DVD: MONSTERS (2010)

Now this is a movie which has been getting a lot of praise on the movie websites I frequent (horror, sf, cult, etc) for being a thoughtful SF (and it is science fiction, not horror) film with an astonishingly low budget but looks as if it was made for a hundred times its actual cost.

One of the reasons is that there are only two professional actors in the whole thing. The rest are all bit parts by locals, mostly not even actors, the director (also writer and director of photography) encountered in his journey through Latin American countries like Belize, Guatamala, etc, but mostly Mexico which is supposedly where it's set. The crew itself only totalled six people so it's almost guerrilla film-making. Given that, it really is amazing how good it looks. 

The plot is quite simple as is the basic premise. Alien material arrives on earth from a crashed space probe and develops into large nomadic aliens that are, except when attacked, only accidentally destructive. Half of Mexico has been quarantined and a huge wall across the USA-Mexican border constructed. US aircraft are constantly flying bomber missions against the aliens but are failing to contain them. Against this background, a photo-journalist is given the job of getting his boss's daughter back to the States. That last sentence, by the way, was the plot. Firstly they try to get to the coast to board a ship but when that fails they go on a risky trip through the Infected Zone.

Mostly the monsters -which are just alien animals having about as much malevolence as an elephant- are kept in the background but are extremely effective when they aren't. The focus is on the slowly growing relationship between the two protagonists against a background of destruction and it works very well.

The Daily Mirror is quoted on the box as calling it "thrilling, action packed, and totally original." Well, two out of three aint bad. It isn't action packed and some viewers have been put off by the sometimes slow pace. I wasn't because it's about a journey, both physical and emotional. Don't go expecting a Godzilla kaiju-type movie and you should have a good time. This is an extremely effective little movie.

DVD: THE BURROWERS

A minor horror movie which is refreshingly different. Set in the Dakota Territories in 1879, one family is butchered and another kidnapped by, it is assumed, Indians.  Two groups join together to track the missing families down. One is led by the local sheriff (William Mapother, an actor whom Tom Cruise calls cousin) who had been courting a widow and takes her 16 year old son with him, and the Irish immigrant (Karl Geary) who'd been courting one of the missing, and several others. A cavalry captain leads the other group which includes a half-Indian scout and their cook, a freed slave.

It quickly becomes obvious to viewer that the real culprits weren't the Indians (and if it was this would be a western not a horror film and I wouldn't be watching it) but creatures which live underground. We find out later that they used to live on buffalo but since the whites killed the buffalo in their hundreds of thousands, the creatures have taken to human meat, starting with the Indians and now moving on to the whites.

One of the good things about this film is the characterisation. It's an ensemble piece with no obvious hero and few of the characters are, and please excuse the expression as it's completely inappropriate given the context, whiter than white. Some, like the cavalry captain are blatantly racist and brutal whose attitude to Indians is simply kill them but torture if possible. But even the best of them are at least self-serving and callous or short-sighted. They aren't a particularly nice bunch, just very human really, but they are interesting and the script is well-served by decent actors.

There isn't much in the way of gore but it is deeply brutal and grim in tone which is even better. The creatures are used often but mostly just briefly glimpsed in their appearances until near the end. They are also very effectively done.

All in all, this is a neat, effective and different horror thriller.

BIRTH OF A KITTEN IN PHOTOGRAPHS

The following photos speak for themselves. But for the story behind them plus a few more pictures, check out my Cat Rescuing blog.

DRIVING: THE ACCIDENT THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

This has been expanded from its Cat Rescuing blog appearance.

 

First I'd picked up a cat from Millfield which was to have its stitches out at Roker Park vets near the sea front. First though to Southwick on the other side of the river to pick up Carol and a cat. Once done at the vets, we dropped the Millfield cat off home then went round the corner to Pallion to pick up the cats and kitten mentioned above. From there back across the river to Downhill on the far northern edge of the city to drop off cat food with a fosterer, before returning Carol home. And all this at a time of high traffic density.

