Category: Entertainment

I think that Kameron Hurley has just pre-empted what I will probably think of Revenge of the Sith. I am not sitting here with bated breath waiting to rush and see it. In fact, I think I’ll wait for five years and pick it out of the bargain bin at my local DVD store.

I’m just tying a couple of threads together here.

Scaryduck has another of his laugh-out-loud posts today. This time on Bunny Suicides. And that made me remember Andy Riley’s The Book of Bunny Suicides.

As Kenny Everett used to say: "All in the best possible taste!"

I came across this today. It looks to me like a remake of Aliens for spelunkers. However, the preview does contain one moment that reminded me strongly of the best moment in Pitch Black. Pity the moment is contained in the preview. It makes me think that perhaps the preview is going to be better than the movie…

I think in some ways I like this better than I am going to like the Revenge of the Sith.

For example: a) it’s done well, using a fraction of the budget. b) the acting is probably better c) the dialogue is not as mind-numbingly awful* and d) unlike George, it doesn’t take itself seriously.

* Harrison Ford was reputed to have said to George Lucas: "George, You can write this shit, but you can’t say it"

Just watching Dead Ringers – some good sketches this week. Particularly liked the George Galloway arriving at US Customs sketch, Celebrity Pimping and Condi Rice live from Baghdad.

It’s like a game of Whack-a-Mole – just as you think one Star Wars blog has come to a fitting end, up pops another one. Somehow I don’t think Anthony Lane will be a regular reader.

You may have noticed that my "Somewhat Bizarre" links list includes a link to Darth Vader’s blog. It’s been an entertaining read, but it looks as though it has now come to an end with a barnstormer of an entry. More serious in tone than most of the other entries, which had a Douglas Adams style of absurd humour running through them, it is a good piece of writing and brings the diary of Vader to a satisfying conclusion.

The blog was the work of Matthew Frederick Davis Hemming, and there’s a good interview with him here.

Oh dear, another piece of pseudoscience trash hauls its scummy carcass onto the screen. I’m talking about "What the Bleep Do We Know" – a film that has taken America by storm (why am I not surprised?), but now threatens to do the same in Europe.

Supposedly a film about quantum physics, it’s actually about pushing the message of Ramtha – a "35,000 year old warrior spirit from Atlantis" being "channelled" by a housewife from Tacoma, Washington. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

But, hey, don’t take my word for it, go and read Skeptico to start with, and then today’s Guardian piece (but Professor Greated should be ashamed of himself).

This is surreal and raises a wry smile or two.

I really enjoyed last night’s episode of Doctor Who. Wicked script from Russell T. Davies, with his riffs on recent events in reality. Examples:

The Prime Minister saying: "Our inspectors have searched the sky above our heads and and they have found massive weapons of destruction, capable of being deployed within 45 seconds."

Dr. Who: "He’s just making it up, there’s no weapons up there, there’s no threat". Harriet Jones: "Do you think they’ll believe him?" Rose: "Well, they did last time".

Top notch television!

Over at Sepia Mutiny, "Sita Sings The Blues" draws attention to the work of animator Nina Paley. She’s done a wonderful, charming, cross between Betty Boop, the Hindu epic Ramayana and 1920s music. The effect is a sort of re-culturalised Pennies from Heaven.

If you’ve got BitTorrent, you can download the movies via Sepia Mutiny. Great stuff!

… then apparently my name would be Kaemon Hosokoawa. At least, according to this. Just thought you’d like to know.

Since I last mentioned The Apprentice in my blog, I’ve been there, religiously, each week on the sofa watching each episode from behind my fingers. And it gets better and better each week without fail. 

Since at least last week, I’ve been predicting to Martin that the final standoff will be between Paul and Saira, simply because that’s what the producers of the series want to feed us to make "good television". A needle match between the two most opinionated, pig-headed and arrogant participants, who (oh how very convenient) happen to be on opposite sides of the gender divide.

In actual fact, I thought that of the contestants, Miriam, Tim and James have the qualities to reach the final, and I thought that, in an ideal world, it would probably be between Miriam and Tim/James.

But, of course, tonight, Miriam got the shove, thus pushing me towards the view that it’s really nothing to do with the intrinsic qualities of the participants, but purely towards what makes good television. What a world we live in (thanks, Rufus!). A view that was only reinforced by the brilliance of tonight’s episode, set as it was in that hell on earth – TV Shopping.

Yep, tonight the two teams had to pick products and sell them live on TV shopping channels. It was a real eye-opener for me to see behind the scenes and to share in the daily lives of those who are consigned to this particular circle of Hell.

