only by the miracle of YouTube that I even know what the opening credits look like.
Influences: It started my obsession with recording TV methinks - not wanting to miss an unmissable moment!
DVD: Note sure why, but Dungeons & Dragons is more expensive than Galaxy Rangers - though it does have an awesome cover. Very keen to buy it and finally see an entire episode in all its glory, but perhaps not for over NZ$100.
9. Fangface
And finally for this one, more from a memory of an old Olly Olsen song than anything else. Fangface - back before vampires became "the thing", it was Werewolves (or is it more correct to call them Lycans, these days?). The image that comes up on Amazon makes the show look like it was drawn on an incredibly small, probably Hanna Barbera cartoon budget, and quite possibly its humour bears a striking resemblance to Scooby Doo of the same era (in that it appealed at the time, but probably not any more). For some reason, I seem to recall they were even lumbered with a Scrappy Doo-ish character too. Perhaps.
Influences: Well, Olly Olsen was the coolest, and he made it cool. The show itself though? Phfah
DVD: No. And no.
Verdict: The memories keep coming - and soon, I will be into double digits...
As befits my lefto-pinko-lezzo-commo leanings, I am a fan of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Not all of it mind, but definitely the sentiment and most of the humour.
Last night (NZ time) the show featured an interview with an MSNBC finance "guru", and the resulting discussion (perhaps polemic is a better term?) was very interesting, if at times painful.
Here are the links in 3 parts:
1. Jon Stewart & Jim Cramer 1
2. Jon Stewart & Jim Cramer 2
3. Jon Stewart & Jim Cramer 3
It was a very serious, weighty discussion on media responsibility or lack thereof, and I thought it was incredibly brave and creditable that Jim Cramer showed to discuss this in what he must have known would have been a hostile environment. If only one of the corporate big wigs who apparently lied to Jim Cramer on several occasions would have the same temerity to front up for their actions in something other than a court of law.
Verdict: It smacks a bit of "I told you so", but really, it seems about time the tables were turned. Rivetting viewing. 9 interviews out of 10.
I have been waiting for Watchmen to come out for a while. I read the comic a while ago, loved it, bought it myself fairly recently, and waited for the movie with a combination of hopeful anticipation and mild dread. Some, like the Moosetastic, have already viewed and digested this film. But will I let that stop me from adding my two cents? NE-VAH!
Visually, the film is an absolute feast. It looks sumptuous, in a dark, wet and depressing way, full of fire and water and not many bright sunny days. People explode in bloody ways, non-super powered individuals show remarkable strength, and there is a lot of voiceovers.
Okay, I am now going to say things I thought I wouldn't. The film is (for the most part) very close to the book, the individual characters uttering many lines that I am sure come directly from the source material, and some scenes play out in a motion picture fashion in exactly the same way the static pictures of the graphic novel are laid out.
And... for me, that was a bit of a problem. For me, the pacing of the film was hindered by its slavish sticking to its comic book origins, mixed with a desire to ground the film squarely in the 80s with the use of lots of period songs to drive and carry scenes. The opening credit sequence, putting the heroes of this made up world in their context, takes an awfully long time when it could have been covered much more quickly and perhaps a bit more illuminatingly. And throughout the film, the past of the Watchmen themselves is revealed through voice-overed flashbacks, much like how they appear in the novel, but this again keeps things moving fairly glacially, and also does not really allow the characters to develop much of a rapport amongst themselves as they are not having conversations but rather monologues for most of the film.
The character of Rorschach is the best of the bunch as the flawed yet driven sociopath (the scenes in jail are rivetting); the two Silk Spectres are not given a huge amount to do and their final scenes together are fairly painful. The characters are not really the thing though - the story is, and there is not much to fault considering how complex and entangled it is with all the different characters and both their back stories and the stories of the world in which they reside. I don't recall Richard Nixon appearing quite as often as in the comic, but they obviously thought they were on to a winner with the actor, so they ran with it. And as for Dr Manhatten's nudity - I am sure the scenes they showed on the telly were different from the ones we saw on the big screen
Overall, I did enjoy the 3-hour long film, though I was perhaps a bit jaded by my familiarity with the material and so none of the complicated twists and turns were much of a surprise to me. The crew I was with were mostly impressed by the film, unfamiliar as they were with the source, so perhaps it was the expectations I brought with me that let me down.
