Been a while since I've updated here. One reason- big family crisis. I'm going to start trying to update more frequently ASAP.

Robot Chicken Season One

Thoughts Before: Well, I'd seen first sketches through various internet sites and the idea intrigued me, Adam and Joe Show in Britain did a simlair thing using toys from our childhood to act out the scenes and it's a thing that will always appeal to me. And I seem to already have a lot of stuff with Seth Green in it.

Review: The show is very, very funny- the animated sketches never outstay their welcome (the show is only about 11 minutes long) and features an all host of celebrity voices (Macaulay Culkin, Scarlett Johansson, casts of That 70s Show and Scooby Doo), how can you not like it when Superman steals Catwoman's Hello Kitty underwear, or a Cannonball Run sketch (Dom DeLuise and Burt Reynolds are in it!!!), or a Smurfs sketch based on Seven, or many, many more funny sketches.

A good thing about the show he doesn't feel it needs to explain to the geeks out there- A Sleepaway Camp reference!- and occasionly just goes for insane humour in places.

Stand Out Moment: So many sketches to pick from, erm...George Bush in his office in the Armageddon sketch, (zoom zoom zoom!), it annoys my nephew when I do an impression of that.

Conclusion: Recommended to fans of animation, and it's another moden classic from the Adult Swim Channel- 20 episodes are on this set, so there is enough to enjoy and laugh at. (R1 only)

****

Mario Bava Double Bill

A Bay of Blood

(aka Twitch of the Death Nerve)

Thoughts Before: Mario Bava as got quite a reputation in the Giallo fans circles and this movie, by whichever title it's goes is usually one of the first mentioned. I was expecting blood and insane deaths.

Review: And you blood and insane death by the plenty, clearly ripped off to pieces by the Friday the 13th franchise- this movie is insanely difficult to keep track of whose a murderer and whose a victim. It's the sort of film you'd watch not for the story (everybody as their eyes on becoming owners of the bay)- This is typical Giallo (that is a good thing) with great moments (I flinched a couple of times), gratiatous nudity and good characters (It would have been great if the husband and wife team of the fortune teller and bug-scientist got their own spin-off movie- if they didn't die horrible in the movie) and a really, really cool ending. Mario Bava's visual flair is apparent and keeps you hooked from the first moment.

Stand Out Moment: As to be the ending, so cool and unexpected, a moment that lingers on the mind forever.

Conclusion: Rightly, should be regarded as the godfather of all the 70s/80s slashers movies since it was raped and pilaged so much. Excellently directed with memorable characters, recommended.

***** Hatchet for the Honeymoon

Thoughts Before: Bay of Blood came through the post on the Wednesday, watched it that today, loved it, knew my local used DVD shop had this in and went and brought it on the Friday. I was pretty unfamiliar with this film compared to some of Mario Bava's other movies.

Review: This just might be better then A Bay of Blood, this is even more visually stunning then that movie, like most of Bava's imput the story is 2nd place, it's everything else, the insane characters, moments (as a filmmaker I might rip off this film royally)- the plot as a man marrying brides on their wedding days to find out who killed his mother, like a lot of Italian Horror it doesn't matter just soak yourself in and your in for a treat.

Stand Out Moment: The insane wedding dress dance knife attack sequence

Conclusion: Excellent, excellent movie, it's hard to know whether to class it as a Giallo, because there is actually so little blood compared to it's counterparts, this film as many excellent moments, recommend. And the UK release DVD I brought, features an hour long Bava documentary that is also very good.

*****

Aliens Among Us (aka Alien Avengers II) Thought's Before: Sometimes you just expect a movie to be bad, that can be a good film, I only brought it cause it stars the lovely Julie Brown. The fact it's only been released in some European countries on DVD. Might be a giveaway sign. Review: Like I said, I only brought this because of Julie Brown and imported it from Holland (I never would have given it a second look otherwise)- who her and Cheer's Norm- George Wendt are both incredibly likeable and funny in the leads. The movie is a harmless if unmemorable way to spend 90 minutes (a couple of times during the duration I held a smile) , the film tries to mix genres (sci-fi, horror, comedy, western), never really settingly on any. The film is credited Roger Corman presents, so you should know what you are getting with that. Stand Out Moment: Justice, new sherrif style, it'll make you never want to speed. Conclusion: Energertic peformances and some funny moments. I'm a fan of Julie Brown, so I'm gonna be on the side of liking this, thank you very much. **

