News

Netflix releases a trailer for its adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman

27 September 2021 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Sandman was really the graphic novel that got me into reading comics. With its stories of the seven Endless – personifications of abstract ideas including Dream, Death, Desire and Destruction who were gods in a DC Universe that had gods – it caught me at just the right time, just as I was sporting a Robert Smith hair cut at university.

It was also the comic that introduced the world to Neil Gaiman, who has of course gone on to many mighty and varied things, including writing episodes of Doctor Who, movies such as Stardust (2007), books for children and adults, and TV shows based on his books, such as Good Omens.

There have been various attempts to adapt Sandman for other media over the years, including a movie with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the most successful being a series of audio plays for Audible featuring James McAvoy as Dream and Kat Dennings as Death.

Netflix has been trying to adapt the comics into a TV series. That seemed initially like it was going to be as successful as the movie adaptations that preceded it. But look at this, will you! We have an honest to God teaser trailer, as well as a behind the scenes featurette. And it looks both good and authentic, which will please the fundamentalist Sandman fans out there. Of which there are many.

The cast looks pretty good, too:

  • Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne
  • Sanjeev Bhaskar as Cain
  • Asim Chaudhry as Abel
  • Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer
  • Jenna Coleman as Johanna Constantine
  • Charles Dance as Roderick Burgess
  • Stephen Fry as Gilbert
  • Boyd Holbrook as The Corinthian
  • Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death
  • Sandra James-Young as Unity Kincaid
  • Razane Jammal as Lyta Hall
  • Patton Oswalt as Matthew the Raven
  • Mason Alexander Park as Desire
  • Donna Preston as Despair
  • Kyo Ra as Rose Walker
  • Joely Richardson as Ethel Cripps
  • Tom Sturridge as Dream

News

Russell T Davies is back as Doctor Who’s showrunner

24 September 2021 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Wow. I never thought this would happen. But it’s been confirmed by proper actual news sources that Russell T Davies is returning to Doctor Who for its next season, replacing Chris Chibnall (bah!) as showrunner, just in time for its 60th anniversary in 2023.

Given that I gave up on Chibnall’s run and stopped watching Doctor Who purely because of his writing, whoever took over from him was always going to be of interest to me. Most bookies were suggesting Mark Gatiss or similar, but Russell T Davies? Wow. No one had that.

Now, you only have to go over TMINE’s Doctor Who reviews to know it wasn’t the biggest fan of Davies’ largely logic-free approach to writing. But it was always fascinating to watch and he set up the foundation for the show that helped it to last 15+ years on the BBC. So, it’s going to be fascinating to see what he does with it now, with the benefit of hindsight, perhaps better resources and more experience.

It should also be noted that rather than being a purely BBC Studios production, it’s now going to be a co-production with Julie Gardner’s Bad Wolf. Gardner, of course, was possibly almost as instrumental in Doctor Who‘s successful return as Davies was, so the BBC is getting a two-for-one deal here.

10 Things I Hate About You
Film reviews

The TMINE multiplex: The Unbelievable Truth, Un 32 août sur terre and 10 Things I Hate About You

23 September 2021 Natalia Romanova 11 Comments

In which Nat talks briefly about the movies she’s been watching this week for no particular reason and that probably don’t warrant proper reviews, but hey? Wouldn’t it be nice if we all chatted about them anyway?

Being TMINE’s Official Movie Reviewer in Residence is obviously new to me, so I’m not yet sure exactly what shape my contributions are going to settle into yet. At the moment, I’m planning for my full reviews to be of new releases and for them to feature on Mondays or Tuesdays, after I’ve watched them at the weekend.

Unfortunately, I don’t have as much access as I did before Covid to press screenings, screeners et al, thanks to changes in both my job and the whole world (😭). That means that although I’ll be able to preview some movies at least, I’ll usually be watching films at the local cinema when they come on general release, just like everyone else. Sorry, guys.

This weekend, however, I was up in London to see Rhod Gilbert at London Wonderground, so didn’t get to watch anything. If I had gone to see anything, it would have been Gunpowder Milkshake, so maybe you could all just imagine the beautiful, artfully constructed, witty review I would have put together.

I think it’s likely then that I’m going to be watching most films at home on streaming services, TV, DVDs or Blu-Rays – and then showing them here at The TMINE Multiplex every Wednesday or Thursday.

My life before Covid. Honest. Totes me. Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC

One really strange aspect of lockdown for me was I was no longer the Queen of Watching Movies on Entertainment Systems or My iPad While Travelling to Some Glamorous Exotic Locale. Okay, that may not seem strange to you, but that was a big change for me (and my self-image #FirstWorldProblems).

A consequence of this was my film consumption really dropped and, weirder still, I started playing a superhero game on my phone (Marvel Strike Force). The weird thing was that actually I met some really lovely people that way! I even met someone who is now one of my best friends and now, every Wednesday, we have ‘Movie Night’ where we watch a movie one of us has chosen.

Being children of the 90s/00s, we typically end up watching a movie from that era – 90s/00s movies are just better anyway. Naturally, I will report on those in The TMINE Multiplex. But please don’t hold me to a strict 90s/00s policy, as we might occasionally watch a newer or older movie. Those who came to the Multiplex last week will know why I won’t be reviewing many 80s movies, though.

That ‘Movie Night’ pick will be showing at The TMINE Multiplex, together with whatever else I’ve been watching. At the moment, I’m working my through an extensive MUBI watchlist, as well as a few entries on BFI Player, but there undoubtedly will be some really, really bad things showing, too, since I really can’t be worthy all the time. Sometimes, you just want to watch something dreadful.

