The Waters of Mars

Oh. My. God.

Well, that was a bit ……..

Cool.

I mean there was the whole what was he doing there anyway thing. Just so happened to turn up on that day???

‘Name, rank and purpose’ ‘The Doctor. Doctor. Fun’

And the running.

And the stuff about bikes.

And the water…. lots of water.

And the fabulous Adelaide, and how star-struck he was.

And the whole fixed points in time thing that I thought was fact until he said it was theory.

And the robot.

And what he told her. And the thing he did. And the other thing he did. And then the thing she did. And the other other thing he did. And then what she said. And then the other thing she did. And his reaction. And the foreshadowing. And then the end.

And to cap it all there was a teaser for the last ever Tennant story at Christmas. With him. And him. And him. And especially her. Can’t wait; may possibly expire with anticipation. Or not. But still. Wow.

The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith

So, getting close to the end of David Tennant’s reign as Doctor Who and here we are with him making a significant appearance in the spin-off children’s series The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Sarah Jane, erstwhile companion of the Doctor from the old series, and always one of my very favourites as she was around when I used to watch it regularly during the Jon Pertwee/Tom Baker days, has met a rather nice man and after a whirlwind romance is about to get married.

This is very disconcerting to her son and young companions who want her to be happy but are suspicious about how quickly this has happened and very wary of the gentleman in question. They would have been even more wary if they’d been TV drama watching adults because Nigel Havers has made a career out of playing dashing-but-something-not-quite-right-about-him characters.

And of course it all sounds too good to be true and is, as rather a sad story plays itself out over the two episodes. But The Doctor is fabulous as always, a slightly more heightened version of the character than in the main series, but all the usual stuff is there: the quizzical frown,’spit spot’, ’allons-y’, ‘I’m sorry’ and lots of diving around.

Elisabeth Sladen is excellent value as always, and I really enjoyed this story in a series that I have tended to avoid because of its target audience being slightly younger children than traditional Who.

And was there foreshadowing of changes to come? Oh, yes, I rather think there was.

Warehouse 13 – mid-season recap

So, I blogged about the pilot episode of Warehouse 13 here, and have been watching it ever since; episode by episode thoughts as I go along follow:

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Episode 2 – Resonance

The old bank-robbers-using-something-mysterious trick to get the cash; all is of course not what it seems. It has sense memories, limbic doo-dahs, very attractive lady FBI agents who have to be got around cos they don’t like the Secret Service treading on their patch, and a security breach at the Warehouse itself. I enjoyed this as a nice establishing episode with some hints of future darkness (and we do like hints of future darkness around here)

Episode 3 – Magnetism

Nice little nod to Tom Cruise and Mission Impossible at the beginning, then it’s all nuns who think they can fly, violent old ladies (made me think a tiny wee bit of Monty Python’s Hell’s Grannies), over-excited teenage musicians, groping paramedics and paranoid sheriffs. Ho hum. But liked the Myka thumping Pete more than once.

Episode 4 – Claudia

The kidnapping-Artie-to-put-right-a-wrong one. Pete and Myka  working out by themselves how to find him. And I thought Claudia was going to be really irritating in a self-consciously quirky-bright-girl kind of way, but she grows on you….

Episode 5 – Elements

Native American legends meet modern(ish) sculpture, powerful rich men, sacred caves, potential end of the world as we know it scenario, flirting Myka. Claudia becomes part of the team. Thought the effects work was pretty dodgy in places.

Episode 6 – Burnout

The one with the missing (now dead) Warehouse agent from the 1960s. Nice touch that they keep the rooms and personal effects of missing agents intact. Not much of an explanation of what the thing actually was, nor why they didn’t use the usual stuff to deal with it, but some nice Peter and Myka stuff and Claudia is really growing on me. Plus totally with Pete on the cookie thing.

——–

View so far = not very demanding but really easy to watch, and the cast and their relationships are (so far) really sweet.

