After finding success as a screenwriter alongside frequent collaborator Alejandro González Iñárritu (who directed the films that Guillermo Arriaga wrote) with the extremely-loose cinematic trilogy “Amores Perros” (2000), “21 Grams” (2003) and “Babel” (2005), it only seems logical that the writer turn to directing his own work. “The Burning Plain” is another one of Arriaga’s fractured, personal dramas. It goes like this: a group of seemingly unrelated people will inexplicably be connected somehow. It’s his style of writing and anyone who’s seen “Babel” or “21 Grams” knows how he writes his stories, and what makes his type of storytelling unique. Although this script isn’t as WTF-y (i.e. pretentious beyond belief) as “Babel” the film still follows a series of actions based on coincidence, happenstance, and one hell of a reveal at about the hour-ten mark; in short “The Burning Plain” is sort of a contrived mess, but also, I have to admit, well crafted. The film opens with a man (Joaquim de Almeida) and a woman (Kim Basinger) burning to death in their adulterous love-trailer-hideout in the middle of the desert. The story of what happened up until their fiery demise is (obviously, since they’re dead) told through flashbacks. The man’s son (J.D. Pardo) and the woman’s daughter (Jennifer Lawrence

Winner of many prestigious awards at four renowned festivals from around the globe – including Best Picture at the Berlin International Film Festival, the Golden Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival, Best Actor and Best Script at Gramado, and the Best Latin American Film at San Sebastian – and part of the Official Selection at countless other functions (landing on the lists of both the Telluride and Toronto film festivals), “Gigante”, a co-production between companies from Uruguay, Spain, Germany and Argentina, and set in Montevideo, the film is definitely full of foreign flavor, and a perfect fit for Film Movement. It’s also a pretty decent motion picture too, so the piles of awards laid upon it don’t come as all that much of a surprise to me either. Honestly, I rather liked it. Mostly. Jara (Horacio Camandule), our protagonist, is a hulking presence. He spends his weeknights working the graveyard shift as a security guard at the local grocery, and his weekends as a bouncer at a nightclub. Mindlessly wondering through life, simply doing his respective tasks with an oddly repetitive rhythm, Jara half-watches others on the CRT monitors in his dark office, and effortlessly throws rowdy attendees out the door on Saturday nights. A man of few words, he does what is asked of him, but little else, has few friends and is the very definition of social awkward. Because of his large size and frightful demeanor, the village ogre as it were, is an outcast from society with little to no personal interaction with people. And ...

In 1963, the French thinker Michel Foucault published The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception. In the book, Foucault argued that medicine was a self-legitimating closed system whose logic and methods served to validate its conclusions. The logic of the field of medicine is rarely questioned due to the authority held by the discipline, and thus in Foucault’s eyes medicine is a self-perpetuating system of power: its conclusions (ie, its diagnoses and methods of treatment) are justified through the discourse associated with the field rather than through any objective reality. When Foucault’s book was published, the National Health Service was still a relatively new organisation, having been established in 1948. In the 1960s, the NHS was still a strong organisation, although as the decade progressed the organisation was finding itself having to deal with a period of rapid change in terms of medical technology (Greener, 2008: 84). In the 1960s and 1970s, the development of new treatments and techniques resulted in ‘new demands for services’ for illnesses that may otherwise have gone untreated: for example, ‘[d]rug therapy for people with mental illness increased in use […] offering patients with these conditions the opportunity for very different lives, free from institutions’...

I’ll be the first to admit that I can’t think of a less-appealing draw for a film I’m about to watch than the fact that it’s a strong matriarchal drama starring Queen Latifah. That, to me, sounds like a recipe for cinematic kryptonite. But once I learned that the film takes place in the rural South of the still-very-much-racist 1960’s, my interest was piqued. I’m a big fan of films set in yesteryear, especially those which showcase some of America’s greatest beauty (the sumptuous visage of the South) alongside its worst offenses (namely, the prevalence of racism in that region). Even bad films can be great because they act as a time capsule – a reminder of just how far (or not, depending on who you ask) America has come in the ensuing 50 years. “The Secret Life of Bees” is based on the New York Times bestselling novel of the same name written by Sue Monk Kidd. The novel was a semi-autobiographical account of Kidd’s life growing up in 1960’s South Carolina. Originally written as a short story, Kidd felt she couldn’t let her remaining thoughts go unpublished, so she amended that abridged version and released the full novel on which this film is based. Now, much of what she included is as sappy as the product the titular bees produce, but there is a strong message woven throughout of love, respect and the guidance young girls need from their mother. That core belief is what grounds the film and allows the film’s many noteworthy names a chance to shine in their respective (if not...

