Film

An archive of blog entries about films and film production.

The difference between the US and UK SciFi channels

27 April 2006 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Well, there are a few differences, but the big one is the US SciFi channel actually makes new shows. Admittedly, the UK channel does, too, but they’re either video review shows or they’re “Tales from the Conventions”. Plus there’s that new one with Michael Ironside that they’re co-producing with Canadian TV. But other than that, they don’t make shows.

In the US, they make lots of shows. They make really god-awful B-movie sci-fi films, usually starring the likes of Joe Lando (remember him from Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman?) and Bruce Campbell. They make silly shows about alien abductions and psychic powers. But they also make shows like Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate: Atlantis.

Just to ram their American superiority in our faces just a little bit more, they’ve unveiled a new slate of programming. To really start kicking sand in our eight-stone faces, they’re launching a prequel to BSG called Caprica that focuses on the times leading up to the creation of the cylons. While the phrase “television’s first science fiction family saga” sends chills down my spine, so did “remake of Battlestar Galactica” until I actually watched the new show. So I’ll flag Caprica as ‘sounds bad, will probably be very good indeed’ for you to note in your calendars.

Then there’s Snap about ‘a Federal agent who uncovers a deep-seated and seemingly unstoppable conspiracy’. Now that does sound pants and probably will be, too. Persons Unknown (‘a surreal mind-game of a series centering on a group of strangers who awaken in a deserted town with no memory of how they arrived, only to realize that there is no escape’) could be good, although I suspect I’ll spend most of the time looking for bits they may have half-inched off The Prisoner.

The Bishop just sounds inherently amusing: ‘from executive producers and writers Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Conrad Jackson, this one-hour drama revolves around a young slacker whose charmed life is disrupted when he discovers that he has a supernatural gift’. The power to carry a crook. In fact, I could swear Monty Python did a sketch about a fake crime show called ‘The Bishop’ – so best to steer clear of that one I think unless you fancy a laugh.

Blink again sounds like a rip-off, this time of Canadian show The Collector: ‘A group of Afterlife investigators try to help those about to make the wrong choice, in the blink of an eye before destiny is sealed forever.’ Could be good, could be bad, but as if having a show exec produced by Freddie Prinze Jr weren’t enough, this one’s exec-produced by Will from Will and Grace. What next? Shows produced by the Crazy Frog?

Last show of interest is a mini-series based on classic piece of 70s cobblers, Chariots of the Gods. Since that was in some way the inspiration for the worst movie ever made, Hangar 18, I’m dead set against it from the outset.

Nevertheless, compare that with the UK’s SciFi channel and you’ll have to admit, it’s a damn sight more impressive. Curse those Americans, their advanced economy and their high production values.

The dubious delights of disease

25 April 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

I was ill yesterday. You could probably tell since I thought David Tennant’s hairstyle was an interesting thing to blog about.

Anyway, I’m not used to being ill. Whole households can get devastated by illness while I’m staying with them and I’ll have a mild headache for 10 minutes at worst. No disease can do me in for more than 24 hours though, so I’m back to full health again. Hoorah.

Omega Factor DVD front coverBut yesterday, I was ill. So being out of practice with illness, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I tried watching The Omega Factor again, in preparation for a review I’m writing. That nearly put me to sleep, because I’ve seen it a few times now. So following on from my earlier discussion of the best audio commentaries ever, I decided to have a listen to the audio commentary for Anchorman.

Anchorman DVD's front coverI have to say, that was the weirdest commentary I’ve ever heard. It was practically a movie by itself. It had guest stars who hadn’t even appeared in the movie, including singing legend Lou Rawls, who seemed very mystified to be there. It had action scenes, with Will Ferrell pretending to have his nose crushed and claiming that cartilage was streaming down his face. It was very, very odd. Not especially funny. But entertaining in the same way as performance art is. Worth listening to in a mind-expanding way. The film’s a lot funnier, incidentally.

Don’t show Channel 4 the results

17 April 2006 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Just when you think the bottom of every barrel had been scraped, someone goes to the back of the store room and finds yet another one. Yes, all pub conversations can end because finally, word is in of the top “hotel-based movie scene”. Yes, Travelodge got 3,000 people to tell them which scenes in movies set in hotels are the best scenes in movies set in hotels and the results are in: of all the scenes in movies set in hotels, Pretty Woman‘s bath scene is the best, beating both The Shining and Psycho to the number one spot.

Worrying for Travelodge that those two snuck in there, isn’t it? In fact, hotel scenes in general seem to have bad connotations. Best Bullseye voice: “In one: prostitutes! In two: serial killers with multiple personality disorders! In three: homicidal madness caused by ghosts! Now visit your local Travelodge.” Not sure I’d have bothered publishing those results, if I were them, but maybe there’s a whole new demographic for Travelodge to target that I’ve never contemplated.

More worrying though is the idea that Channel 4 will turn the whole endeavour into a list show. Best Jimmy Carr voice: “Number 1 was Pretty Woman. I knew a woman once. She was pretty. Aren’t Gypsies rubbish?”

Thanks Channel 4! Could you not though?

They’ve given who a Walk of Fame star?

13 April 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

I had a minor rant about Queen Latifah being given a Hollywood Walk of Fame star a while ago. I take it all back. That seems eminently reasonable now.

Because they’ve just given a Walk of Fame star to Winnie the Pooh.

Queen Latifah, for all her faults, is an actual human being. Winnie the Pooh isn’t real (although don’t we all wish he was?). You cannot give a Walk of Fame star to Winnie the Pooh, whether he’s in book form, CGI or a cartoon. Are they going to give Simon Templar a star next? BA Baracus? The ants from A Bug’s Life? It’s a world gone mad, I tell you!

Still, there’s probably a precedent somewhere. They’ve almost certainly given R2D2 a star.