I'd got through most of the city centre and was in the dual carriageway which bypassed Park Lane bus station. There is a set of pedestrian operated traffic lights about twenty yards before a set of standard automatic lights. I was in the left hand lane behind two cars as I approached the first set and could see ahead past the next set that there were parked cars. So I pulled into the right hand lane and stopped at the automatic lights. I was just pulling away on green when I noticed in my rear view mirror that a person was collapsed in the road next to the lights immediately behind me. I did briefly wonder if I'd caused the accident and not noticed but thought that firstly, someone would have tried to attract my attention as there were several other cars and people around, and secondly that I'd have heard or felt any collision. So, as I hadn't seen anything, I drove off.

But the farther I drove the more I wondered if it could have been me. I told Susan when I got home and she immediately and correctly said I should go back. She drove me there and I found the person still on the ground, several police cars and officers milling around. I approached two officers and explained the situation. They'd only just arrived but were pretty sure it had nothing to do with me. They took my details and thanked me.

And that was it. But I was quite tired at the time after nearly two and a half hours of driving around. You never know...

The reason I thought it might have been me is related to something which happened a few weeks ago. I'd been calling on Carol, the lady who looks after the cats for us, as I often do, but was in a hurry to get home. I checked the mirror and reversed in a curve so that the van was backed up onto the opposite pavement. Then into first and a right turn to the street's exit.

When I got home, Susan told me that Carol had rang. Apparently I nearly hit a woman and child who had been walking along the pavement and that I stopped just inches from a little girl. Despite checking the mirror, I hadn't seen them. I'd looked but not seen. This is actually in line with psychological experiments which proved that we often don't see what we aren't expecting.

Frankly, it scared the crap out of me.

TV/DVD: CHUCK SEASON 3.

 

Given my recent frothing at the mouth at how brilliant Season 2 was, Season 3 had a lot to live up to but didn't quite make it, though not through lack of trying.

To be fair to the production team, they keep re-inventing Chuck so that the show stays fresh but without losing the charm and whimsy that it started out with. At the beginning of this season, Chuck has downloaded the Intersect v.2 which allows him to draw on martial arts skills. This is fair enough except for one logical flaw (and I know complaining about logic in a series like Chuck is taking it a bit too seriously). But this flaw was pointed out in an issue of the Justice League of America (or it might have been the Avengers) when a non-powered martial artist hero points out to the villain, who can do what Chuck now does, that knowing how to do something, even with the mindset of skills, doesn't make them the superior or equal of an opponent because their body hasn't endured the years of training. So I've a bit of a grouch about that.

Season 2 was also heaven in terms of its guest stars for fans of cult TV and movies (see post). Season 3, not so much.

That aside, I still pretty much loved it. The relationship between Chuck and Sarah takes a nosedive but rebounds spectacularly to resolve the problem I had with the first series. I compared it to Castle and the sexual tension between the two leads which remains exactly the same after four seasons and doesn't really matter much, it's just part of the show which itself is so light, Chuck is Chekhov in comparison. This time around as the series progresses so does Chuck and Sarah's relationship. 

Superspy Daniel Shaw (Brandon Routh -excellent) takes over the team and makes Chuck jealous and Casey (Adam Baldwin) isn't too happy about it. Kristin Kreuk appears in a 4-episode arc as Chuck's new love interest and she's probably the only guest star whose role is refreshingly just what it seems. 

The season builds and gets very dark towards the end where some of Chuck's friends and relations become involved with the team and our heroes (Chuck, Sarah, and Casey) are on the run from the government. (There are also surprising revelations about Casey.) The way things were going it looked as if Chuck was turning into The Fugitive and I was damn near nibbling my nails about what was going to happen next (this, incidentally, is hyperbole but at least I didn't write- I was on the edge of my seat -even if I was.)

All in all, more great stuff. Now I have  to wait until autumn when Season 4 arrives on DVD.

CINEMA: X-MEN FIRST CLASS

So, here we have it: the movie origin of the X-Men.

1944 and ten year old Charles Xavier meets the even younger Raven/Mystique in his mansion where she's broken in to steal food and becomes his foster-sister. At the same time, the Jewish child Erik Lensherr is mentally tortured and brutalised by concentration camp commandant (who later assumes the alias of) Sebastian Shaw into developing his mutant powers. 1962 and Charles has just received his PhD when he meets CIA agent Moira McTaggert and they begin working together. Erik has been hunting and killing escaped Nazis in his quest to find and kill Shaw (who shot his mother in front of him). They meet and begin working together along with young genius scientist Hank McCoy. Learning that Shaw (who is a mutant) has his own gang of mutant killers, the two friends look for and find their own gang of young mutants, two of whom are right on their doorstep. And the scene is set for the true story of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 where we learn how Erik became Magneto and Charles became a cripple and founded his school for mutants.