For those who don’t know, the Film Movement Series is a DVD of the Month Club that specializes in bringing award winning, foreign, “festival” type films to home video. Usually their choices are a little obscure, almost definitely “artsy” and generally too outside the norm to see regular (widespread) distribution in the States. “The Drummer” (also known as “Zhan. gu”) is one of the latest releases from the Film Movement people, but unlike, say, Shane Meadows’ “Somers Town” (2008) which just by being in black-and-white and running little over an hour in length slips outside the box enough to be understandably part of the collection, I find the inclusion of Kenneth Bi’s film to be a bit of a puzzler. In fact, the picture, which really is little more than a tale of gangster types, set in Hong Kong and Taiwan, is (aside from it’s subtitles) pretty mainstream and has genuine marketability. It’s the type of foreign film that I could see Mark Cuban releasing in the States under his Magnolia Pictures or Magnet banners, and not something that necessarily belongs in the Film Movement stable. Sid (Jaycee Chan) is a stubborn, stuck-up brat. At twenty years old he still hasn’t quite matured, and does whatever he wants, no matter the consciences. He thinks (too) highly of himself and walks all over people. Of course, none of this is exactly out of character for someone whose father is one of the ...

Somers Town, a small district of greater London, is home to thousands of new immigrants each year who arrive to the hub-like area finding a home in one of the cold gray tower blocks that overlooks the city. The region is the center point of a railway interconnect, joining tracks from North and East England, The Midlands and Scotland: Euston St. Pancras and Kings Cross. It is also the core location for Shane Meadows' critically acclaimed feature film, the aptly titled “Somers Town.” Winner of numerous awards, the film’s stars, Thomas Turgoose and Piotr Jagiello, both won Best Actor in a Narrative Feature at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival and Meadows' film also took home the Michael Powell Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (that festivals top honor). The production was also nominated for Best Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Director and Best British Independent Film at the British Independent Film Awards. Released in the UK during late August of 2008, “Somers Town” now arrives on US shores via the Film Movement DVD series. Mugged, robbed, left penniless and without his luggage within the first few hours of being on the streets of London, Tomo (Thomas Turgoose), a young teen looking to start a new life, is having a bit of rotten luck. We’re told little else about him, or what he’s doing in the city, other than a rather vague line about running away from home, be...

Boy Dominic (Yorkshire Television, 1974): The Complete Series Produced for Yorkshire Television in 1974, Boy Dominic is notable for featuring Richard Todd's first appearance in an ongoing television drama. Essentially a Robert Louis Stevenson-esque 'boy's own' adventure story, Boy Dominic opens in 1820 and focuses on Dominic/'Nick' Bulman (Murray Dale). Dominic's father is Captain Charles Henry Bulman (Richard Todd); and when Charles' ship, the Bright Star, is wrecked off the coast of North Africa, Dominic and his mother Emma (Hildegarde Neil) find that they must sell their house in order to pay the family’s debtors. They travel to Charles' family home in Harrogate. However, they find Lady Bulman (Mary Morris), Charles' mother, unwilling to help; after listening to Emma’s requests for aid, Lady Bulman asserts 'I have no grandson' and refers to Emma as 'a ridiculous woman' who only married Charles in order to gain access to the Bulman family's apparently depleting wealth. The situation appears bleak, but Dominic and Emma are saved by William Woodcock (

