Review thread
 

Your quicky reviews go here

I Love You, Man (theatre) - Really enjoyed it. Paul Rudd finds true bro-mance with Jason Segel. Many men have to answer this question, how to balance life with your best bud against time with your significant other. Segel does a remarkable job here, playing the man every 38-year-old wishes he could be, but with a precise level of restraint. Well done.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (on demand) - Basically, a high school fantasy flick: you wish your life was their life. That kid Michael Sera, who played an awkward teen in Superbad and an awkward teen in Juno, here plays an awkward teen. You separate his characters, I can't. The film is pretty formula, and I kept being taken out of it by realities. If you have the gear to play a club in Manhattan, you don't drive a Yugo and aren't Yugos just museum pieces by now? If you're an awkward teen how do you even drive into Manhattan at night, much less to play a club? Your friend is lost, drunk, in the city, and is your responsibility -- and you can still do light comedy? You found a parking place in the city??? I may be too old to enjoy this movie.

Hancock (DVD) - I knew from reviews that this was about a skid row bum who happens to have super powers and meets a PR guy who tries to get him cleaned up. And then there was supposed to be a crazy plot twist that critics weren't sure about. Well, I enjoyed this movie. The plot takes a path that is slightly different from the formulaic Hollywood movie I expected, and overall, it's a good one. As it's unfolding, I wasn't sure who/what to root for. You end up liking everyone in the movie, and enjoying the show. Charlize Theron looks different in just about every movie I've seen her in. She's a chameleon. Maybe I'm getting too old, but the special effects and stunts of the climactic battle scenes in movies are getting so elaborate and visually busy that they bore me now. The effects and stunts that lead up the the climax were good though. Speaking of climaxes, Hancock ejaculates with the force of a shotgun, which presents a unique challenge.

Cheating a bit as it was ages ago:
No Heroics.

ITV (our third channel out of five) isn't known for its comedies.
When it makes a good one, the celebrations rock the island.
This didn't seem to happen with this one, and yet it was the funniest thing I had seen in years. And Dani had to tell me about it! To my shame.

Every single episode had a laugh-out-loud moment, and given that I rarely laugh out loud at the TV (I do in person, or at books, or the theatre, just not at the dead screen) that's a big selling point.

Great character development. Reminded me of the stories I told my sister as a teen. And then told myself.

A bit of man on man (always yummy).

Some wonderful set pieces, and mostly verbal comedy (usually over a pub table).
I could imagine it as a radio comedy actually.
And that's my favourite sort. Blackadder, The League of Gentlemen (which was on radio to be fair, though it started as stand-up), Black Books etc etc etc... All very British, but I'll add Frasier to the mix. Every character in it does not have to be seen to be believed (I hate Friends though, because although the same applies they are caricatures, not characters).

Look it up on YouTube. If you can, watch it. It's funny.

BTW, I'm a word pervert. Wervert.

I like this thread. It has a good beat and you can dance to it.

Ohhh..not review thread, review thread. :p

It's kind of stiff to knit with and borderline scratchy as you unwind it, but it's soft and extremely durable after washing. Oh sorry, review thread.

SG, the one reason I recognize "ITV" is that their logo used to appear at the end of The Muppet Show!

Dexter.

Ok, I read aboutthis and thought it sounded a bit of a reach. Mainly that's because I had only skim read and had completely missed the point. I thne further missed the point when i caught a random five minutes of what looked remarkably like any other cop show.

Then i saw Michael C Hall in an interview and remembered who he was (from six feet under) and that actually he's a bloody good actor who rarely does screen work, mainly does theatre, and is highly unlikely to be in a project that doesn't have some artistic merit.

So, ok, I gave it a go. Watched the first episode and was very pleasantly surprised. Watched the second and thrid and it's now my favourite tv drama. I have to (have to!) read the books it was based on now.

It's deep, multi-levelled, beautifully written and directed, and the acting is stunning. It's dark and funny and tragic, hopeful and witty, and it gets under your skin like a good book. It demands something of its audience. It asks you to take a leap and then rewards you for doing so. It's one of the most intelligent programmes I've seen in a very long time.

The characters are 3 dimensional and varied. Structurally it is more novelistic than a serial usually is. One of the things I misunderstood about the show was its structure. It isn't a new set of the same things every week. It's an ongoing story, much like The Wire is ongoing. Much more engaging and compelling than a weekly case structure.

I'm now halfway through series two (about ten days after starting watching it) and my one fear after watching series one (that the premise wouldnt sustain across multiple series without becoming formulaic. or repetitive) has been more than allayed.

Stunning. I highly recommend anybody who hasnt seen it, watch this show. But watch it from the start, don't dip in because it builds in power and the shape of Dexter's internal landscape is important to understanding the show.

Watched this last night, my inital response, 'it's a story with a beginning, middle and end, just not the beginning middle and end of the same story'

Interesting idea, not too Hollywood formula, which is always a plus, plot pacing and character developemnet were poor and could have made it so much better.