So, is it any good?

There are two answers to that. The first is from the general cinema goer's point of view, that is someone who isn't steeped in X-Men lore but likes a good super-hero/sf type of movie. It's not bad, easy enough to follow and despite the number of characters all are quite identifiable, a little talky perhaps, but with good special effects, good acting and some spectacular scenes. Just one thing: by the end of the X3, Charles Xavier and Magneto would have to be 80something and they look nothing like it. Probably a 7/10, worth seeing but maybe not a second time.

From the X-Men fan: Arrrgghhh!!

Okay, it's sorta consistent with Stan and Jack's (that's Lee & Kirby) original comics which came out at that time, but they changed things that were better off not being changed. Moira McTaggert was a Scottish scientist but I suppose this version suits the plot better and she (Rose Byrne) does have chemistry with McAvoy. The original Banshee was a mature Irishman only a little younger than Xavier, not an American teen, and was a better character for it; at least they get the costume right. I can live with Mystique being Prof X's foster sister at a stretch. But Hank McCoy was never a skinny kid. He was always big and boisterous even if that did hide a sensitive nature, and the hairy makeup was crap in X3 and it's crap here. Nick Hoult, good actor though he is, was totally wrong for the part. On the other hand, James McAvoy is great as Xavier with his gentle humour and humanity and, in great counterpoint, Irish (not German, Roger Ebert) actor Michael Fassbender is just as good as proto-Magneto, all ruthless intensity and bitterness. January Jones is suitably sexy as Emma Frost. The best bit though just might be Wolverine's ten second cameo. There are also lots of in-references for the fan to pick up on. So, good but could have been better.

And both points of view are pretty much how I feel about it.

TV: DR WHO EPISODE 7, THE MID-SEASON FINALE (JUNE 2011)

(Okay, publicity photo from the beginning of this season because I couldn't find one of Saturday's episode.)

Let's start with this:

The mid-season finale was the best episode ever of Dr.Who.

No, I'm not exaggerating, I really believe it is. I've watched it twice in two days and really want to make it three in three. Absolutely brilliant and I'm going to tell you why.

In a nutshell, it was a human story about people relating to the Doctor. It was a terrific ensemble piece from a range of actors who gave it their all in their well-written supporting roles. The Doctor is hunting down the kidnapped Amy Pond and the TARDIS is spinning through space and time picking up allies who have reason to help him. It opens with Amy talking to her newborn baby, telling her how her father is coming to rescue her. This intercuts with Cybermen on a warship panicking as an intruder gets through their defences. The language Amy uses suggests someone powerful and unstoppable and it is. "I have a question and I have a message from the Doctor. The question is: where is my wife?" Yes, it's macho centurion sword-wielding Rory and he's standing in front of a bank of screens showing the Cybermen's fleet. They prevaricate and ask what the message is. Rory glares at them as, behind him, their fleet is blown apart. "Now, shall I ask the question again?"

Whoah, what an opening. Incredibly, it gets better. Amy is being held by some sort of religion-based army assisted by a group called (with good reason it turns out) the Headless Monks. One soldier is a young woman who was saved by the Doctor as a child on a forest world and has joined the army, not to fight him, but in hopes she'll meet him again. In her spare time she crafts a piece of cloth, a prayer leaf, with the baby's name on in her language and she attempts to make friends with an angry Amy.

Meanwhile the TARDIS is picking up allies and what an amazing bunch they are. Found on a future battlefield is the warlike Sontaran who is doing penance as a nurse (he can even lactate) and whose dying words are: "I've had a good life. I'm twelve, you know." No, that isn't a tear in my eye, honest. Then there's the bluff burly blue wheeler and dealer, employed by the bad guys, who thinks he can wheel and deal his way out of anything. In Victorian London a female Silurian has just killed Jack the Ripper with a katana. When asked by her maid/assistant/(by a look and oblique dialogue) lover, how he was, the reply is, "Stringy but quite palatable." (I demand a series about these two!) Rory turns up to enlist River Song who says she won't come until the end as this is the day he learns who she is. (Have you guessed who she is yet? I did.)