2010 is a special year for fans of Elvis Presley. It marks the 75th anniversary of the late, beloved singer/actor/karate-king’s birth and that’s good news for the followers of the man, especially for those who love his movies (or movies about him). Warner Brothers is apparently planning a commemorative box-set containing Blu-ray versions of key Elvis titles later this year. More important to this review is the news that Shout! Factory has finally acquired the rights and is releasing John Carpenter’s “Elvis” on DVD this March, a film thought by many to be one of the better depictions of the artist’s life. Personally, and I’ve said this before, I think that Elvis is pretty overrated. The God-like status thrust upon him by his many fans is puzzling in my eyes, especially considering that he was a mediocre singer (who sang some catchy songs, sure) and plainly pedestrian as an actor. Presley was a solid performer in his heyday, but not someone who had a whole lot of true, raw prowess in either field. Even then, I realize that he is a cultural icon and, at the very least, was an interesting person with an absorbing story. As such, I view Elvis not as a man who was particularly gifted, but as an intriguing person in history. Likewise, I don’t find John Carpenter’s “Elvis” to be a particularly spectacular biopic, but I do find a smattering of agreeable, admirable attributes in it. Like Elvis, his songs and his films, I see Carpenter’s “...

Eli: In my experience, the 1.0 version is the most buggy. Dr. Rush: It’s also the simplest. The once mighty juggernaut that is the “Stargate” franchise looked to be finally ending when it was announced that “Stargate: Atlantis”, the second live action series to be based off of the pulpy Emmerich/Devlin 1994 feature film, would not be returning to the Sci-Fi network (screw that SyFy bullshit) and that further direct-to-video films would be put on hold. Then, in a move that caught many off guard (myself included) and going against all previous statements, “SG-1” and “Atlantis” producers Brad Wright and Robert Cooper announced that a totally new series was in production and that it was called “Stargate: Universe.” Flash-forward to now and the series’ first 10 episodes are hitting home video and I’ll tell you straight away, I’m not sold on this new ‘gate. Is it as awful as some fans are decreeing? No. But, “Stargate: Universe”, or “SGU”, needs a lot – and I mean A LOT – of work. It’s a promising series; and sure, one day it could be a strong television product. But, as it stands right now, this first half of Season One inspires little, other than thoughts and comparisons to other better television and sci-fi entries. It’s fairly obvious that Wright, Cooper and company want this series to be akin to “Battlestar Galactica” (2004-2009) but it’s also obvious that they don’t know how to make anything close to Ron Moore’s epic tale o...

There are two things a viewer must be well aware of before watching “Capitalism: A Love Story” (2009): that the United States is indeed in the midst if a terrible financial crisis and, that this is a Michael Moore film, so expect that any and all facts presented are going to be heavily skewed. This isn’t to say that I don’t feel Moore made a disingenuous film, but rather that he always has a knack for injecting too much of his personal philosophy (and himself) into his movies to really allow me to make a stronger connection with the material. I’ve found that I’m typically an advocate of the issues he stands behind, at least in regard to his feature films, but I think his methods are too sensational to be taken seriously. His outlandish style is more slanted toward entertainment than actual progress toward change. But I know he (mostly) means well. Moore’s latest doc-u-tainment feature is ostensibly focused on the apparent failure of capitalism and free enterprise in America, but it comes across as a bit too schizophrenic, too broad of a focus. Moore wants to highlight all aspects of what has happened to the middle class of America, but in doing so he hops all over the place looking for a pull-of-the-heartstrings story to tell. The film gains emotional weight when Moore takes the camera off of himself and places it in front of those who have been hit hardest by the economic downturn. The stories told by the families involved paint of sad picture of what has happened to our system of banking with a lack of regulations. If th...

When I first heard that Hollywood was remaking “Fame” (1980), a film by director Alan Parker and writer Christopher Gore now approaching its thirtieth anniversary, said news was met with a stone-faced “why?” from me. Of course, within this same week I’d also started to see evidence of a new “RoboCop” (1987) in the early stages of pre-production (which is thankfully on hold at the moment), and was not too far after I’d read about the new “Red Dawn” (1984), so by that point, I was pretty apathetic about the whole thing. The one common element shared between all three of these wholly unnecessary remakes; their original production studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. As the once great company, responsible for such universally renowned films as “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) and “Gone With the Wind” (1939), flounders in near financial ruin these days it’s not really all that unsurprising that, instead of creating all-new, original films, the studio has turned into a house of remakes and cinematic do-overs. Other more monetarily sound studios do it too with often, at the very least, moderate success so I don’t particularly fault the folks over at MGM for returning to the well, which is bound to be full of beloved classics, iconic cult films and fun romps. Why should MGM spend millions upon millions of dollars (which they don’t have) on something that, while original, likely won’t sell tickets, when they can put a film, with a familiar tit...

