HBO Highs

Chris Rock's Good Hair is a fascinating glimpse into the world of black hair, weaves and some heavy duty chemicals. After hearing his daughter complain she doesn't have good=straight hair he investigates the strange world of $1000 weaves and the massive industry that preys on women's desire to look "european". Assisted by a bevy of talking heads he dots around the world meeting characters from LA to the Indian temples which provide most off the hair heading for the heads of western women, weird and surprisingly entertaining.

For Neda, another fine HBO production, is a powerful look at the life and death of the young Iranian woman shot by a sniper during the post election furore. This is disturbing & heartbreaking film with plenty of interviews with Neda's family and friends, scenes of Neda's death and a number of public executions. I hope the protesters succeed in ridding themselves of such blight. Ha - found it on youtube so have shoved below - link probably be pulled soon though.

Film Flim Flam

I'm kinda glad Guillermo has left the Hobbit films, his fecundity shouldn't be bound to some kids book so was delighted he's sniffing around Lovecraft's At The Mountains of Madness. via DOG

Same site has a stupid list of Carpenter's ten best+worst, pah I still think Ghosts of Mars is better than Vampires.

Batman Year One as an animated feature? that is something that I'd watch, now please. If I had TV powers I'd just greenlight a shitload, there's decades of great stories in 2000ad alone.

With Prince of P. making a half decent stab at vid-game-turned-movie here's another effort with the may-as-well resurrection of the Mortal Kombat franchise - the first one was ok, well in my then-debilitated state it seemed quite good actually but I didn't repeat the experience.

Lord Luton picks

Scuppering EIFF & brainless celluloid fantasy

As it's about to be shown at the EIFF I thought I should get round to watching Fuest's strange scifi film The Final Programme based on the even stranger novel by Michael Moorcock. Though they've changed the ending this sticks, as far as I can remember, pretty closely to the plot of the novel - Jerry Cornelius plans an assault on the family home to rescue his sister from the clutches of his demented brother and gets assistance from a creepy scientist Miss Brunner only to end up a pawn in her larger schemes. The film looks great - Fuest designed the sets himself apparently - and though there's plenty of decent actors along for this crazy ride it's stutters a bit towards it's shambolic ending. Never the less I enjoyed this drug addled scifi thriller for the oddity it is but it's probably not for everyone.



Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is, unsurprisingly, a lot of guff. Based on a series of video games it follows a jumpy Jake Gyllenhaal as the time bending Prince trying to restore honor to his kingdom with nowt but a magical dagger and a fair princess in tow. There's plenty of action, some natty SFX and competent enough acting but it's a soulless piece much like those insanely successful POTC movies. Reasonable enough for a wet Sunday afternoon I suppose.

Ear Excitations

Eye's Squared

Colossus: The Forbin Project is brilliant - an intelligent cold-war era parable about artificial intelligence and the idiocy of the arms race. Dr Forbin invents a impregnable supercomputer to run the nuclear defense of the US only to find that the Soviets have done exactly the same thing. To the surprise of both sides the computers start to communicate, eventually merging into a powerful autocrat that intends to rule the earth in a rational semi-benign dictatorship. The FX and design reek of the 70's and the computer tech is amusingly dated but it clips along a decent rate with some decent performances and a strong script and a nicely downbeat ending. Apparently Ron Howard's proposed reboot has stalled - think I'd prefer a sequel myself.



Asylum is a horror anthology feature from Amicus and as usual with these things some of the stories are better than others. The tales are framed by the story of Dr Martin, played by Robert Powell, who turns up at the asylum hoping to join the staff but instead of a typical interview he's asked to listen to 4 patients and see if he can identify the former head of the unit who's now been admitted as a patient. With a starry cast including Lom, a young Rampling, Eckland, Magee and of course Peter Cushing this is a highly enjoyable romp.

The Great Antidote

The strange phenomenon of Sonoluminescence is explored on IO9 today - no clear answers but it does have a nice pic.

Tentative results suggesting the possibility of life on Titan, via New Scientist.

You've probably seen this clip before as it's 4 years old but I hadn't so proving Space is the Place here's some boffins larking around with Alka Seltzer in micro gravity conditions. Via Reddit.



Looks like we can leave the development of space to the Japanese - not only are they planning to send a humanoid robot to the moon by 2015 they've now released plans to have a robot moon base by 2020. And it's not that the private sector is lagging far behind there's some astonishingly ambitious plans on the Shimizu site for amongst other things a Solar Cell belt for the Moon that could supply all of the worlds energy requirements. My favourite idea is the Green Floats though.

Fear & Frears

The Creeping Flesh is a nice slice of Hammer fun starring Cushing and Lee. Playing two competitive scientist brothers they get into a tizzy over a peculiar giant skeleton found in New Guinea that seems to be revivifying and seems to be the embodiment of evil. Nowt particulary outstanding but a solid bit of nonsense nonetheless.



Stamp, Hurt & Roth all provide great performances in The Hit from 1984. Stamp grasses up his chums after a botched job and flees to rural Spain - ten years later and a stone faced Hurt and brash Roth are sent to dispose of him, unfortunately Stamp's serenity and a series of accidents unravel their plans. It's 80's stylishness is a bit much at times but it's well shot and with a strong script and 3 excellent actors this is a terrific forgotten little thriller.