Star Trek: as a fanboi, I was greatly pleased to see the renewal of these characters done so nicely; but especially Spock, possibly Roddenberry's greatest creation. The notion of a character that is 99% emotionless by nature of his race and culture is only permitted by the grace of science fiction, but has amazing implications for drama. The part of Spock that is emotional is the knife's edge inside the character, and they take full advantage of it in the film. Watching the actors "rebirth" the original characters is just fascinating, and the gritty action sequences are just a good enough canvas for it all to unfold. Couldn't be happier with the result, and bring on the next one soon please.

I can't wait to see it. I am so impressed with the actor they cast for Spock. The clips of him look eerily familiar lol.

On the whole, I thought the new Trek was great.

That being said, I think the new Spock is a little too emotional. 'Specially with Uhura. No objection to Kirk being a little more wild; there is enough change to his backplot to explain it. Spock, however, shares the exact same history as his counterpart -- where is the rationale for such a recharacterization?

Can't really say more without spoilers, so I'll let it go at that.

The way I read it (in an article about the film) Spock struggled in his youth with his human (emotional) side. By the time we see Spock in the tv series, he's reached his compact between the two sides of himself, temporarily as it then turned out.

This is set before he has reached that compact. When he is still struggling with his human side.

I saw it yesterday and I thought it was amazing. The casting was spot on. They did a great job of playing the existing characters in recognizable fashion without simply doing impersonations. I thought Bones' speech patterns were perfect.

I'm already looking forward to the new one.

Is Star Trek kid friendly for a 9yo who can handle a lot of action? I'd love to take li'l Beestie but don't want to spend half the movie holding a popcorn box in front of his eyes like I had to do in Beowolf. Boy, was that a mistake.

I havent seen beowulf. What was it that wasn't suitable?

The opening scene when Grendel dismembered about 20-30 Viking dudes complete with arms and heads getting torn off... Yikes - I was scrambling with that popcorn box I tell ya.

Ouch. Yeah. That sounds pretty gruesome.

Nah, it should be okay for a reasonable 9yo. There's one very brief sex scene, but it's nothing that isn't on tv every night anyway. Lotsa action, not much blood.

Typical Trek... thats good to hear. I'm excited to go see it.

Up - Pixar's latest is not only a technical achievement, but an awesome story. It's funny, touching, beautiful, exciting, stunning. Everyone must see, preferably a late showing that doesn't have any kids in the audience. They have not marketed this thing well but it may be the best film of the year.

I haven't seen it (yet,) but my mom did and said she cried.

That's the way I looked at it too, Dana.

I really shouldn't skim-read posts... WTF kind of sex scenes do you watch?

:confused: They're both in underpants. No nudity... That's on primetime on most networks.

I've recently got back into Ideal (BBC sitcom). I loved the first two series then fell off it (probably had essays to write) and somehow in the few minutes my head was turned away they've snuck up to series bloody 5!

Here's a clip if you're interested. The central character is a small time pot dealer (Moz). The action all takes place in and around Moz's flat in Salford (town of my birth, so I feel a particular affection). His main supplier is your friendly neighbourhood policeman (Moz's best friend who is, as it happens, shagging his bird on the sly). It's mainly fairly straight comedy...but occasionally gets a little surreal. Cartoon Head is a very strange character.

I like this programme because without ever giving in entirely to gritty realism, and containing as it does a very strange and heightened version of the world, it's nonetheless one I recognise. The nick-names are sooo typical of where I come from. Strange and exaggerated as they are, these people remind me an awful lot of the crowd I used to hang with back in Bolton: Nutty Paul and his girlfriend, Little Anji, Nervous Pete, Mad Sharon, Fingers, Maximillian. Happy (well, alright, not so much happy as bloody miserable and sinking down into a mire, but you get the point) and strange days. Playing with powders and pills.

Moz's flat is so much like the flats we'd loll about in. Nutty Paul's basement flat mainly. The comings and goings of it. I recognise this world.



This is from an early series, before it started to get really strange.



And this is also before it got really strange. Psycho Paul is ace in this. The one who looks a little like one of the Beatles.

Humour status: fail.

I was working on the angle, how much blood do you see in a regular sex scene?

Australia (the movie)

I was disappointed with this movie. I think the reason it wasn't the epic it was touted as is because there was too much humour and too much of the whole hollywood feel and not enough of the usual arthousey feel we find so much of in great Aussie flicks.

For my mind, if this movie had been made purely as a drama and the characters had been less corny it had the potential to be a great movie.

It was entertaining, but not one I'd bother watching over and over again.

eta: I also think it would have done better with lesser known lead actors.

Oh that's a shame. I had high hopes for that film. I'll still give it a watch though.

The script was written by Baz Leurhman (sp?) and he also directed and produced it. I think old Baz has become too commercial since he started winning awards, and it is my belief that this is the crux of the problems for this movie. there's just really nothing unexpected in it, but it's a nice love story, and there's some beautiful cinematography in there.

re: Australia - I thought it was a very mediocre movie at best. Kidman has been really poor in her last few movies and aside from Hugh Jackman being (I'm told) good looking, there wasn't a whole lot of acting going on there either.
The scenery was beautiful though.

Depends on the time of the month.

I actually really liked Australia. It felt a bit like a guilty pleasure, though. Nicole Kidman looked stunning. Yeah, it was corny, but entertaining.