Upcoming reviews include two Mario Bava Giallo classics, another Allan Arkush movie Heartbeeps, Meet the Fockers, the 2005 remake of the Longest Yard, Ed Wood's masterpiece Glen or Glenda, teen comedy How I Got into College, I Love You to Death, a Curb Your Enthuisasm special, a Julie Brown movie that doesn't seemed to be released in any English speaking countries, Shane Black's directorial debut Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Robot Chicken Season One, The Doom Generation, Revenge of the Nerds I&II and NewsRadio Season Three.

Christ, that is a lot on my to do list...

Rock n Roll High School

Thoughts Before: I've seen a lot of "youth" movies but Rock n Roll High School was one I always missed. Seeing the wonderful Ramones featured so heavily in the soundtrack and also acting appealed to me a lot.

Review: So I got this and Death Race 2000 from E-Bay from the same seller and both arrived and found their ways into my DVDs player on the same day, both have a things in common- both are 70's Roger Corman, arguably the best Corman era and Paul Bartel's involvement.

Rock n Roll High School absolutely rocks- unusual, funny, kick ass soundtrack, likeable performances, P.J Soles in the lead role as never been cuter (same goes for Dey Young), a memorable villianous turn from Mary Woronov, while the film belongs to Paul Bartel as the music teacher who is absolutely hilarious and scene after scene that lingers on the memory, It's fair to say the music of Ramones is better then the acting but they have a memorable prescene in the movi and the movie is succesful in creating it's own reality (a giant rat doesn't seem out of place). Allan Arkush's finest directorial moment.

Stand Out Moment: P.J Soles singing Rock n Roll High School in gym, sang with such ferocious enegry.

Conclusion: Like Death Race 2000 it's not a perfectly made movie, but it's such unquestionable fun the movie sticks with, if your a fan of the earlier batch of teen comedies you'll certainly love this.

*****

Death Race 2000 Thoughts Before: I remember owning the video back in the early 90s and even then knowing it was a cheaply made movie. I though honestly can't believe it took me nearly 5 years to own the title on DVD. Review: Death Race 2000, yes you can tell it didn't have a massive budget- but that only adds to the wonderful appeal, with Roger Corman producing you know what your getting for your money. Coming in at around 80 minutes the movie never outstays it's welcome, the movie from a slew of Corman produced 70s racing films as auto racing has the concept, it's not only how fast you drive, but how many pedestrians you hit with David Carradine as Frankenstein taking on (among others) Sly Stallone's Machine Gun Joe in the brutally bloody, funny race. With the underrated (as a director and actor) Paul Bartel directing the film with a cast on top from (aswell as gratious nudity!!!) the film is the very defintion of the perfect B-Movie. Stand out Moment: Euthensia future style- nurse's leaving dying pensiors in the middle road to be killed only for Frankenstein in a sick twist of humour sort of way mow down the nurses. Conclusion: Death Race 2000 is a fantastic relic of the 1970s, anybody who likes there films a bit cultish will absolutely adore.

*****

Beautiful Girls

Thoughts Before Watching: I've seen Beautiful Girls quite a few times but haven't seen it since the end of 1999, so that is a good couple of years. I used to really like this movie and Natalie Portman's terrific performance always stood out for me. I am lookinh forward to seeing it again.

What's Good?: Natalie Portman is absolutely amazing and the rest of the cast fill there roles very well- Max Perlich should get more work. There are some great one line zingers ("Somebody's been eating retard sandwiches")- Ted Demme (who died in 2002) directs probably his best movie (Blow comes close) and Scott Rosenberg's script is not like the other films written by him that come to mind (he wrote Con-Air).

What's Bad?: On occasion the dialogue can feel just like like "cool" things spouted by the actors.

Defining Moment: "Sweet Carolina", the former high school gang sing along to the Neil Diamond classic. The Cameron Crowe moment not done by Mr. Crowe.

Overall: A very, very good movie with likeable and human characters, I'd recommend this to anybody who likes character based dramady.

