Small screen

It's tv fall season again in the States so a quick little round up of shit old and new - Fringe is back and seemingly still decent, Heroes is in the death throes and I won't bother with the rest, House is so-so, same with Dollhouse, Supernatural is still watchable but it's obviously the last season, Bored to Death seems ok if slight, Flashback has promise but I'm sceptical, Dexter is back on form as is The Office.

Brooker is back too - just finished watching Gameswipe and I hope he gets to make more, can't see why not, it's was as funny as the rest of his product and he got some great contributers. Iplayer link here.

And also on the Beeb they've decided to allow the BNP on Question Time ?! and the government is putting Jack Straw up against them!? C'mon at least get Red Ken or George Galloway on, someone with a temper and a quick mind, anyways I'll be watching and the racist tools better get the shit in the face.

Stupid Scifi from SyFy and Last of the Lumet

High Plain Invaders, obviously commisioned after The Burrowers this scifi western was a steaming pile of blah. A couple of vaguely familiar faces fight a uranium hungry army of badly CGI-d insects in the old west. Some former Buffy dude stars but he's ropey and the script doesn't help. Wouldn't bother.

Serpico - another Lumet classic and probably the last one in my season unless I can get a hold of Night Falls. Anyway it's been years since I've seen this and it still stands up, maybe Pacino isn't quite as good as he is in Dog Day A and maybe the story isn't quite as developed as in Prince of The City but it's still a fantastic, detailed film about NY police corruption. The real Frank, via filmgeko

Tversity Slim Style

Gamer, was ok I guess, I loved the two Crank films but this was a bit of a let down. Eessentialy a Running Man remake with a video game 21st Century slant, It spent too much time developing a painfully simple plot and skimped on the egregious violence it was presumably meant to satire.


The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer however was a revelation, a razor sharp political satire from Peter Cook that's incredibly prescient and very funny. A slick weasel PR played by Cook worms his way from boardroom to stateroom dealing with his obsatcles with almost satanic panache. Chock full of great British Talent, inclsuding co-writers Cleese and Chapman, Ronnie Corbett and a sackful of other familiar faces.

And I was pleasantly surprised by FAQs about Time Travel, a contemporary british scifi comedy that was actually quite funny. Three lads get involved in some tricky time travel situations while visiting their local pub and scramble about trying to put things right. Despite it's low budget it's been well shot and has plenty of charm.

Captain Beck was a pot head ?.

Highly amusing squirming from Uber-Douche Glenn Beck when asked to explain words he's said, poor thing, and here's another interesting article on Metzger's site about this peculiar dingbat. The Salon article it references is worth a read, he's had a much longer media career than I''d expected : I'd presumed he was a flash in the pan type loon but it appears he's had plenty of time to hone his craft.

And here's some dirty water drinking moron from the States to cheer you up. For a few minutes I thought it was a fake.

September Peppers

Guff

Interesting post on Dangerous Minds about unexplained tunnels in Tokyo, I'm a sucker for a bit of underground nonsense.

Wired has a nice post on those brave geeks fighting the dangerous Hubbard-loving Church across the interweb.

Interesting story on Private Eye re Megrahi, this story has slipped from the TV news lately and here's another that's seemingly just dropped away. I don't understand why the Beeb isn't all over this story like a rash, it's pretty clear where Mini-Murdoch stands so they could at least start throwing some punches.

Back to TVersity

Dog Day Afternoon, I've almost finished my little Sidney Lumet season and this sweaty, crazy, true-story bank heist movie in 70's New York is a true classic and has one of Pacino's finest performances. Serpico up next.

Superman/Batman Public Enemies, not sure about who/where this was made but this toon had some of the worst character art and animation I've seen in ages, the two protagonists looked like He-Man characters for fuksake. Don't mind the premise but it was underused and ill served by some terrible dialogue, shame as it'd had attracted some pretty good voice-cast.

It shows how good True Blood Season Two was that it lasted only a week or so in the house and it's all gone, very morish. Won't spoil the details but the general thrust is we learn a lot more about Eric and the Vampiric hierarchy, both Stackhouses get deeper into the doodah and Krazy hippy Maryann steps onto center stage and oh there's a shit load of shagging throughout. On the downside Bill is proving tedious and actress who plays Sookie is beginning to grate.

Sony separates me from another £250

Got my 2nd YLOD on Saturday night, rackin' frackin' shitebags, didn't think it was worth getting it fixed again so bought a Slim on Sunday. Think I'll sell the carcass on ebay once I've extraced my Bioshock disc. I got an extended warranty this time around but this one better last. On the up side I redownloaded all my psn purchases and finally managed to play Trine which is great, a real old school sidescrolling fantasy romp.