Hallowe’en moviefest

So as is now traditional, Hallowe’en was spent watching an old favourite and a new classic, both directed by Henry Selick.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my all-time favourites, and I watch it every year at this time (plus an additional viewing at Christmas). It more than holds its own against newcomers, and is always a fitting end to Carl’s RIP Challenge (regardless on how well I’ve done on the challenge itself). I reviewed it last year, so if you want to see what I thought, head over here.

But first we watched a new addition to the DVD library, Coraline. Now this was going to be interesting. We saw this movie at a preview screening earlier this year, and didn’t get a chance to specify the format, so had to see it in 3D (my review is here). I have a huge problem with 3D, because I wear glasses, and have to wear 3D specs on top if those (which I have to do as otherwise I just can’t see a thing) leads to an inevitable headache. So watching the 2D DVD turned out to be totally fascinating, as I picked up on loads of detail which I missed at the cinema, and again really couldn’t see what 3D had added to the film. Loved it, and suspect it may become a Hallowe’en fixture.

And I know I’m stretching it a bit calling two movies a fest, but believe me that’s pretty good going for me…

Up

I’m getting a little bit tired of seeing films only after Silvery Dude has done so, but to be fair I have been away and he does have children to entertain during half term so it’s probably not such a surprise that he got to see Up first.

A bit of context: the Book God and I like to go out and do something special to mark the end of our annual holiday. In previous years it’s been theatre or concerts, but this time we definitely wanted to see a movie. And for a while it was a toss-up between Up and The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, and Up won out largely because of personal recommendations in other words I haven’t met anyone who hasn’t liked it.

The plot: Carl is a widower who has lost his sense of direction since the death of his wife, and is beset by developers who are encroaching on the little house which he and his late wife Ellie had made into a home which reflected their love of adventure. And he decides he’s had enough and attaches a huge number of balloons to the building with the aim of floating away to South America, where he and Ellie had always hoped to end up. Unfortunately Russell, a Wilderness Explorer who wants to help Carl so that he can be awarded with his last remaining badge, has accidentally stowed away (well you don’t expect houses to just float away do you?). Cue a bit of slapstick and lessons about friendship learned all round.

What I loved about the movie = Carl; Russell; the talking dogs; the whole look of the film; the first twenty minutes (which are fabulous); having a senior as the hero; having another senior as the villain (I can never get enough of Christopher Plummer; someone give that man a knighthood).

Dislikes or quibbles = none, just loved it…

Rating stuff = U (mild threat)

Tissue count = I totally embarrassed myself, cried like a sentimental old fool (it was very satisfying, I have to say)

Safety Cushion = totally unnecessary.

So another point I should make is that I deliberately went to see this in 2D and have to say that I couldn’t see how it could have ben any better in 3D, which I find difficult to watch anyway (the glasses give me a headache).

Some people have also said that the rest of the film doesn’t live up to its opening twenty minutes but I didn’t find the change of tone a problem, and the little girl sitting behind us with her dad was clearly enraptured so the movie satisfied a forty-five year age span and that spells success to me.

Has already been added to the must-be-purchased list.

Harper’s Island

So I started watching Harper’s island following a recommendation by Silvery Dude who thought I’d enjoy it, and am working through the episodes as they are broadcast, so this will be an end-of series post which makes possible spoilers OK (I guess – but if you don’t like them and intend to watch the series at some point probably best not to go on).

………………………………….

Episode 1

So Henry & Trish are getting married on Harper’s Island; she’s rich, he isn’t but hey, they’re in love so who cares? Well, her Dad, and by the looks of things he’s going to be interfering in an I-want-what-I-think-is-best-for-my-daughter-whether-she-agrees-or-not kind of way. There are lots of beautiful people, a death by propeller in the first 15 minutes, incipient shenanigans, and an older murder mystery looming over everything. Two standouts are our heroine, Abby, and Uncle Marty (played by the great Harry Hamlin) who ends the episode half the man he used to be (according to the continuity announcer on BBC3, possibly the best joke of the night). First impressions = silly, glossy TV slasher, looks like fun, safety cushion will be nearby.

Episode 2

The Scavenger Hunt. Deer head in the bathtub. Comedy Englishman. Decapitated vicar. Small dog enticing pretty rich girl to fiery doom. Traps in the woods, hanged Goths, moody locals. When will anyone notice what’s happening?