However, this week, be prepared to learn about (or revisit) no fewer than three 90s movies at the Multiplex: The Unbelievable Truth (1990), Un 32 août sur terre (1998) and 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

Continue reading “The TMINE multiplex: The Unbelievable Truth, Un 32 août sur terre and 10 Things I Hate About You”
Greg Davies in BBC One's The Cleaner
Streaming TV

What have you been watching? Including The Cleaner

17 September 2021 Rob Buckley 11 Comments

It’s “What have you been watching?”, your chance to recommend to fellow TMINE readers anything you’ve been watching this week

As I suspected last week American Rust, an adaptation of Philipp Meyer’s novel that Showtime described as “a compelling family drama and a timeless story told through the eyes of complicated and compromised chief of police Del Harris (Jeff Daniels) of a Pennsylvania Rust Belt town full of good people making bad choices” was about as fun as a hernia operation. Honestly, why do networks think:

  1. People want to watch miserable sh*t right now, after a year and a half of misery (at least a year and a half – apparently, in the Before Times, there were things to be miserable about other than Covid, too, but I struggle to remember those days so can’t confirm that)
  2. Miserable = quality TV while happy = lightweight TV?

It’s just such an odd couple of equations.

I also tried Australian Gangster (Australia: Seven). That’s billed as “Drug dealer, gangster, gym-junky, Lamborghini driver, husband, father, Australian Gangster is a four hour TV series about the life and death of a new breed of Sydney criminal. The kind that doesn’t care about playing it safe or keeping a low profile or even getting caught. Our main character is emblematic of the type of modern gangster that only really cares about looking good on Instagram, making a name for himself in a new, wannabe glamorous crime scene, while at the same time trying to manage the pressures of family life.”

I mean, it’s an obvious attempt to do a new Underbelly, just as a new Underbelly comes out, but want to guess how much fun it was? I mean it opens with a man being mildly threatening to a teacher because his kid has speech issues and so goes around biting everyone.

Do you know what that made me do? It made me watch some British TV.

The Cleaner (UK: BBC One)

“After CSI have done their stuff, the cleaner mops up the grisly remains. For Wicky, a bloodbath and the pub is all in a day’s work. Comedy written by and starring Greg Davies.”

And it’s odd. Mildly funny, but odd. Essentially, it’s a series of two-handers, with Davies turning up at a property to clean it after someone has died and then chatting with whomever he finds there for 30 minutes. So far we’ve had Helena Bonham-Carter, as a widow and suspected murderer who has returned to the scene of the crime; and David Mitchell, as a somewhat irate writer with writers’ block.

It’s somewhat reminiscent of Davies’ Taskmaster in some regards, with the dialogue usually being a battle of wits, before Davies just plays a meanness trump card to win. His character is little different from his standup persona, too, although there are fewer mentions of his mother.

But, I enjoyed it. Bonham-Carter was pleasingly dotty but also sympathetic as the woman who hated her model-making, unromantic husband but never got round to killing him. Mitchell was the “angry logic, you’re all imbeciles” persona we’ve come to expect, but also a figure of sympathy after a while.

It’s all a bit rough and loose, and your enjoyment is likely linked to how much you like Greg Davies. But it was definitely worth my time enough that I’d watch it again.

The regulars

On top of that, I now have two regulars to watch! It’s a true embarrassment of riches. They’re after the jump. But what have you been watching?

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including The Cleaner”
Film reviews

The TMINE multiplex: The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, Tango & Cash and Road House

15 September 2021 Natalia Romanova 23 Comments

In which Nat talks briefly about the movies she’s been watching this week for no particular reason and that probably don’t warrant proper reviews, but hey? Wouldn’t it be nice if we all chatted about them anyway?

I’m really hoping this feature will take off. What do you think? Is it catchy enough?

This week, we have three screens playing The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard (2021), Tango & Cash (1989) and Road House (1989)

Screen 1: The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard (2021)

The bodyguard Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) continues his friendship with assassin Darius Kincaid (Samuel L Jackson) as they try to save Darius’ wife Sonia (Salma Hayek)

Nat says: ‘Oh dear. Oh wait! Oh, never mind’

This is a sequel to The Hitman’s Bodyguard (2017). I’m not sure anyone really wanted a sequel, since it was quite a bad movie, the sort of film that feels like an investment opportunity put together by asset management funds in Benelux and the Bahamas to give terrorists a chance to avoid paying taxes. But here it is, reuniting the cast and the director.

The first half is dreadful. It tries hard to recreate the same scenario as the first movie, with Reynolds and Jackson now hating one another again, without really understanding the characters. There are fewer jokes, the action is poor and even the usually reliable cast struggle to give the movie life. It has Antonio Banderas playing a Greek man who’s upset with the EU’s treatment of his country so kidnaps its ‘leader’. Every so often, it cuts to a picture of ‘Athens’ that usually isn’t (but sometimes is) Athens. It’s just poor.

I also really dislike it, since most of the jokes are about Hayek being both a sexual women and one who swears a lot. Look at here run! Look at her breasts wobble! Isn’t that funny? Women running? Women with big breasts running?

Did the world just stop turning on its axis, beholding such innovation in writing? I don’t think so.

About halfway through, though, just as I was about to give up on it, the movie decides it wants to be something different: a flat-out comedy. Suddenly, it’s just Reynolds being Deadpool again. There are jokes about what sort of movie they’re homaging. Reynolds’ much-alluded-to father is revealed to be (spoiler alert) Morgan Freeman and Samuel L Jackson’s reaction to that piece of hubris is priceless. It actually all starts to work and to entertain.

But should you watch it, just so you can watch that second half? No.

The wonderful Rebecca Front appears in it a bit. She’s funny. But her scenes are all in the trailer, too.

Continue reading “The TMINE multiplex: The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, Tango & Cash and Road House”