The Doctor arrives with allies and an army (including Spitfires) and sweeps all before him to rescue Amy and her baby Melody. It is the hour of his greatest triumph and, it's been prophesied, his greatest failure. He gives Amy and Rory a cradle which was his own and we finally learn not only the identity of River Song but the Doctor's true name. 

But now we find out he's been tricked again and the same way. Even as he learns of it,the Headless Monks return and hack their way through his allies. The Monks lose but at a cost and only a handful are still standing to pick up the pieces. While the Doctor jumps in the TARDIS to hunt down the missing child, River Song shows Amy Lorna's prayer leaf and the translated name of her baby. They had no word for 'pond' so it was translated as 'river' and 'melody' as... Yes, even though I'd guessed it I was still tearing up.

This is an enormously rich episode containing several of the most powerful themes of literature: power and downfall; the abduction of a child; sacrifice; role reversals (a nurse becoming a warrior and a warrior becoming a nurse) and more. It's also an episode full of minutiae, of brief but affecting character beats. It really is just amazing.

And then there is the unanswered question: the bad guys stole the baby (who is also the young girl from the season's beginning) to use as a weapon against the doctor -why? Something implied is that maybe they aren't the bad guys. Perhaps the Doctor's greatest fall is yet to come. And what's happened to baby Melody/River Song (and we may know her identity now but we don't know who she is).

This is the best episode of Dr Who yet. And this series of Dr Who has been the best ever. A major cult TV landmark without question.

This is the ending:

River Song stands, holding out her arms (hopefully, expectantly?) to her younger mother, and says, "It's me, Melody."

PHOTOGRAPHY: SECOND THOUGHTS

One of my favourites pictures from yesterday's post was of the two cats on the stairs. However, I realised it could be improved by cropping it even more, but from the right, to remove the stairness of the stairs. Doing this removes the perspective of ascending height to create a series of flat levels.

Here's the original version and below the slightly more cropped version.

I think this is much more eye-catching because it removes the obvious context.

PHOTOGRAPHY: TAKING BAD PICTURES

I take a lot of photographs but I wouldn't dare call myself a photographer. Hell, I'm not really interested in photography as a hobby, though I can appreciate it as an art and as a skill, the aesthetic aspect of it. What I do is take snaps. Of cats. And any other animal I encounter along the way too. But as someone who spends a fair chunk of his time involved in cat rescuing, what I photograph is cats.

I do this for two reasons. I just like looking at cats and at images (still or moving, whatever) of cats. I want to keep a photographic record of all the cats we're involved in helping. I don't keep notes on them all, I just take snaps.

Taking a decent, or even a less than mediocre, photo of a cat is a hard thing to do because they can be constantly in motion and even when seeming relaxed or asleep, they can be moving in a fraction of a second. It's even harder as I take many pictures in small areas such as cages and from awkward angles, where it's impossible to achieve anything remotely aesthetically pleasing. 

Today, however, I actually managed to take something I consider the best cat photograph I have ever taken. I'd picked up and brought a couple of cats over to Carol who looks after our rescued cats. As usual, I stopped to chat and make a fuss of any kittens she was keeping in the house and of the various cats, some permanent, some up for re-homing, and she has quite a few of them. Her house is also immaculately clean, predominantly white with some wood grain lino for contrast. I didn't have a lot of time but there were no distractions so I took the opportunity to try for some more considered shots than usual. Below are a handful of my favourites. I've done some cropping with Picassa but that's all; indeed I'm not capable of much more than that when it comes to altering photographs. Maybe I should look round for an evening class sometime.

I deliberately tried to get a triangular shape for this one. It would be better if the tails were all in shot.

Using some judicious cropping, I've managed to get this lovely friendly little girl in the focus of a narrow frame.

I like this one for the vertical frame and how the animals are all at different heights and with lots of long straight lines. Stop me if I'm being pretentious.

 

Only a small thin crop down the left hand side here. A cat on every step would have been wonderful. And impossible.

