Colin’s Film Journal

Now that I have fully adopted Blu-Ray (albeit via my US PS3), I’ve been looking ahead to some of the titles coming this year. For Blu-Ray to succeed it has to impress the masses over the next 12 months - this timescale will be enough to tell us whether the format is going to have any sort of longevity. We’re not going to see many big hitters this year, the Star Wars films, Indiana Jones and other classic blockbusters will be held back until Blu-Ray is more established. Thankfully that doesn’t mean we’re starved of quality as long as we know where to look.

Over the coming days I’ll be posting the titles I’m most looking forward to over the next year…

Today, my pick is currently only a rumour, but it’s a tantalising one! Alex Proyas’ mind-warping, little seen classic, Dark City. This film was drowned out on release by the hype that accompanied The Matrix, but it is by far the more rounded experience of the two. It requires constant attention - miss a couple of minutes and you may as well stop watching, but if you’re commited Dark City is totally rewarding.

The latest news is that writer, David Goyer, has said that we can expect new extended cut with new effects. The extended length means the film is being rescored and even more exciting is the prospect of a limited theatrical release; I can only hope that this theatrical outing makes it to the UK as Dark City should really be experienced on as big a screen as possible. The word is that a DVD and Blu-Ray release of this new cut will follow shortly after.

Sandra Bullock and Jullian McMahon star in this confusing, plodding, supernatural thriller from director, Mennan Yapo.

Housewife Linda Hanson (Bullock) learns of the death of her husband, Jim (McMahon), in a nasty car accident on the previous day; only to wake to discover he is still alive. The film then jumps forwards and backwards to events before and after the so-called accident as Linda has premonitions of what is to come. Premonition is a difficult film to judge - the performances are all there, and it’s not your usual ‘everything ends well’ piece of cinema. In fact it is a very downbeat film that closely mirrors Linda’s on-screen depression. Unfortunately this makes it a chore to watch and the eventual twist is one that is expected and doesn’t do anything to lighten the tone.

However, this downbeat feel isn’t the film’s biggest mistake - the real problem is that we really don’t care about the characters. There is no attempt to make Linda a likeable person - she is depressed from the start and we don’t get to know her or her husband in any way before we learn of his death. While this could be forgiveable if the subsequent scenes build on their relationship, they don’t - all we learn is that their marriage is in trouble and he’s thinking of having an affair (although bizarrely, all seems forgiven when he changes his mind about shagging his boss in a hotel). Coupled with some glaring continuity issues, which in all honesty should really be ironed out in a film that is inherently going to be a disjointed experience, there isn’t really a lot to like here.

Yes, it tries to be a bit different and there isn’t any kind of ‘reset button’ ending, but that isn’t enough to make me want to recommend this film…

The Blu-Ray release is good with a decent picture and sound quality. I did notice some flickering in the backgrounds that at times was a little irritating to my eyes, but other than that it was still an obvious step up from SD.

There are plenty of special features, but in all honesty after sitting down to watch the film I was in no mood to go through them all afterwards. Maybe I’ll revisit them in the coming days, but I somehow doubt it! As such, the rating below currenly only takes into account the picture and sound quality…

Film: 3/10, Blu-Ray: 6/10

This year’s Christmas Special had a tough job to please fans this year - while those who are blindly dedicated to the new incarnation of Doctor Who will continue to extoll the virtues of the series, those of us who are a little more discerning are beginning to see the cracks appearing and they don’t look pretty.

While 2005’s Special had a big job to do in introducing the new Doctor, this year the producers decided against introducing the Doctor’s new assistant following the departure of Billie at the end of series 2. Instead we had Catherine Tate screeching her way through the episode as the titular Runaway Bride, Donna. Yes, she was irritating, but that was how the character was supposed to be - so I guess Tate was perfect for the role. We also had the usual Tennant gurning and plot holes bigger than the inside of the TARDIS; both of which should be familiar to viewers.

The big problem is that The Runaway Bride had an uphill struggle following the disappointment that is Torchwood - and Russell T Davies and co. will have a lot of work to do to restore this viewer’s faith in the Who franchise. Thankfully, while the trademark plotting and scripting issues seem to be rubbing off on Torchwood’s parent series, at least Who continues to be enjoyable, I just hope that the producers pull their fingers out and give us something to be proud of in the coming series.