****

I'm updating the idea of how I do reviews on this blog, expect changes in the coming days that makes this place different.

Bumper shopping today included:

• Curb Your Enthusiasm Season Four
• At Last the 1948 Show
• Do Not Adjust Your Set
• Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends Season One
• Beautiful Girls
• I Love You to Death
• Irma La Douce
• Neighbors
• Hot Pursuit
• Goin' South
• D-Day: The Sixth of June
• The Young Lions

Recent E-Bay (to come...) (all on Region One)

• The Man Who Knew Too Little
• The Oblong Box/Scream and Scream Again
• The Masque of Red Death/The Premature Burial

Out of the stuff from Axelmusic.com NewsRadio Season Three is arriving first according to there handy tracking system, and How I Got into College should be here soon. Look's like there is a lot to watch in the next couple of weeks.

Updated 12/4/06

Add a Danish version of Forgotten Silver and an Aussie version of Glen or Glenda, the bloody horror Bay of Blood, Death Race 2000 and Rock and Roll High School to the e-bay purches

I'm Happy as I've ordered the following R1 DVDs from Axelmusic.com:

• NewsRadio Season Three
• Grounded for Life Season One
• Robot Chicken Season One
• Clone High Season One
• The Doom Generation

And off E-Bay

• How I Got into College

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Scorsese and De Niro, Kurosawa and Mifune, Carpenter and Russell, Raimi and Campbell, some directors and actors are just meant to go together- Tim Burton and Johnny Depp have had a terrific run and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory continues it.

Now I've read the original book many times, seen the Gene Wilder movie many more times, so there was some fear- Planet of the Apes was a book, then a film, then Tim Burton remaked it, POTA was still fresh in the Mind.

I shouldn't bother going through the story, you all must know it by now- it's a good story that strikes a chord with kids and kids at heart.

Johnny Depp part-Michael Jackson/Howard Hughes- is unsuprisingly excellent- his appearance on screen is instantly welcome. Freddie Highmore as Charlie gives a genuine unannoying child performance. Deep Roy equally shines as every Umpa Lumpa and the kids minus Charlie are so unlikeable, as the audience member is filled with glee when they get there just desserts.

This adaptation is closer to the book then the Wilder version- the songs from the Umpa Lumpa's are from the book and is a likeable and sweet film. The film clearly as the Tim Burton magic, full of wonderful colour and sets and Wonka is clearly as much a Burton character as a Dahl character.

Magical with moments that can take you straight back to your childhood- anchored by a wonderful performance by Depp, the film will be a favourite for years to come.

****

I'm suffering a bit of writer's block at the minute, that's why reviews haven't been done the alst couple of days

V for Vendetta Cinema Review Hooray...after been seriously underwhelmed at the cinema this year, a film as finally come along that as reinstated my interest in the cinema year of 2006.

Based on the British graphic novel by Alan Moore (who had disowned the movie before a single shot) and set in an 1984 dystopian society- the titular "hero" V (Hugo Weaving, amazing considering his face is never seen) bombs up parts of London whilst Eveie (Natalie Portman) is witness to one such event on November 5th (Guy Fawkes Night- "Remember, remember the fifth of November"). V is planning something big excactly a year from the now which involves the people uprising.

The moments to the 1066 Overture are fantastic, as his the Benny Hill moment (you'll know what I am on about when I see it) and this the Wachowski's brothers (who wrote the script) here that made The Matrix and not it's sequels and James McTiegue makes a visually stunning directorial debut

The cast is awesome, Weaving of course, as his the love of my life Ms. Natalie Portman, suitably managaing emotions whilst juggling an English accent, the supporting cast of mostly British actors are fine such as Stephen Fry.

Overall, the film is extremely well made and watchable, with terrific moments and performances, I recommend this. I give it A for Awesome

****

Expected reviews to be added later today: cinema review of V for Vendetta (seen a week late), Andy Kaufman's only starring movie role Heartbeeps, and a pair of remakes Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the Longest Yard

Today's entertainment news from around the world:

• Keith Carradine files a civil law suit against Hollywood P.I Anthony Pellicano after discovering he was among the stars named in a wire-tapping scandal.
• Isaac Hayes as rubbished reports that a stroke was the real reason he quit South Park.
• Jessica Simpson as dumped her record label Columbia to join Epic, she's doing a lot of life changing at the minute, it's not long since she dumped Nick Lachey.
• Paul Newman is backing a bill to protect image and vocal rights for actors.
• David Hasslehoff is fighting off rumours that claim he terrorised his estranged wife in front of their kids, claiming she needs help.
• Randy Quaid is suing the producers of Brokeback Mountain for $10 million claiming they lied to him about how big of a project the movie was.

