Stranger Things

Alex Cox’s recent appearance on Kermode Uncut is like a missing episode of Moviedrome

18 August 2016 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

As if I wasn’t getting pangs of 80s nostalgia bad enough already thanks to Stranger Things, I’ve just watched the latest episode of Kermode Uncut with Alex Cox and I’ve got them even stronger.

Cox is the director of Repo Man, among other things…

…but is probably best known in the UK from his time presenting BBC Two’s Moviedrome in the late 80s and early 90s. That was a time when the BBC took film reasonably seriously on its main channels. Barry Norman was the ever knowledgeable host of BBC One’s Film 8x/9x, reviewing films each week with the seriousness each deserved (or maybe didn’t).

Meanwhile, Howard Schuman’s Moving Pictures on BBC Two was discussing movies and interviewing directors with a competency that means it was subsequently used to teach film studies and even managed to save Mike Figgis’ career following Mr Jones. 

But slightly more accessible was Moviedrome, hosted by Cox between 1988 and 1994. Each curated season consisted of a number of movies picked by Cox, some good, some bad, all interesting, which he would discuss before their showing, highlighting both their positives and negatives. There are numerous movies I would never have seen without him, including my beloved Manhunter and The Andromeda Strain, which are the ones I usually cite. But simply looking through the list of movies he introduced, I can see that I’d forgotten he also gave me my first tastes of The Wicker Man, The Parallax View, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Fly, The Thing From Another World, THX 1138, Sunset Boulevard, Get Carter and Solaris, to name just a few.

For sure, Film 8x‘s roving reporter Tom Brook is still doing marvellous work on BBC World News’ Talking Movies, but that’s about it and the idea of curation seems to be something that only Film4 and a few more obscure channels do and then occasionally. Which is shame. If only there were a modern-day Moviedrome, maybe even hosted by Cox.

Well, Cox has just made his second appearance on Kermode Uncut, this time to discuss Moviedrome, and Mark Kermode asks him what movie he’d like to feature in a new Moviedrome. As you might expect, the answer is superb and will just make you wish Cox was back on our screens again.

TMINE

My summer holidays start now

23 July 2016 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

It’s that time again, my friends – holidays! Yep, I’m off again and since most of you are, too, as well as most of the people who make the news, there’s not going to be much point blogging for the next few weeks (ie August) so I won’t.

Well, I might. I’ll be back mid-August and since it’ll be straight back to work and there is actually going to be new tele to watch, I might end up blogging a bit. All of which is my usual faffing way of saying everything will be back as normal in September, but don’t be surprised if I pop up again in a few weeks’ time if I get bored.

Feel free to chat and discuss things here while I’m gone, though. Here are a couple of brief thoughts on this week’s viewing, too:

Star Trek: Beyond (2016)
The best of the new movies, even if as usual it involves the Enterprise getting twatted one. Lots of homages to the original series and it also feels like an old episode at times, with some genuinely alien and visually innovative moments, as well as plenty of character time, rather than a simple focus on action. Not outstanding and plenty of all-out daftness, but definitely more of a Star Trek II than a Star Trek V.

Mr Robot (US: USA Network; UK: Amazon Prime)
2×3 – eps2.1_k3rnel-pan1c.ksd
Genuinely brilliant TV, messing with you the viewer in utterly unexpected, marvellous ways – if you’re not watching it, you’re not doing tele right. Season 1’s just started on Universal Channel in the UK, too, BTW.
Reviews: First episode; third episode 

Stranger Things (Netflix)
I might do a longer review of this when I get back since although I paid almost minimal attention to it while it was in production and only reluctantly decided I’d give it a try this week for the sake of completeness, I’m so glad I did, as it’s an almost painfully beautiful, near-perfect recreation of the 80s, as well as 80s genre movies and TV, taking in everything from ET and Goonies through to The Thing and D.A.R.Y.L. I loved pretty much every second of it, from its title sequence and music through to the plot itself, which even though you can probably guess most of it just by extrapolating from other shows or anything by Stephen King, is delightful, with an innocence you just don’t get any more. One of my favourite TV things this year, give it a go, as it’s only eight episodes and Winona Ryder’s in it. A second season has already been commissioned.