And, just two days after the Christmas Special was broadcast, there are rumours abound that David Tennant is hanging up his pin-striped suit before the end of the fourth series - whether or not this is true remains to be seen, but given the hit-and-miss nature of the scripts and show direction over the past year it certainly doesn’t come as a surprise. I’m more than happy that Doctor Who is back, and that is thanks to Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner - but I’m beginning to feel that it’s already time for a new pair of hands to steer Doctor Who away from the pantomime it is slowly becoming and Tennant’s departure might be a good time to make some changes at the top and reinvent the series all over again.

The title of this article is one of the best descriptions (shamelessly nicked from Harsin’s post over on The DVD Forums!) of Russell T Davies‘ Doctor Who spin-off I’ve heard so far. After months hype and anticipation, Torchwood, is finally with us and it looks like good old Russell has scored a bit of an own goal. You see, it’s just not very good.

The publicity machine has been in action for a while - various descriptions have been thrown about by the cast and crew. “X-Files meets This Life“, “adult sci-fi” and “Doctor Who with sex” they said - unfortunately none of these really stick. It’s patently NOT Doctor Who and while it has sex, it’s not really sci-fi either and it certainly doesn’t hold a candle to anything like The X Files or This Life. The scripts are terrible and the series has not one ounce of originality borrowing from anything you care to think of. RTD was a big fan of Buffy and here he tries to replicate the success of Angel in developing a more grown-up spin-off from a successful show - but in the case of Torchwood it hasn’t worked.

If it wasn’t for it’s Doctor Who links, not only would it never have been green-lit, no-one would be talking about it now. However, it seems that Russell can do no wrong and the UK media continues to fawn over him as some sort of media genius. We KNOW he can do good adult TV thanks to things such as Queer as Folk, Second Coming and even Casanova, but he seems to have lost the plot. Doctor Who needs the light touch to appeal to a family audience and it works wonderfully, but Torchwood doesn’t and yet we still seem to be getting child-friendly stories with some gratuitous bonking and a few fucks and shits thrown in to justify it’s post-watershed existence. Calling this adult television is insulting to those that were hoping the UK would for once have some intelligent, non-diluted and thought-provoking science fiction to rival anything the US can offer. Instead we have this mishmash of ideas that doesn’t know if it wants to be a comedy, drama, thriller or some seedy sex-obsessed late-night junk.

WARNING - SPOILERS FOLLOW…

A controversial finale for season two gave me some trepidation when I sat down to watch the first four episodes of Battlestar Galactica Season 3. I needn’t have worried - Ron Moore and the rest of the writers have proven themselves with some of the best television I’ve ever seen. Season 2 saw the survivors of the Cylon genocide settle down to life on New Caprica, unfortunately their respite lasted just one year and the Cylons returned and occupied the planet. Season 3 opened with parallels to the current war in Iraq - a strong occupying force and insurgent attacks taking the lives of both the occupiers and innocent civilians made the comparison obvious. It was handled well and what could have been an ‘in-your-face’ political statement instead made gripping and emotional television.

However, this isn’t the reason for this blog entry. Instead I have to rave about the latest two-parter - Exodus - a gripping, moving and jaw-dropping closure to the New Caprica arc. Amazing performances from every member of the cast, coupled with some stunning special effects made these two episodes a joy to behold. The opening moments of the second part see Colonel Tigh kill his wife in response to her treachery - a truly heartbreaking moment as he takes the life of the woman he loves, despite everything she did. Shortly afterwards we see Galactica appear over New Caprica and plummet through the atmosphere as the vipers launch - only to jump away before slamming into the planet below; this has to be one of the most breathtaking effects sequences ever seen in a television programme.

Battlestar Galactica could have jumped the shark at the end of last year, but now I have more faith in the writers and producers than ever before and I only hope that they’re given the chance to continue telling the story of the search for Earth for many, many years. It’s just a shame more people don’t watch what is probably the best show on television purely because it’s science fiction…

How cool is this? It’s a Critters 1-4 boxset housed within a Critter!

Unfortunately, it only appears to be available in Hungary and I can’t work out from the XPress.hu website whether the DVDs have English language options.

However, it does encourage me to start a campaign to get the rights holders (Warner?) to bring this stunning series of films(!) and boxset to the UK in time for Christmas. I mean who wouldn’t want their 4 year old to wake up with a Critter staring out of their Christmas stocking first thing in the morning?

Who is with me?