Slumping Scares

Nailbiter is a low budget horror about a mother and her daughters getting caught in a hurricane mid roadtrip and their unfortunate decision to retreat to a nearby basement for shelter only to find it's already got a toothy, quite peckish inhabitant. There's a smidge of tension, a little gore and I quite liked the set up but it's soured by some shonky acting and a rapid descent into predictability. I suppose it deserves some merits for having a mostly female cast but their characters are thumbnails and the plot keeps them on well trod paths.

The Sender is strange little horror film about a suicidal amnesiac admitted to a mental ward who apparently can, quite vigorously, project his consciousness into the minds of those around him. It's decidedly 80's with ropey acting, comic sfx and a cheesy script but there's plenty of chuckles to be had as John Doe's power wreaks some er 'unusual' havoc among patients and staff alike. Still the premise is at least somewhat original and it's kind of carried along by it's misplaced confidence so much so I ended up quite liking it. Out of the two I'd say Sender's worth a watch, at least it has the decency to be so bad it's good.

Cockamamie 70's

I was unaware that Bruce Lee had written a script shortly before his death but I'm pretty sure that Circle of Iron wasn't quite what the film he had in mind. The film opens with a martial arts contest with the competitors vying for the opportunity to read a book of wisdom hidden from the rest of the world. The loser of the final bout follows the victor on his travels to the books hiding place and takes on the quest when his chum carks it early on. The script and acting are painfully piss poor especially from the muscle bound lead, Jeff Cooper (who sports a 'do that scuppers any of attempts at profundity) and David Carradine's multiple turns aren't much better but worst of all the plot is a lumpy mish mash of Eastern thought that I'm sure doesn't reflect Lee's intention or ambitions. Only worth watching if you want to see something spectacularly bad.

Dr Black, Mr Hyde is a blaxploitation-era version of RLS's classic tale and despite it's obvious budget constraints manages a half decent job. Our protagonist is developing a cure for liver disease but under pressure for results takes a dose himself and finds the side effects of super strength and (amusingly unconvincing) honkeydom quite exhilarating and predictably chaos reigns as family, friends and colleagues feel the wrath of this changed man. Though the script and plot are decidedly of it's era Bernie Casey is surprisingly good and all in all I quite enjoyed it. Not exactly a classic but if you want something with a little period charm there's worse out there.

Aural Acquisitions

Sixty Eights

Joseph Losey's Secret Ceremony is a fraught, twisted melodrama bedecked with the talents of Liz Taylor, Robert Mitchum & Mia Farrow. Grieving the loss of her daughter, Taylor's whore befriends a recently orphaned teenager after an encounter on the bus and the pair develop an unnerving, fantastical relationship, each playing the 'role' of their lost loved who they happen to resemble. Cooped up together in the plush manor Farrow inherited, their intense bond is further complicated with the arrival of a predatory Robert Mitchum. This is a dark, wordy film about the dirty interpersonal webs we weave, tear at, then reweave and it's three leads, even Taylor, put in exceptional performances.

Otto Preminger's Skidoo is a big studio attempt to cater to 1968's acid crowd but mostly falls flat on it's face in a similar fashion to say, I Love You Alice B Toklas. An aging mobster, played by Jackie Gleason, is forced out of retirement to deal with an errant mobster by God, his eccentric kingpin and a mildly entertaining, faintly psychedelic caper ensues. Sporting a veritable panoply of stars including Groucho Marx, Slim Pickens & Burgess Meredith the comedy is inconsistent, plotting half baked and the LSD trip sequences so cliched and trite that it's immediately obvious that no-one involved had ever had a taste of the good stuff. A spectacular, craptastic failure.

Paperback Pleasures

The Time of Angels is a novel ostensibly about an isolated and troubled household from the pen of Iris Murdoch but which overflows with ruminations on theology and morality. A new Rector moves into a bombed out parish with a couple of young wards and they live in a strange, cloistered bubble, relying on the devoted housekeeper to keep all and any visitors at bay. This unsettling inertia is slowly fractured by the presence of the incumbent caretaker and his wayward son. Each of Murdoch's characters have delicious tensions bubbling away under the surface but it;s rd. There's plenty of meat on the bones here but what's striking is Murdoch's skill in building and sustaining the most peculiar atmosphere and though, with hindsight, the denouement seems a little flat by contemporary standards it nevertheless kept me up late into the night in a race to the finish.

Cosmopolis is a tasty, toothy satire of American culture and excess from the brilliant Don DeLillo. The book follows the progress of a young, gifted billionaire trying to cross NY for a haircut in his fancy stretch limo. The slow pace allows for plenty of drop ins and outs, a little global market tinkering and smatterings of food, sex, death and the big city life. DeLillo's prose is pin sharp and jostles some serious criticism into our antihero's little odyssey who despite being thoroughly detestable still raises a few laughs as he crushes ideas, people and currencies with a wry indifference. It's a facile comparison I know but he seems to cover ground similar to Ballard, the pointed barbs aimed at our shiny modernity, vague psychology and amoral profiteering all with the whiff of anomaly and the unusual. A classy novella that's definitely worth reading and there's still time to get through it before Cronenberg's adaptation hits the big screen.

Four Finger Snaps

Supercharged Actioneering

The Man from Nowhere is a prime example of Korea's commitment to making blistering action thrillers that make their Western counterparts seem tame and toothless in comparison. Quietly running a pawn shop since the death of his wife our retired special forces protagonist is forced to dust off his deadly skill set when his neighbour's daughter is kidnapped by gangsters. Though the set up is brief and fairly hackneyed there's some heart to the script and some wry humour which go some of the way in alleviating the unrelenting violence as the hero spends 70 mins or so of the film smashing, snapping and pummelling his way through a slew of henchmen enroute to a very, very bloody finale. Brilliant but definitely not for the fainthearted.

The Raid: Redemption is an Indonesian film about a SWAT team attempting to clear a tower block that's firmly under the control of a drug lord and unsurprisingly things get very messy, very fast. The plot is paper thin and there's only the vaguest attempt at characterisation as this film is all about the action and bedlam and what a cornucopia of action is offered. I can't think of a single film which can match the ferocity, the merciless brutality of the violence on offer here as the squad shoot, hack, slice, punch, kick and gouge their way to the top. The action is beautifully choreographed, nicely shot but it's the incessant pace that's jaw dropping, literally breath taking and you'll find yourself, like me, unable to look away till it's conclusion. If you thought Man from Nowhere was too light and frothy try this instead, you won't be disappointed.

Whirring Cogs

Apparently mean/unpleasant internet comments aren't necessarily a result of anonymity more the lack of eye contact. Scientific American

Misunderstanding statistics isn't confined to students with lecturers failing to appreciate crucial concepts. PDF of the paper here.

'Global' brain connectivity seems to be a powerful new predictor of individual intelligence. ScienceDaily.

There's a nice bit on the psychology of persuasion on Farnum Street.

Kicking back against the so called wisdom of the crowds. Impactlab.

Studying the brains of lucid dreamers is helping to reveal the neurophysiological 'basis' of consciousness. Reddit.

Head injuries big and very small can have a lasting effect on our noggins.

There's a nice list of cognitive biases over here, via Reddit.

Fascinating article about psychosis and insight, via Mindhacks.