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Jarvis Cocker recommended Two Sunsets by Tenniscoats / Pastels in Music (curated)
Awix (3310 KP) rated And Soon the Darkness (1970) in Movies
Jul 31, 2020 (Updated Jul 31, 2020)
Slightly underpowered psycho-horror movie. Two nurses on a cycling holiday in France find themselves being stalked by a murderous psychopath, but who? There are various slightly suspicious French locals about the place (mostly played by Hungarians and Czechs, because all those foreigners are the same, aren't they), most of whom insist on not knowing any English. Merde!
Sticks admirably to genre conventions, up to a point, and it has a certain sort of bleak creepiness. However, it feels very long and slow - short on incident, certainly, also on warmth and humour (I know it's a horror movie, but you need some light and shade). Considering this is practically the very next thing the Avengers TV show team did next - the script is by renowned pulp storytellers Brian Clemens and Terry Nation - you could be forgiven for expecting something with more charm and imagination.
Sticks admirably to genre conventions, up to a point, and it has a certain sort of bleak creepiness. However, it feels very long and slow - short on incident, certainly, also on warmth and humour (I know it's a horror movie, but you need some light and shade). Considering this is practically the very next thing the Avengers TV show team did next - the script is by renowned pulp storytellers Brian Clemens and Terry Nation - you could be forgiven for expecting something with more charm and imagination.
Kirk Bage (1775 KP) rated Pulp Fiction (1994) in Movies
Mar 2, 2020 (Updated Mar 3, 2020)
Is Pulp Fiction a gangster film? Well, if you define the genre as a morality tale about organised crime, then yes, it is. Of course, it is so much more than that. There is so much going on in Tarantino’s opus that it can’t be clearly defined – which is obviously part of the appeal. You can try not to enjoy every minute of it, but why bother? Once you are in on that amazing soundtrack, and the interwoven tales so unique it hurts, you are in to the end, no matter how many times you’ve seen it already. Incredible dialogue, naturally; colourful characters everywhere, it goes without saying; violence, remorse, betrayal, guns, cars, a gold watch, a samurai sword and a briefcase. A moment of decision or hesitation has a consequence that plays out in strange and mystical ways – as a theme, that in itself connects it to the gangster / crime genre.
Awix (3310 KP) rated The Most Dangerous Game (1932) in Movies
Mar 25, 2020
(Can't see that movie about people being hunted for entertainment as all the cinemas are shut, so went for this instead (the daddy of the genre).) Much mimicked pulp adventure movie. Big-game hunter survives a shipwreck but pitches up on the private island of an insane Russian aristo who hunts people for sport.
Slots very nicely into the development of early-30s genre cinema - the premise vaguely recalls Dracula, while many of the key personnel would go on to make King Kong the following year. Still stands up well as an adventure movie in many ways; above average script, some rousing set pieces, and an enjoyably extravagant performance from Leslie Banks as the bad guy. The short running time does count against it though (the hunt only gets underway in the final third of the movie). One of the progenitors of the modern action blockbuster, and a fine movie in its own right.
Slots very nicely into the development of early-30s genre cinema - the premise vaguely recalls Dracula, while many of the key personnel would go on to make King Kong the following year. Still stands up well as an adventure movie in many ways; above average script, some rousing set pieces, and an enjoyably extravagant performance from Leslie Banks as the bad guy. The short running time does count against it though (the hunt only gets underway in the final third of the movie). One of the progenitors of the modern action blockbuster, and a fine movie in its own right.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson recommended Pulp Fiction (1994) in Movies (curated)
Awix (3310 KP) rated King Kong (2005) in Movies
Mar 5, 2019
Audacious film-maker attempts to mount spectacular entertainment featuring giant ape, finds he's bitten off more than he can chew - handily, this covers both the plot of King Kong and the movie itself. The equivalent of one of those bloated Harry Potter books written when JK Rowling was so successful no-one was brave enough to say 'this needs an edit': movie is exhaustingly long with a lot of dead wood in every department.
Main problem is that Jackson and his co-writers seem to think they are making Titanic rather than a pulp monster movie: this film takes itself very, very seriously considering the subject matter; sorely needs a sense of humour. Only really comes to life in the big set-piece CGI sequences, most of which are original to this film - Jackson is obviously having fun during the sauropod stampede and the bit with the giant man-eating crabs, not so much the rest of the time. Technically superior in every department to the 1976 version, but still less entertaining somehow.
