Close but No Cigar twice

Solomon Kane was not a great film - a real shame for Howard fans as it could have been so much better. I liked the grimy 16th C. styling, Purefoy was competent and the action was good if a little bloodless but the story itself was just rubbish. I've never read the original novels but this was a by-the-numbers fantasy tale that held no surprises. Kane is supposed to be an antihero but they barely developed his dark side and this subsequently left the film without much drive when he decided finally to pick up a weapon. I'd put it in the same fail bracket as Constantine I think.

Drunkenly playing with my Media Center late at night does mean that I end up with stuff I've recorded for no apparent reason like I guess Silent Hill. I've seen it before, thought it was alright and after watching it for a second time I can't say my opinion has changed. It's got it's moments of dread and they've gone to some lengths to recreate the look/feel of the games but it lost it's edge going through the Hollywood mangle. Doesn't help when you've got two leads, Mitchell and Bean, opening and closing mouths on time rather than acting.

Multiple Homicides

Harry Brown was a solid if unimaginative revenge thriller. Old man Caine, an ex-marine, decides enough is enough after the local yobs murder his chess playing buddy so he tools up and starts cleaning out the scum. It's acted well and the script is decent enough but they really needed to bring a fresh angle to the story as the whole thing plays out much as you'd imagine.

Another Brit thriller is The Hide. An oddly enjoyable two hander about a twitcher who finds his peace disturbed by a tattooed thug who wanders in off the moor. Both leads are pretty good and the tension between the two very different characters ebbs and flows before building to a quite unexpected & ridiculous conclusion. Still a strong effort.

The Great Antidote

Mmm Martian Blueberries, the Red Planet keeps coughing up fascinating stuff. Via ScifiWire - it's a forced colour image by the way.

It's not long since the boffins were feuding bout the little Indonesian hobbits and now a new front looks like opening in Siberia. BoingBoing has a more thoughtful piece here.

Io9 has a great piece about Foucault's pendulum as proof of our Earth's axial rotation. One of the commenters has a link to a brilliant poster.

Pipeline Perusals

Thanks to Twitch for the still from the upcoming Mark Gatiss adaptation of Wells' The First Men on The Moon.

Satoshi Kon is one of my favourite directors but if you'd said one of his films was heading for the live action Hollywood remake factory Paprika would be my final guess. It's a fantastic film so god only knows what the Wolfgang Peterson jobby will be like.

A 3D IMAX version of Journey To The West - sold! - fingers crossed it's better than Forbidden Kingdom. Twitch again.

One year done

Bumpipes - forgot my own Birthday - one year and one week ago I initiated the Compendium. Can I keep it up is the question I suppose ( no sniggering at the back pls ) Anyways thanks to my solitary follower and all those dropping by !

Shite in 3 flavours

Renowned moron Dubya returns to the world stage and not so subtly wipes his hand on Bill Clinton's shirt after shaking hands with a Haitian. Classy guy. Ta Metzger

As we're on the subject of shit here's a terrifying article via Gawker & WSJ about some poor farmer in the States who has a problem with 20ft bubbles of shit emerging from his dung pond. Poor sod is going to have to puncture them at some point I wish him luck. I once got a quad bike stuck in the edge of shitpile - not happy day.

More shit this time from the "brain" of Sarah Palin - ignoring the worrying signs of violence and abuse directed at pro-healthcare politicians she's put out a charming poster with gun sights over some of their districts. It appears that, bizarrely, Palin has secured herself a documentary series on Discovery - presumably it's going to be filled with slow motion animal killings and the bespoiling of the Alaskan environment. hat tip to the Dish.

Masticating Movies

Low-fi British serial killer flick Tony was a bit of a disappointment. Eschewing a narrative structure it follows the titular homicidal loon as he shuffles about dreary London visiting sex shops, meeting odd bods & then later chopping them up in his bathtub and that's it - it just finishes with him ambling off. Given the quality of the acting and the care they took in making the film I just wish they'd stretched it out beyond it's 75 mins and added some sort of story arc to the proceedings. Does make me wonder about some of the "unusuals" I get in the shop here wanting Seagal/Van Damme VHS'

I rather enjoyed McGuigan's The Reckoning. A straight-forward medieval murder mystery, it follows a troupe of actors who pick up a wayward priest and end up in a town embroiled in a seedy child murder investigation. The players set about using these recent events as the basis of a new play much to the displeasure of the authorities. An excellent cast, a decent script and some reasonable historical detail lifted this above the average. It's a little hammy in bits but overall pretty entertaining.

Kevin Smith seems to be a spent force these days and Cop Out is further evidence that he's lost his movie mojo. A homage to 80's/90's cop/buddy movies this was neither funny nor entertaining and, in fact, I felt a little embarrassed for those involved during parts. I know Tracy Morgan is a big star from SNL and he's good on 30 Rock but he really should avoid acting as much as possible.

Propagator 2010