………………………………..

And then Silvery Dude said he had stopped watching because of the increase in whiny twenty-somethingness but I thought no, I will not be swayed by his opinion, I am an independent woman who can make her own mind up, I will continue to watch the beautiful young people being terrorised. After all, I loved Dallas because it was so much fun seeing rich people be unhappy.

So then there was a bit of a hiatus as I went on holiday, and when I came back there was a bunch of episodes waiting for me to view and I thought, forget this, Fringe is back and much more worthy of my attention.

So I gave up. And will never know who was killing everyone and why. But I guess I can live with that.

Twilight

OK, the story so far: I have studiously avoided the whole Twilight thing in both book and movie form. Silvery Dude challenged me (as described here) to watch the thing; I put it to the blogosphere test and the outcome was (sadly) that I should. And so I did, and here’s what I thought….

So what you need to know is that I watched this on my laptop on holiday in our hotel room on a rainy Friday afternoon through headphones because the Book God was having a nap. This was possibly a mistake because, according to my notes (and so help me I did take notes in nerdy-pretending-I’m-a-proper-film-reviewer-kind-of-way) I started giggling after about 10 minutes (first scene in biology class) and had to suppress them so as not to wake the BG. This continued for almost two hours. I developed a headache as a result.

This will be a  bit spoilertastic, but seriously, how have you managed to avoid any of this until now?

In terms of the plot, speaking as one who has never read and has no intention of ever reading any of the books (as mentioned before), if I understand things correctly Bella moves to Forks to live with her Chief-of-Police-Dad (liked him a lot) so her Mum can travel with baseball-playing-nice-stepdad, is clearly wonderful in an awkward kind of way as several of the boys hit on her within about 5 minutes, catches Edward’s eye across a crowded classroom, love at first sight, thinks he dislikes her, he saves her life in an OMG-what-just-happened moment, she does research and works out that he’s a vampire, discovers that he is as much in love with her as she with him, they go public, other vampire nasties get involved, they go on the run, big fight ensues, this should not end well but does more or less, sequel inevitable as relationship not properly resolved.

I think.

Oh and there’s a nice Native American boy who is probably a wolf. Cue potential supernatural-love-triangle-face-off. Probably.

Stand-out moments:

• trailer for New Moon - I haven’t even watched the first one and I’m being bombarded with stuff about the second
• “shiny new toy”
• “Your mood swings are kinda giving me whiplash”
• “How long have you been 17?” “A while”
• “I don’t have the strength to stay away from you any more”
• “I like watching you sleep”
• Leaping through the trees!
• Baseball in thunderstorm!
• The Prom!!

The Verdict = this is awesome, but not in the way intended.

It is in fact one of the funniest things I have ever seen while at the same time being total and utter tosh. I thought at one point that I just couldn’t take any more, but then the whole thing with James the “I will hunt down Bella cos I can and it will really make Edward angry” vampire started and I had to stay with it just to see the fight in the ballet studio bit.

And then how they were going to explain Bella’s injuries.

And then the Prom.

And would he turn her into a vampire like she really, really wanted him to? (Clue = three films to go, what do you think?)

There is so much brooding, teen angst, hormones flooding out of the screen and seriously stalkerish behaviour that I couldn’t buy this as a swooshing YA romance. It’s a grown woman’s fantasy with a built-in undeath wish. In other hands that may not have been a bad thing…..

But I so, so loved the sparkling! Sparkly vampires, my new favourite thing.

And on one thing I have changed my mind; I can now see why people think Robert Pattinson is cute…..

Oh dear.

I am going to do two things:

1. make the Book God watch it so he too can revel in its glorious awfulness and I will no longer be alone with this knowledge
2. dare Silvery Dude to watch the sequel with me with the aim of converting him to my way of thinking

So there may be more to follow…..