R.I.P

Richard Fleischer

I was sad to hear of the death of director Richard Fleischer, who died aged 89 and whose career spanned countless decades- his work including the original Dr. Dolittle, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Tora! Tora! Tora and two films with Arnold Schwarzenegger: Conan the Destroyer and Raw Deal.

My DVD Collection

I thought I'd post some pictures of my DVD collection (some of the DVDs are not pictured), but this is the jist of how obsessed I am with DVDs. There is a lot of television DVDs and the rest are in alphabetical order. I own about 800 at the moment, I did own over 1100 at one point, but sold many to fund the Trip to America.

The Good Girl

Okay pop quiz hot shot, Friends was one of the most successful shows on television for ten years but there big screen experiences leave little to be desired- okay Courteney Cox in Scream, Lisa Kudrow in The Opposite of Sex, both deserve mentions as good movies. But on the other hand you've got Matt Le Blanc's Ed and Lost in Space, Cox's The Shrink is In, Matthew Perry's Whole Nine Yards and it's sequel, David Schwimmer's The Pallbearer- it's just a lot easier to list the turkeys, the big fat stinking turkeys. The Good Girl certainly instantly joins the list of good movies.

Jennifer Aniston is so un-Rachel, this is one of those small indepenent movies and she actually shows she can act, but it helps she is surroned by an awesome cast, Jake Gyllenhaal- Those Gyllenhaal kids are some talented bastards- you feel sorry for the kid cause he appears unbalanced, John C. Reilly is as always excellent, as the naive husband and Tim Blake Nelson as his best friend, Zooey Deschanel is lovely and brilliant as a co-worker at Aniston's store with almost zero customer care skills and Mike White (he wrote this, and also wrote episodes of Freaks and Geeks, School of Rock, Chuck and Buck and Orange County) and is talented as both an actor and a writer.

The film is fair to probably to describe as typical indie fare, but there is nothing wrong with it falling into that category- nothing pretty much happens, is a way to describe this movie, but everybody involved with this movie shows great talent, and Aniston will no longer just be known as Rachel. Funny and sad in equal measures it was a great little movie to watch with some wonderful little moments and performances. Recommended for those who don't need explosions and car chases.

****

The Untouchables

I was pretty young when I saw The Untouchables for the first time, it was probably one of the first grown up films I ever saw, my parents where quite liberated in what films I could watch. And when I watched earlier today for the first time in a couple of years, the film stood up tremendously well with awesome performances, awesome set-pieces, David Mamet's excellent script and Ennio Morricone's awesome musical score.

The Untouchables is the story of Elliot Ness (arguably I'd say he's only been as good in JFK) battles mob boss Al Capone (an awesome Robert De Niro) during prohobition era Chicago with the help of his group of Untouchables (Sean Connery's excellent Irish cop, a career making turn from Andy Garcia and a wonderful role for Charles Martin Smith).

Director Brian De Palma's movie is beautiful in every frame, it makes you wish you could experience 1930s Chicago, the set pieces stand out, the opening expolsion ("Mister, mister you forgot your bag!"), Capone going wild with a baseball bat, two major deaths, and the Battleship Potemkin influenced pram and staircase shoot out, and a memorable ending. Untouchables is a brilliant movie in every single department.

Ennio Morricone's great score probably helps, (the entire film could be paint drying but it still would be remember as beautiful) as does Mamet's sparkling script ("If they send one of yours to the hospital, send one of there's to the morgue..."), but the film could have easily been made in the 1940s, the 1960s or the 2000s it's so timeless.

The Untouchables is probably in my top 25/30 movies of all time- whilst De Palma's Scarface seems to get all the plaudits, this along with Carrie is the true De Palma masterpiece.

*****