Travelling Man: The Complete Series Created by Roger Marshall and produced for Granada Television, Travelling Man (1984-5) features Leigh Lawson as Lomax (sometimes called ‘Max’ by the characters he befriends), a former member of the Metropolitan Police’s drug squad who was framed for the theft of £100,000. In the first episode, ‘First Leg’, Lomax is released after serving two years in prison, and finds that his wife Jan has moved to Canada, and his son Steve has taken to the road. Lomax’s house has been sold by Jan, and all Lomax’s wife has left Lomax is ‘Harmony’, his canal boat. After leaving prison, Lomax takes it upon himself to clear his name and find Steve. Lomax travels through the British countryside on his canal boat, and in each episode he finds himself at the centre of a different narrative: in ‘First Leg’, the first episode of the series, Lomax helps a middle-class drug addict, Sally Page (Morag Hood), through confronting her dealer (Peter Faulkner); in ‘On the Hook’, Lomax is caught in an incident of cattle rustling and, to clear his name, enlists the help of a man who he met in prison, a fence named Granny Jackson (

A landmark television series that is consistently regarded as one of the best British television dramas ever produced, Callan (ABC/Thames, 1967-72) survived for four series. The first series was developed in response to the introduction of the character of David Callan in a 1967 episode of ITV’s anthology series Armchair Theatre (ABC/Thames, 1956-74), ‘A Magnum for Schneider’. The response to ‘A Magnum for Schneider’ was unambiguously positive: The Daily Mirror’s newspaper critic Kenneth Easthaugh even compared the drama to the work of Shakespeare, stating in his review that ‘William Shakespeare crossed swords with TV writer, James Mitchell this weekend and, in terms of sheer impact, Shakespeare lost’ (White, 2003: 184). The character of David Callan (played by Edward Woodward, in what is arguably a career-defining performance) proved extremely popular, later appearing in the 1974 film Callan (directed by Don Sharp) – which was essentially a reworking of ‘A M...

Wow, 20 years and it's gone so fast. Like many I recall watching the original shorts on "The Tracy Ullman Show" (1987-1990) then sitting down to the very first episode of the series in 1989. Flash forward 20 years and "The Simpsons" is still going strong as the longest running TV show of all time. Over the years we've seen some greatness and the not so great. If anything the series has been like a roller coaster ride, of late the quality of the episodes slipped, seasons leading up to the 20th were sorely lacking, but the writers and creative team behind the series managed to pick it up in the 19th and into the 20th season, delivering some solid episodes and some memorable moments. It's certainly not the best season of this landmark series but it's a decent return to form. The 20th season is a landmark for many reasons, not just the obvious one of being the 20th season, but this year "The Simpsons" went HD, (well at least halfway through) and as a result we have some of the cleanest animation the series has seen... ever. The jump to HD has not only helped the color saturation, crispness of the image but the show feels new and fresh. More on this in the video portion of the review. Sadly although the series looks fresh, the writing doesn't always land on the hilarious side of things. My main problem with this season of the show is that it's just not as memorable as previous seasons. There are highlights from certain episodes, like the Mardi Gras opening from "No Loan Again, Naturally" and the couple from "Once" (2006) showing up briefly in "In The Nam...