District 9

I really, really wanted to see this movie and was

1. seriously miffed
2. pretty indignant
3. somewhat put out

that my friend Silvery Dude got there before me, and it became a point of honour to make sure that I saw it as soon as I could after him, so here we go:

The plot = so we are in Johannesburg twenty years after a space ship appeared in the sky above the city, filled with aliens who are ill, malnourished and unable to get home. They have been shunted into a refugee camp and treated as a lower form of life , and have become known (unpleasantly) as “prawns”. The camp has deteriorated over time, is riven with crime, and the local community wants to see it moved on, so a military unit backed by a weapons manufacturer is contracted to make this happen, led by a civil-servant-type called Wikus ven der Merwe. Things don’t go according to plan……

Not saying any more, you really need to see this to find out what happens.

What I loved about the movie = considering the budget for this movie the special effects are fantastic – the aliens and their interaction with human society really works and I forgot they weren’t real; the spaceship hanging over the city is really iconic; the development of Wikus is really effectively done; the gore is brilliant.

Dislikes or quibbles = minor thing (which others have pointed out I’m sure) about the documentary bits and whether they work with the main story, but this is really a very, very tiny issue and shouldn’t put anyone off.

Rating stuff = 15 (one use of very strong language and strong bloody violence)

Tissue count =  a little wobble at the end (which I found very moving)

Safety cushion = a couple of really gruesome moments which made me wince

Verdict = Grim, bleak, thought-provoking and highly recommended. This film led to one of the longest post-movie-discussions-over-dinner with the Book God since Knowing but for very, very different reasons. As far as I’m concerned one of the best films of the year.

Warehouse 13 – Pilot

So, I think I’ve found my new favourite TV thing while I’m waiting for Fringe to come back. I watched Warehouse 13 when it premiered this week and I loved, loved, loved it.

Right, so we have two Secret Service agents, Pete Lattimer and Myka Bering, one intuitive, the other with an eye for detail (and not the way round you might expect, though actually probably exactly how you would expect it these days, if that makes any kind of sense…. which it doesn’t). While they are doing their protect-the-President duty, something weird and unpleasant happens in relation to a Mayan (I think) bloodstone statue head thing which turns a no doubt mild-mannered museum curator into a bloodthirsty I-must-get myself-a-virgin-sacrifice-at-once kind of guy. Disaster is averted, the artifact disappears, the agents are summoned to South Dakota where they meet Artie, the curator of Warehouse 13 where all the supernatural doo-dahs (including the Mayan head) that threaten the world are stored once they have been caught and neutralised. They are then despaatched to Iowa for their first case….

The good stuff is all around the effectiveness of the buddy thing (I like both Pete and Myka so it works for me), the almost steampunk vibe around many of the artifacts themselves (Artie’s keyboard, the stun gun, the two-way communicator), I like the humour, and although at this stage it’s pretty lightweight there is absolutely nothing wrong with that at all.

I’ll definitely be keeping my eye on this one.

Let the Right One In

So I read the book that this is based on last year and I went on and on to everybody I knew about how good it was and that they should read it because it wasn’t your standard horror story, the setting was unusual etc. And everyone looked at me and said that it wasn’t their cup of tea, vampires were old hat, wasn’t it gruesome, why did I read that kind of thing, the usual, you know how it goes. So I stopped nagging.

And then the movie version came out, and critics like Mark Kermode said it was the best film of the year so far, and if not that then certainly the best horror film of the year, and I so wanted to go and see it but no-one would come with me. And so I patiently waited until the DVD was released and I bought it as soon as it came out and settled down this past Sunday afternoon, on my own because the Book God can be a bit of a wimp sometimes, and watched it. By myself. And now I’m a bit freaked.

Because this is really, really good. I managed not to be too distracted by keeping an eye on what was left in or out from the book. It’s creepy and unsettling, just like the book was. The central story is much more powerful from having some of the subplots (which admittedly gave the book its depth) removed. The central performances from the young actors are excellent, and the set pieces are brilliant.

My friend the Silvery Dude would like to watch this but suspected he would have to do so from behind a sofa. I suggested that he might want to consider the sofa being in a different room from the TV the film is playing on. I may have put him off.

I haven’t followed my normal review template for this because it is just too special; just like the novel, many of the images are stuck in my head, and once they’ve filtered through what passes for my brain I’ll watch it again. A classic. And I really was freaked, but in a good way!