And, of course, the real kicker was that we should never underestimate the depths of bad taste to which the TV buying public can sink. So a piece of way-overpriced foam-rubber (of a particularly bilious yellow) and a particularly naff jacket of synthetic material decorated (if one can use the term) with a "Wolf-Spirit" motif turned out to be the top sellers.

Humans, you gotta love them, if only because they’re my species, but why is it I increasingly feel like a cuckoo in the nest?   

Update: Nancy Banks-Smith, the Guardian’s TV critic, has a typically witty piece on this episode of The Apprentice. Well worth reading.

Well, you feared it, I feared it, and it looks as though it’s gone and happened – the film of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is completely fucked up beyond all belief.

Now, I have to say that I haven’t seen it, so there’s a faint chance that all will be well and it will be a wonderful adaptation. But, and it’s a big but, I’ve just read the reviews on the Planet Magrathea site. A short sample:

"The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie is bad. Really bad. You just won’t believe how vastly, staggeringly, jaw-droppingly bad it is. I mean, you might think that The Phantom Menace was a hopelessly misguided attempt to reinvent a much-loved franchise by people who, though well-intentioned, completely failed to understand what made the original popular – but that’s just peanuts to the Hitchhiker’s movie. Listen.

And so on…"

Oh dear me. Oh bugger. This is bad news indeed.

But don’t take it from me. Read either the short review or the long review – and weep.

Update 26 December 2007: Well, I’ve now seen the film. And you know what? It isn’t as bad as I feared.

Just finished watching the second episode of the revitalised Doctor Who. Excellent entertainment. Russell Davies pens a wonderful script, full of knowing asides and heart-stopping ideas.

Examples of knowing asides: "the National Trust shifted [the continents] back – this is a classic Earth". "Talk to the Face [of Bo]". Even the props and music got in on the act – the jukebox masquerading as an "iPod" and playing examples of Earth’s greatest composers, to whit: "Tainted Love" by Marc Almond.

Example of heart-stopping ideas: what if you could phone your mum from 5 billion years in the future, being present at the moment when the sun expands to engulf the earth, and listen to her rabbit on about nothing in particular, while she’s emptying the washing machine? That, it seems to me is the real essence of being human – encompassing both the mundane and the godlike at the same time without pause for breath.

And was it just me, or was Zoe Wanamaker doing a Judi Dench impression? Well, you can never be too rich or too thin…

All in all, a wonderful second episode. If this continues, I’ll be there on the sofa every Saturday.

I’ve mentioned The Apprentice before in my blog. As promised, I was there on the sofa for the second episode last week. The programme delivered the requisite "peeking from behind my fingers" quotient. As well as, I have to note, some very pleasing eye-candy in the form of Timothy, shown wearing only a towel at one point. Martin, my husband, who generally loathes business programmes, also snapped to attention at this point (look, if you came to this blog expecting to read only intellectual items – sorry – Martin and I are only human)…

Anyway, the unlucky one who got fired in this episode was Lindsay, who, it turns out is yet another ex-Shell person. I have to say, that judging by the tale spun on the programme, I (and probably yer average viewer) felt that she got what she deserved. For someone billed as a "Communications Manager" she seemed to do precious little listening to her team – who were convinced that her pet project the "Secret Signals" toy was a poor second best to the sexy alternative: a toy robot. Undaunted, she pressed on, and duly took the hit.

And yet, and yet – it seems that once again the meta-message is Don’t Trust the Meeja. I contacted a mutual friend, who is still with Shell, and she told me that the programme’s editors artfully cut the show to build a picture of Lindsay and the others that they wanted to convey. They apparently cut out the entire discussion on the financial side of things, which would have made the choice more obvious to others (Secret Signals was way cheaper to make than the robot, and hence would have been more profitable when you look at costs and profits). However, the BBC’s editors decided to cut all of that, and hence made it seem that all she wanted to do was follow her own idea…

The Meeja – doncha just love them? And don’t get me started on what the bloody meeja studies graduates have done to that once fine BBC programme: Horizon…

Oh well, I’ll be back on the sofa again to watch The Apprentice – but not tomorrow night – I’ve got another date in Dekxels with another ex-colleague to talk about life, work and information technology… Now, if I can only master my DVR, I might be able to record it.

Is this the sign of things to come? Forget Video rental – or even DVD rental – just download via the net at a cheap price and watch within 3 days.

The fascinating thing is that it’s not just for Bollywood or Hollywood style any more – even really specialised films and music can find a worldwide market via the Internet. Estonian kitchen sink drama, anyone?