The success of “Romeo + Juliet” (1996) launched a swarm of Shakespeare adaptations and modern reinterpretations into production like “10 Things I Hate About You” (1999), “Hamlet” (2000) and “O” (2001). It was both the dream and nightmare of English teachers everywhere, nightmares for purists, a godsend for those trying to get kids interested in Shakespeare and pretty great for substitutes who could put on the newer movies and take a nap in the corner. These movies were some sort of Shakespeare for a new generation by putting all these older stories into a modern setting, though some would keep the original prose, “10 Things I Hate About You” is one of the more tenous adaptations as it completely changes the language too, transforming it into some bizarre combination of a John Hughes imitator and Shakespeare. Two daughters, both very different in dignity, In affluent Washington state, where we lay our scene. An overprotective father has determined that his younger daughter, Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) cannot date or even go to dances unless her older sister, Kat (Julia Stiles), a shrew, is also dating or going to whatever dance and party Bianca wants to attend. The new guy, Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) hatches a plan to fulfill his crush on Bianca by tricking the ultra-vain Joey (Andrew Keegan) into paying the renegade Patrick (

Turning a film into a TV show takes a degree of talent in trying to figure out how to convert a self-contained story that lasted more than an hour into a half hour to hour piece of television. There are some greats, like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (1997-2004) becoming one of the greatest pieces of television after the hilariously bad film (1992), but it’s just another way to stroke the tremendous talent of Joss Whedon. But outside of the handful of exceptions, there are complete and total failures. Building from a mediocre teen movie to create a teen half-hour sitcom is just a sign that it’s all downhill from the pilot onwards, but Carter Covington’s adaptation of “10 Things I Hate About You” (1999) into “10 Things I Hate About You” (2009) plunges into the depths of hell. Ditching the reasonably entertaining aspects of the film, the television series pursues a beyond stereotypical teen comedy. Rather than having any sort of story depth with the main characters, people are re-submerged back into typical teen niches and actions, not even building any interest in the characters. This time around Kat (Lindsey Shaw) and Bianca (Meaghan Jette Martin) are new to a California high school, though their character types are mildly the same. Their father, played again by Larry Miller, is an overprotective OBGYN who is terrified of them becomi...

One of the most oft-discussed big budget fallouts in Hollywood – Microsoft’s canning of Peter Jackson’s supposedly lavishly overdone "Halo" project – was one of the greatest things to happen in modern movie history. [Waits for the thousands, upon hundreds of thousands of cries-of-protest from rabid "Halo" fans to die down] Yeah, I said it. But, hear me out. What would we, as moviegoers, have gained from the planned "Halo" adaptation? Most likely just a crappy, ludicrous, production that satisfied no one… think about it, has there ever been a truly good film based on a video game? Maybe, but there are countless other examples – far more than the few merely decent tries – that are positively appalling pieces of cinema. Could Peter Jackson and his protégé, a young filmmaker from South Africa named Neill Blomkamp, have defied all odds and created a good movie, based off of a beloved game, that would actually be award-winningly excellent and not just a fanboy pleaser? Possibly, and, maybe, someday, someone will do the unexpected with Microsoft and their "Halo" product, because the prospect of said film will not just go away forever. Someone will make it, and I might be good. But, really I don’t care. Why? Because, out of the ashes of the Jackson/Blomkamp vs. Microsoft battle rose "District 9", one of the best sci-fi action films in recent memory. Set in an alternate timeline, where aliens came to earth in the early ...

Everyone’s least favorite show is back. Or everyone’s favorite worst show is back… how you wish to say it is up to you. Amy Juergens (Shailene Woodley) and her annoying friends (Megan Park, Darren Kagasoff, Francia Raisa and Greg Finley), broken family (Molly Ringwald, Mark Derwin and India Eisley), idiot boyfriend Ben (Ken Baumann) and her stupid baby (who she’s named John) are all still up to their ridiculous games and stupid actions. Why should we care? We shouldn’t. What do they do? Seriously retarded things. On a more serious note, Volume Three picks up where the last season left off (duh). Now with a newborn child, young Amy must face the harsh responsibilities that come with being stupid enough to not at least use some sort of birth control or contraceptive when you have sex. Speaking of stupid, Mrs. Juergens was dumb enough to have unprotected sex early in the season, with her new boyfriend, even though she has a horrible reminder of the consequences schlepping around her house all day sulking and complaining about how tired she is and how much she needs help. Unfortunately for the Juergens’ one of the women is probably pregnant again. Am...