Saving the best till last, I love the sheer simplicity of this. Unlike the others, there is not the smallest extraneous detail. Just the cat and the lino.

I'm putting all these and a few more minus text up on my cat rescuing blog.

MUSIC (RETROSPECTIVE): PATTI SMITH: LAND and PENETRATION: THE BEST OF PENETRATION

I think I mentioned in another post that we'd recently been sorting out the garage where, among much else but not a car, I stored many of my books, CDs, DVDs, and graphic novels. In the process I found two boxes of CDs which I hadn't seen for a few years and were buried at the bottom of the piles of boxes of other stuff. Much of it hadn't been copied onto my Itunes and, in turn, my Ipod so I spent a couple of days doing just that, adding over 2,000 tracks. I also took the opportunity to weed through and add a whole lot to sell on Amazon Marketplace. along with a few DVDs, books, and graphic novels of which I'll be adding more over the coming weeks.

One of the CDs I particularly missed was this one because I think Patti Smith is/was one of Rock's greats. Some people believe, including me at times, that she's a pretentious twat. The two aren't mutually exclusive -just check out Babelogue/ Rock'n'Roll Nigger- and I think she's produced some absolutely fantastic music. The track(s) I've just cited are a perfect example. Opening with a poem/rant, apparently live with her seeming to sometimes stumble over words, as it builds in pace towards the end, the band comes in fast but at first low until it finally segues at a pace like a bat out of hell (sorry) into the song in which (and I have to use the word because of the context of the song no matter how revolting I find it) niggers are used as a metaphor for the outsider figure in which she names  Jesus, Jackson Pollock and Jimi Hendrix as niggers 'outside of society'.

The first CD is a good collection of her more accessible work, mostly recogniseable rock songs and mainly from the 70's, including her big hit co-written with Bruce Because the Night. To list the standouts would be list pretty much all the tracks so I'll just say it ends with a rather lovely and subdued cover of Prince's When Doves Cry. 

Unlike CD1 which was chosen by her fans, the tracks on the second are her choices and unsurprisingly are much more idiosyncratic, not worse just different. It opens with Piss Factory, not so much a song as a spoken monologue with piano and bass accompaniment. After that is a chunkachunkachunka Redondo Beach. A little later is a no compromises rock live 25th Floor. Folkie, hard rock, poetry, jazz, and all shades in between, this isn't to everyone's taste but it's a fascinating compilation.

Penetration were a little-known punk/new wave band and I think I'll introduce them by quoting in its entirety Allmusic's short piece about them. Copyright All-Music Guide.

The only summation one can make of the career of English punks Penetration is, what a disappointment. In 1977, Penetration released a classic chunk of punk rock defiance titled "Don't Dictate." With Pauline Murray's impassioned vocals (sounding a bit like X-Ray Spex's Poly Styrene) leading the way, this was a blazing piece of anti-authoritarian rant: loud, snotty, and proud. Sadly, it was to be the one song they remained best noted for (assuming there are people who still remember Penetration). The problem was that they traded in barely competent but energetic bashing and thrashing for a more "mature" new wave/"punk-ish" rock sound. As a result, their debut LP, Moving Targets, although it has its moments, never lived up to the promise of "Don't Dictate." Still, Pauline Murray was a force to be reckoned with. Easily one of the best singers to come out of English punk rock, she made the band interesting even when the songs weren't there, the production was overwrought, and the whole enterprise was terribly uneven. It was to the surprise of no one that by 1980 she was fronting a new band, the Invisible Girls, who based on Murray's strengths became known as Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls. Still, major success eluded Murray, and she later moved into singing more elegant, mainstream pop/rock, remaining one of England's best unknown singers. 

I don't particularly agree with all of the above but it's  not inaccurate either and at least they give Pauline Murray due credit. She should have been a star. But there's also a reason I've paired up Patti Smith and Penetration apart from finding them next to each other in the box and that alphabetically they're close to each other on my Ipod.

While undoubtedly inspired by the punk movement, this band from the Durham County hinterland were, I have no doubt and Pauline in particular, were also inspired by Patti Smith. One of the best songs on the record, and one of my favourite tracks ever, is their cover of Smith's Free Money.  Smith's original is hardly understated but Penetration, while pretty much copying her version, take it that further so that if the original slams you against the wall, this one knocks you right through it. 