Verdict: Definitely a good film, deep and complex, dark and violent, but told (to me) in a fairly cold and distant way, when the opportunity was to bring some life to the two dimensional images from the ground breaking graphic novel. Watchmen deserves to be watched, preferably on the big screen. 9 hours out of 12.
I won't take credit for being inspired in writing this post, as that should really go to the Fisherman, but I will just write a note about the new-look Stuff site. You may have already seen it, And you probably already hate it.
I am sure Fairfax went through an "update" a few years ago along much the same lines, and that never took. But now they have tried it again, citing improved features and more white space. I think that the designers have kind of missed the point really - "more white space" = more space and thus more scrolling; "more functions" = more customisation = more time spent fiddling with things you don't want to fiddle with when you were quite happy with things how they were before.
Judging from the comments on the site and around the place, this is a noble yet ultimately futile experiment. While it does "look prettier", I find it almost completely user unfriendly, and of course it takes ages to load properly.
So let me ask the great blogging public - does anyone actually like the new site?
Verdict: Well, what can I say, I really don't like it, and it appears many other people don't either. But the real question is, will Fairfax relent and go back to the way Stuff was? And how much time will tell? Two online papers out of ten.
There are plenty of shows from childhood that I do dimly recall, but have obviously not made that huge an impression on me. Thanks to those who, in Part 1, reminded me of some other "classic" shows from the past, ones that I had almost forgotten, though with your prodding, I now have glimmerings of recognition:
4. Secret Valley
Okay, so I will admit that I always kind of remember Secret Valley, the kiddie drama where bad boy Spider and his gang picked on the namby pamby do-gooders in the Secret Valley. It was tribal warfare in 80s Australia, with ignorant parents running around unaware of the sly deceptions and intrigues going on around them.
Well, at least, that is how I remember it. Unfortunately, I think I more accurately recall the theme song, which was sung to the tune of "Waltzing Matilda" by a bunch of screaming children - nowhere near as cult classicy as the Lost Islands theme song.
Influences: Well, I think at the time I thought it was a super cool show full of super cool kids doing super cool things. I don't think I ever started an underground resistance cell to battle other kids though.
DVD: No sign. And I don't think I will go out looking
5. Voyagers!
Until Morgan pointed this one out, I had forgotten I ever knew it. Voyagers was basically Quantum Leap for kids. A man with a time travel device shows up one day and whisks a young boy away back in time in 
space. Today, this kind of show would come with parental warnings that one should never let small children be whisked away by strangers of any persuasion, time travelling do gooders or no.
I seem to recall this was a fairly entertaining series, though tended to get stuck in the pioneering USA, though that perhaps is really not that surprising.
Influences: Again, none that I can recall (I loved Dr Who way before I remember liking this one), though I do recall the lead actor died after the creation of the first season by accidentally shooting himself with blanks (which are still lethal when playing Russian roulette), so a second series was never made.
DVD: Voyagers is available from Amazon at a fairly reasonable price, though considering my nostalgia priorities, I may save up for one of the more unreasonably priced series.
6. The Kids from O.W.L.
Right, let me be honest here and say I recall almost nothing about the Kids from O.W.L. and not even the power of the Internet was really able to jog memories other than people with walking stick guns, and that the series was Kiwi made. And that's all I really have to say.
Influences: I always love a good secret society with nifty gadgets and a sense of humour. No idea if any of these joys were in any shape formed by this show, but I just thought I would mention it.
DVD: Are you kidding? TVNZ has only just released a version of Under the Mountain (I am still waiting for Children of the Dog Star), so a really obscure show that did not have a global kidult following has very little chance of ever ending up on DVD (Dare! Dare!). And yes, those two other shows will be mentioned in a later edition of this post...
Verdict: Some more obscure shows that I really have little chance or perhaps even desire to really relive. It would be interesting to see them again, but I am in the camp that these ones will really not withstand a cynical, jaded view from a person no longer under the age of 10. 45 reminiscences out of 80.
I had to go to Bienvenue Chez Les Ch’tis (Welcome to the Sticks). I could not make it when it screened at the International Film Festival last year, so I have been hanging out for this film for around 9 months. And in the end, the wait was well worth it.
The concept of the film isn’t really one I usually go for (a mild mannered slap stick kind of comedy), but go to the film I had to nonetheless. Not only is it a French film, and the highest grossing film in France ever, but also (and more importantly) my Aunt has a small yet memorable part as a northern local.