After the success of the “High School Musical” franchise (2006-2008) it only seems logical that studios would clamor for an answer, something that could bring them the sort of ridiculous revenue that Disney saw from a group of high school singing teens. The next logical step would be to look to somewhere that they could draw from an established name, either from a franchise or something in cultural memory that would give them an easy in so it didn’t look like an answer to “High School Musical.” And so an incredibly loose remake of the 1980 film “Fame” came about in the 2009 “Fame” of the same story of a number of teens in a performing arts school who will sing and dance throughout the film. Opening with auditions to join the New York High School of Performing Arts or P.A., some students fail horribly but some show some real talent and make it into one of the show’s programs in acting, dance and music. Over the course of their four years in the school, the students start to grow in talent or have troubles in their classes as they all try to follow their dreams. Malik (Collins Pennie) dreams of becoming famous, enrolling at the school to become a rapper/actor and becomes friends with Denise (Naturi Naughton), an incredible pianist who is secretly an incredible singer, but is terrified of her father finding out about her singing talent. Jenny (Kay Panabaker) is timid but in the acting program and shows real talent, but needs to ...

For the most part, actor’s careers follow a pattern. For some it’s a sharp peak followed by a swift descent into bit parts, while others plateau and very few just keep on rising. With Clive Owen it’s more like a mountain range that can have huge rises to prominence and stay at a good elevation, only to rapidly drop and suddenly rise back up. For the “King Arthur” (2004) gulches there’s an everest like “Children of Men” (2006), surrounded by the high altitude “Sin City” (2005) and “Inside Man” (2006), only to plunge back down with “The Pink Panther” (2006). Every time it seems like Clive Owen is down, he starts getting back up. After a plunge into regular romantic comedy with “Duplicity” (2009), Owen comes back with a good drama like “The Boys Are Back” (2009) about a grieving father and his connections with his sons. It sounds generic, but Owen really lives the performance in a film that's nicely script and features a good supporting cast. As a reporter Joe Warr (Clive Owen) spends a good amount of time away from his home in the Australian country with wife Katy (Lara Fraser) and 6 year old son Artie (Nicholas McAnulty),...

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (Thames, 1973): Series Two In the 1970s, the broadcaster Hugh Greene (brother of author Graham Greene) edited a series of anthology collections of Victorian-era short stories by authors who attempted to emulate the success of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional creation Sherlock Holmes. The first of these volumes was titled The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (More Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: Cosmopolitan Crimes was published in 1971, The Further Rivals of Sherlock Holmes appeared in 1973 and in 1976 Greene edited the final entry into this series, The American Rivals of Sherlock Holmes); and under the same title, in 1971 Thames Television delivered a series of thirteen adaptations of the stories contained in the Greene-edited anthologies, including dramatisations of works by such authors as R. Austin F...

Tyler Perry. Some call him the black Robert Rodriquez, and by that I can only assume they are referring to the Rodriquez who gave us "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D" (2005) the "Spy Kids" films (2001-2003) and more recently the truly, stupidly, mesmerizing bad "Shorts!" (2009) and not the brilliant half who have us "Sin City" (2005) the later being something I could never see Perry even attempting. I jest, although the parallel is not entirely off base. Both Rodriquez and Mr. Perry churn out an endless supply of mediocre, genuinely low budget productions, written, directed, produced (and sometimes edited, scored, etc…) by themselves, that are, for whatever reason, decently successful. Perry’s success is particularly perplexing to me, mostly because I don’t understand the drive of his loyal fan base. What makes these people, who are mostly conservative African-American Baptists from the south, flock to the theaters to see a grown man, dressed up in a muumuu and a wig, pretending to be an aging black woman, for two hours. I don’t know why, but people love Madea, the totally politically incorrect (but mildly amusing) caricature he created years ago on stage for a series of, dare I say, creative and smart plays. Most moviegoers probably haven’t seen Perry’s original plays. In the case of "I Can Do Bad All By Myself", although it shares the same title as his 2002 play of the same name, it carries over little ...