Listening to one compilation after the other there are surprising resonances despite the difference being akin to that of the differences between a League Two football (soccer) team and a Premiership club (and that is the only football analogy you'll ever read here).

TV/DVD: CHUCK SEASON 2: or HOW GREAT CAN LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT GET?

 

Season 1 wasn't great but more than good enough for me to want to watch/buy Season 2. Which is just as well because it's bloody brilliant. I just love almost everything about it. This is comedy/thriller/romcom/action/spy stuff at its best.

The main cast has grown on me. Zachary Levy as Chuck the underachieving nerd with potential is simply perfect in his part as he manages to be convincingly nerdy while developing into an action lead. Yvonne Strahovski, as Sarah his still-unrequited love interest, is a lot more subtle an actress than I initially gave her credit for. Bonus point for being Australian totally convincing as American, plus another for actually needing a stunt double less than anyone else in the cast. Looking as gorgeous as she does doesn't hurt either.

There's a lot more going on than was revealed in the first season where Chuck got the superduperramalamadingdong computer The Intersect downloaded into his brain making him a national resource at risk from enemy action. Now we gradually find out that almost everyone in his past life is involved with it and that by the end it was pretty much only Chuck who could actually contain it in the first place. There really is a whole load, a mountain's worth even, of skulduggery involved as Chuck learns the secrets of his past.

I've become rather fond of Captain Awesome (Ryan McPartlin), Chuck's sister's husband to be, nicknamed after his favourite word. My first impression was of a stupid jock but while McPartlin  partly plays him like that, the actor does far more with what could have been a nothing of a role. Awesome is a truly good person, genuinely kind and considerate albeit not the most perceptive person in the world. Originally just a throwaway character for the first season, the writers and producers saw what I've just described and he's now an important part of the cast.

The list of guest stars is to die for. Well, if you're into cult TV or movies that is. Guesting in four episodes is the lovely Jordana Brewster who lives in my memory as the lesbian criminal mastermind who falls in love with her good spy counterpart in the 12-rated spy/comedy/action/lesbian romcom D.E.B.S. (an Ian 5* recommended movie). Here she is the girl who broke his heart and now re-enters Chuck's life only for him to discover she works for the bad guys and always has. British actor Jonathan Cake is great as a tough MI6 agent who strikes sparks with Sarah much to Chuck's displeasure.

In the buildup to the season's climax, we finally meet Chuck's long missing father and he's played by the always-likeable Scott Bakula! (Quantum Leap,you dummies!) And when he gets to say his catchphrase "Whoo boy", my face broke into a grin of sheer geek delight. I'm not going to tell you his precise role in Chuck and his sister Dr Ellie's lives in case you haven't seen it and are planning to )and if you haven't you better). Suffice to say, it's a doozy.

Other names of note include Chevy Chase as a billionaire computer baddie, Arnold 'The Mummy' Vosloo as a (and how did you guess) baddie, Michael Rooker (who should need no introduction), Bruce Boxleitner (Babylon 5) as Ellie's future father-in-law, Morgan Fairchild as Ellie's future...etc, etc, Dominic Monaghan (LOTR) as a British rock star, Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica -the Cylon in the Red Dress!) as a CIA agent with plans to replace Sarah (booo!), and lots of other people I've vaguely or not heard of, and Nicole Richie (famous for being the adopted daughter of Lionel and ex-BFF of Paris Hilton) as Sarah's high school nemesis.

The scripts are sheer delight with wonderfully witty dialogue and some hilarious scenes. Point worth noting, as Levi says in a DVD extra, in his real life, Chuck is the straight man and in his spy life he's the comic relief. Even the idiots Chuck works with in Buy More are more amusing than in the first series, though the Chinese girl doesn't get enough to do. (I like quirky women. My favourite character in Holby City is the ascerbic Ukrainian goth Dr Petrenko.)

And just in case you think I've forgotten, the show wouldn't be nearly as good without the contributions of the actor playing Agent Casey, the true American patriot with menace and a sense of humour that you can cut your fingers to bleeding ribbons on, the one and only, the amazing-

Adam Baldwin

and did I mention Scott Bakula?