Anyway, see you all on the other side and I’ll leave you with the official Wonder Woman (2017) poster and trailer, which were revealed this weekend at Comicon. They bode well.

Wonder Woman (2017) poster

As does the Justice League trailer….

What have you been watching? Including Mr Robot, Marco Polo, The Last Ship and Outcast

18 July 2016 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

It’s “What have you been watching?”, my chance to tell you what movies and TV I’ve been watching recently that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case I’ve missed them.

The usual “TMINE recommends” page features links to reviews of all the shows I’ve ever recommended, and there’s also the Reviews A-Z, for when you want to check more or less anything I’ve reviewed ever. 

Today’s is going to be the last WHYBW for quite some time now, since I’m off on my traditional summer break from next week. Whether I’ll take all of August off remains to be seen, but let’s not start promising anything at this point.

Before then, I’ll be reviewing the first episode of Vice Principals (US: HBO; UK: Sky Atlantic) and I’ve got plans to have a look over a couple of French shows on Netflix and Amazon, too. I might even have a look at Netflix’s Stranger Things, which debuted on Friday.

I’ve already reviewed the first episode of Barracuda (Australia: ABC), but after the jump, I’ll be looking at the latest episodes of 19-2, The Kettering Incident, The Last Ship, Outcast and Preacher, as well the return of Mr Robot and the rest of season two of Marco Polo. Given that I’m going to be away on holiday, will I employ my usual July ruthlessness and purge from the viewing list any that I can’t be bothered to catch up with? It’s a possibility…

At this point, I’d normally tell you about the movies I watched last week. Unfortunately, despite my best intentions, we couldn’t get through either Joy or Hail, Caesar!, since they were both a bit dull. That might be the closest I ever get to reviewing them, but you never know.

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Mr Robot, Marco Polo, The Last Ship and Outcast”

The BarrometerA Barrometer rating of 3

Third-episode verdict: BrainDead (US: CBS; UK: Amazon Prime)

29 June 2016 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

In the US: Mondays, 10/9c, CBS
In the UK: Airs on Amazon

If summer were only a little warmer in the UK – or warm at all – BrainDead might seem like some fun, throw-away bit of nonsense to while away our time with. A sort of Mars Attacks meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets The West Wing, it sees brain-eating alien ants taking over US politicians, including Tony Shalhoub, resulting in extreme political behaviour and a liking for The Cars. 

All of this seemed jaunty and fun in the first episode, when we had intrepid young über-liberal Mary Elizabeth Winstead trying to get to the bottom of the problem with the help of her small-government Republican counterpart Aaron Tvei, to much satirical enjoyment. But since then, beyond a singing recap of the plot at the start of each episode, there hasn’t been much new. Indeed, the second episode actually dispensed with most of the laughter and tried to be just Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which wasn’t fun at all.

Fortunately, the third episode was a near-return to form, with Winstead finally getting a conspiracy-theory genius wackjob partner to solve the mystery with (Johnny Ray Gill) and some more yucks showing up. All the same, the uneasy mixture of comedy, horror, satire and thriller never quite gels the way the creators want to, particularly with no actual sunshine to distract us, and Tvei and Winstead’s romance has all the chemistry of a Noble gas. 

A beast like this gets by on craziness, but if the craziness has all been front-loaded with little more to come, BrainDead‘s going to flounder. Winstead is appealing and Gill is sufficiently loopy to be an equal draw, but the whole thing seemed like an idea that got used up in the first episode. There might be more to come, so I’ll probably tune in for the next episode, but it’s no must-watch, even by summer standards.

Barrometer rating: 3
Would it be better with a female lead? N/A
TMINE’s prediction: Unlikely to get a second season, but stranger things have happened