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 25 years, you’re likely aware that the “Transformers” brand is one of the most successfully marketed in entertainment. After starting off as a toy line in Japan, the series was purchased by Hasbro, who launched an endless assault comprised of more toys, cartoon series, comic books, commercials, feature films and ephemera than anyone would know what to do with. The first season of the cartoon series, which debuted in 1984, introduced kids to the world of the "Transformers," showcased the individuals fighting on both sides (Autobot or Decepticon) and laid the groundwork for everything else that has followed since. Season Two doesn’t break much new ground; it’s decidedly more of the same, albeit with a larger roster of robots. The success of the first season led executives to quickly order up enough episodes to satisfy syndication requirements, which was 65 episodes, thus the reason why season one had a mere 16 episodes compared with the gargantuan order of 49 for season two. But don’t expect any long-standing story arcs. Almost every episode acts as a standalone, 23 minute adventure aside from a few 2-parters. The idea was so that networks could broadcast the episodes in whichever order they wanted, and presumably because kids just wanted to see robots fighting, plot be damned. This is both a positive and negative. Without an overreaching arc of any sort, there isn’t much to keep anyone but hardcore fanboys from losing interest. On the other hand, the lack of a cohesive, linear plot means that you can throw on almost a...

The master filmmaker continues to reinvent the genre he created with a film that draws new battle lines between the living and the dead. Rogue soldier Sarge (Alan Van Sprang, Diary of the Dead, Land of the Dead) leads a band of military dropouts to seek refuge from the endless chaos of the zombie uprising on remote Plum Island. Patriarch Patrick O’Flynn (Kenneth Welsh, The Exorcism of Emily Rose) and his family believe the only good zombie is a (truly) dead zombie, whilst rival clan the Muldoons believe in chaining up the un-dead until a cure can be found. But there is no cure for death, and the consequences of the feud are bloody. Caught in the middle, Sarge is drawn to Janet (Kathleen Monroe), Patrick’s daughter, who tries to make peace between the two warring factions. But hope of a truce is shattered when Sarge’s best friend is killed, and the battle that follows overtakes everyone on the island, living and dead. Romero has crafted a sharp subversion of the classic Western, and continued to raise societal issues while devising new and ingenious ways to exterminate flesh-eaters! So who are you going to side with, The Living or The Dead? OK, enough of the publicity blurb, I want to start by sharing my initial thoughts before even watching the film. First there was Night...Dawn...Day, then Land...Diary...Survival! There's not quite the same feeling of inspiration in those titles the second time around and, less face it, there's a strong whiff of consumerism behind the 2nd trilogy. The very same issue critised so strongly in the wonderful Dawn. Why else would...

Based on the comic book of the same name by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele, the five issue series was a moderate success in the comic world, but picked up fairly quickly due to it's cinematic sci-fi themes and a cool concept that has become all the rage of late. Characters use other bodies to live out their lives, of course the most obvious and box office smashing example of this is James Cameron's "Avatar" (2009) which as of writing this is the world's highest grossing film of all time and the box office shows no sign of slowing down at this time. "Surrogates" takes this concept of using other bodies to live out ones life and delivers a fairly tepid and generic actioner that flopped upon release. In this film people live out their lives with the use of surrogate robots... somewhere in there is also an action thriller from sometimes-ok director Jonathan Mostow. The biggest problem I had with this film is that it's a classic case of good concept not reaching its full potential in it's screen adaptation. "Surrogates" is set in the not too distant future of 2017. FBI agent Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) like many people use a surrogate, partnered up with agent Jennifer Peters (Radha Mitchell) investigates what appears to be the first murder committed in years. The use of surrogates ...

The Clifton House Mystery (HTV, 1978) In ‘Dear BBC’: Children, Television, Storytelling and the Public Sphere (2001), Maire Messenger Davies suggests that children’s television drama suffers from a ‘lack of recognition’ which ‘is part of a general critical tradition which does not take seriously material specifically labelled as aimed at children’ (57). With some notable exceptions (for example, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland), children’s literature is still predominantly seen as a form of paraliterature: it exists outside the realms of the ‘literary’ and sits alongside ‘disreputable’ genres such as crime fiction. Like other paraliterary genres, children’s literature is seen as solely interested in the notion of escapism, demonstrating little form of social engagement or depth. Children’s television drama is similarly seen as being of ‘lesser’ quality than television drama produced for adults (ibid.). However, the perception...