The premise of the film is that the people in the sunny south of France (or perhaps all over the country) see the north as a cultural wasteland of ice-covered fields and crazy people (well, it is close to England). Therefore, when the lead character, Philippe, is posted to the far-flung north of the country, away from the warm Mediterranean climate of his home, he wraps up in polar survival gear and heads, with a heavy heart and a light foot on the accelerator, to the Nord Pas de Calais.
This has a special resonance for me, as my French side of the family is all from that region (so my Aunt was playing a character not too far removed from her own experience). Of course, when Philippe arrives, he finds that everyone talks with a funny accent (perhaps ironic, considering “Parisian French” is the standard, not an accent from the south), they have peculiar customs and appalling weather, most of which are either caused or solved (or both) through the liberal imbibing of local and foreign alcohol.Philippe’s wife pictures life in the north as a living hell, so remains in the south worried for her north-dwelling husband. So Philippe, whose relationship with his wife has never been stronger now that they are apart, is in no rush to dissuade her of that impression, even as he finds himself acclimatising to the northern lifestyle.
So there is really nothing new to the story. It follows the conceit that people perceive that other people and places are less civilised than themselves (e.g., Wellington v the Hutt Valley or KapitiCoast; Auckland v the rest of the country), though this film capitalises on the differences that centuries of regional differences have produced, even in a country as centralised as France. The film’s popularity can probably be attributed to that celebration of “true France”, in much the same way films about rural or “old” New Zealand are seen as more Kiwi than more modern, urban-based entertainment (with the notable exception of Outrageous Fortune, of course). My favourite scenes in the film are when the wife finally visits the north, and the elaborate charade the locals go through to convince her that the north really is horrible are accepted by her without a single sceptical thought.
So, in the end, the film actually thrives on prejudice. The whole point is that other people are odd and different – and that is between peoples of the same nation. But, of course, the film eventually becomes a celebration of those differences, the mocking becoming gentle, the alien mannerisms becoming eccentricities from the norm. Overall, it’s a fun film with a message of acceptance at its heart, and if Welcome to the Sticks is the most popular film in France ever, then that is definitely a good thing.
Verdict: It has all been done a thousand times before, but this French take is done well, its distinctly Gallic flavour enhancing its underlying universal message. Two colours out of three.
I have been a fan of Kevin Smith films for a long while now. Since Clerks, way back when, I have been along to almost every film he has put together (I was never quite brave enough to try and see Jersy Girl). So it was only natural that I had to go and see Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Having Seth Rogan as the titular Zack just added to the film's appeal (to me at least; his deadpan, baritone delivery almost always has me in hysterics), and in the end, I was not disappointed.
Sure, there were slow bits, and there were some bits that were so blatantly gross as to be unfunny. But, on the whole, Elizabeth Banks and the aforementioned Seth were incredibly amusing and engaging, and they carried me through the lows to the more frequent highs.
But they were not the star of the show. No, for me, the cameo by quintessential "geek" Justin Long, as porn star Brandon St. Randy, was definitely the best performance of the show. His insane descriptions of his and his boyfriend's sex life (especially in the "hidden extra" during the end credits) were completely over the top and delivered in a deep, gravelly voice I would not have thought him capable of producing. His boyfriend Bobby (played with hilarious silent suffering by new Supes Brandon Routh) was the perfect foil for St. Randy's over-elaborate descriptions of exactly what they saw in each other.
There were many other familiar faces in this flick, including some old Clerks stars, as well as a few from the 40 Year Old Virgin stable. The "best friends get together" story was fairly straight forward, but the dialogue lifted it from the usual while still keeping the characters sympathetic and likeable. Smith may not be the greatest director in the world, but he gets some great performances out of actors and his scripts always sparkle.
So, as you may be able to tell, I really enjoyed this movie. It hit all the right notes at just the right time. It also allowed me to experience Sky City's Cinema DeLuxe for the first time, and really, it was all worth it.
Verdict: Zack and Miri Make a Porno is a huge amount of fun with lots of great performances. not for everyone, but then, it's not really supposed to be. If you enjoy the absurd amongst some great dialogue and performances, then you will enjoy this. 9 Xs out of 10.
me song full of cliches (click the link to a weird DJ mix), some early CGI and featuring the voice talents of the fabulous Jerry Orbach. Who could ask for anything more - besides more than two series perhaps?