The Guardians (LWT, 1971) Never repeated since its original transmission in 1971, the dystopic science-fiction series The Guardians (LWT, 1971) ran for a single series of thirteen episodes. The series was created by Rex Firkin and Vincent Tilsely; and in its vision of a totalitarian society that allows little room for individualism or free will, The Guardians has some elements in common with The Prisoner (ITC, 1967-8), for which Vincent Tilsley wrote a number of episodes. The Guardians managed to draw upon a number of issues that came to dominate the 1970s (industrial unrest, unemployment, inflation, political violence) but, in the current economic climate, the series also seems strangely timely. At the time of its original broadcast, The Guardians may have appeared to be too closely allegorical of the situation in Northern Ireland and the explosion of political violence that took place in the 1970s, including the Falls Curfew of July 1970 (which is often cited as a major catalyst in Belfast’s Catholic population’s distrust of the British Army). The Guardians depicts a socie...

Anyone who knows me or has read my reviews here on DVDcompare know that I’m not the biggest fan of the straight drama. Movies that are just about people and the lives they lead are usually uninteresting to me. Of course there are exceptions ("Mad Men" (2007-Present), "The Wire" (2002-2008), anything by P.T. Anderson), but if there isn’t some sort of interesting turn to a film, like magicians, aliens, masked killers, and so on and so on, I tend to lose interest. I know that I’ll probably never get a voting-membership in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with this attitude, but it’s just the way I am. It is because of this that I usually dread watching a movie like "The Burning Plain." It has two famous actresses and the plot blurb on the back would lead me to believe it is about how people connect... or something. Not my cup of tea. Or so I thought. I have to admit that "The Burning Plain," written and directed by Guillermo Arriaga, was a pleasant surprise. "The Burning Plain" unravels its story in the same fashion as "21 Grams" (2003) and "Babel" (2006), both penned by Arriaga. We have seemingly disjointed stories and time jumps, and by the end of the film you get a better picture as to how everything connects. I’m happy to say that "The Burning Plain" falls more into the category of "21 Grams," a mo...

I thought I had seen it all in this gig, but then I saw “Heist” (2009), no not “Heist” (2001), but “Heist” (2009). No, the other “Heist” (2009), not the short film but the feature length one. Now I’ve seen a horse fly, and I’ve seen Miley Cyrus fly, but I ain’t never reviewed a movie as bad as this. It’s no “The Room” (2003) or “Troll 2” (1990), it’s not even in their league of terribleness. It’s a college film student movie at a mid-level college that has good equipment to loan and a terrible pool people on a school designated actors list to give to a sophomore’s final project. Which is just a complicated way of saying it’s a terribly put together, terribly acted, terribly directed, terribly produced film. Possibly the worst I’ve had to take on. Of course there’s a “Heist” involved, a heist of an armored truck of all things, coordinated by K (Rick Jordan) in order to help repay his brother Erik’s (Erik David) debts to mysterious Luis (Christian Mendez). But this is such a mess of a movie there’s got to be more involved right? Not really. K works with a ragtag gang with unexplained specialties to organize the heist, to the tune of some stock music and bad editing. Complications? Sure ther...

Though we all have a different idea of what qualifies as a “guilty pleasure” film, I have to admit it’s been a while since I’ve watched a movie that completely fits my personal definition. These are the films that are often incredibly implausible, outrageously violent and undeniably entertaining. “Law Abiding Citizen” (2009), for my money, fits that bill to a T. After watching the uninspired trailer earlier this year, I decided to skip the film in theaters. The nearly-universal horrendous reviews didn’t help much either. But I’ll admit I was slightly intrigued by the film if only because its subject matter was revenge, one of my absolute favorite subgenres. If done with even the most minute amount of competence, a “bad” revenge movie can still be insanely awesome. Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is a loving husband and father until a break-in at his home leaves his wife and daughter dead. The men responsible have been captured, but District Attorney Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) wants to cut a deal so that one of them gets the death penalty and the other serves a minimum sentence. This doesn’t sit well with Clyde, who waits 10 years to exact his revenge not only on the men responsible for his family’s death, but also the legal team who made the plea deal. Police quickly surmise that Clyde has brutally slaughtered both men, but his master plan only begins to come to fruition once he is locked securely behind bars. Rice and the Philadelphia police have to figure out who Clyde’s accompli...