Main problem is that Jackson and his co-writers seem to think they are making Titanic rather than a pulp monster movie: this film takes itself very, very seriously considering the subject matter; sorely needs a sense of humour. Only really comes to life in the big set-piece CGI sequences, most of which are original to this film - Jackson is obviously having fun during the sauropod stampede and the bit with the giant man-eating crabs, not so much the rest of the time. Technically superior in every department to the 1976 version, but still less entertaining somehow.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Agent of Chaos in Books
Apr 1, 2019 (Updated Apr 2, 2019)
Weirdly prescient pulp sci-fi novel. 'The great tyrant ruled with solar system with absolute terror. Only one man dared to fight back!' The man in question being one Boris Johnson, who (laser gun in hand) heroically sets out to bring down the government and plunge the world into complete anarchy (this really is the plot, and yes, the book was written in 1967).
Obviously the book is unintended comedy gold for UK readers nowadays, but as something you might actually want to read for pleasure, or for any other reason, it is quite hard work: the plot is hackneyed, the characterisation thin, and much of the book is taken up with lengthy discussions of chaos and order and anarchy and so on. This has given the book a cult following, although I think it depends on how old you are when you first read it. If you're not into radical philosophy and not amused by the doings of Boris Johnson, there's not much else here to enjoy.
Obviously the book is unintended comedy gold for UK readers nowadays, but as something you might actually want to read for pleasure, or for any other reason, it is quite hard work: the plot is hackneyed, the characterisation thin, and much of the book is taken up with lengthy discussions of chaos and order and anarchy and so on. This has given the book a cult following, although I think it depends on how old you are when you first read it. If you're not into radical philosophy and not amused by the doings of Boris Johnson, there's not much else here to enjoy.
Awix (3310 KP) rated The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) in Movies
Mar 2, 2018 (Updated Mar 2, 2018)
A career that spanned over forty-five years, included nearly seventy movies, and featured the same accent every single time came to an end with this, Sean Connery's final on-screen appearance, in a would-be blockbuster based on Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's idiosyncratic comic series. The original heroes of pulp fiction are assembled to battle a mysterious villain with plans for world domination.
Connery had one of his massive spats with the director and virtually disowned the movie, but it's not really as bad as all that. It's not nearly as subtle, dark or clever as the comic book, obviously, and there's a horrendous moment in the second act where the whole thing grinds to a halt, but the effects are never less than competent, and the art direction is good. In the Marvel age of movies this is not without interest, making clear as it does the debt comic book heroes owe to the characters of an earlier age. Inevitably a bit of a disappointment, but not even the worst superhero movie of 2003.
Connery had one of his massive spats with the director and virtually disowned the movie, but it's not really as bad as all that. It's not nearly as subtle, dark or clever as the comic book, obviously, and there's a horrendous moment in the second act where the whole thing grinds to a halt, but the effects are never less than competent, and the art direction is good. In the Marvel age of movies this is not without interest, making clear as it does the debt comic book heroes owe to the characters of an earlier age. Inevitably a bit of a disappointment, but not even the worst superhero movie of 2003.
Awix (3310 KP) rated They Came from Beyond Space (1967) in Movies
Jan 8, 2020
No they didn't, and don't be silly. Hugely derivative British pulp SF movie is unsuccessful in hiding any of its influences and just ends up looking like a random slap-together of bits from Gerry Anderson, Quatermass, Dr Who, The Avengers (the TV show), and much more. Aliens stage a stealthy (and cheap) invasion of England via meteorite, possess the boffins sent to investigate, and cause all sorts of trouble. Imported American boffin Robert Hutton proves immune due to the metal plate in his head and fights back. Michael Gough turns up briefly to chew the scenery as the Master of the Moon.
Almost entirely absurd, but rattles along and never actually gets dull. Performances are mostly lousy with the exception of Bernard Kay, who is actually not bad. Fun can always be had spotting the influences, the props recycled from Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 AD, and the sight of Zia Mohyeddin with an anti-mind control colander on his head. Daft, but fun, and certainly more entertaining than The Terrornauts (but then so is giving yourself a tonsilectomy).
Almost entirely absurd, but rattles along and never actually gets dull. Performances are mostly lousy with the exception of Bernard Kay, who is actually not bad. Fun can always be had spotting the influences, the props recycled from Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 AD, and the sight of Zia Mohyeddin with an anti-mind control colander on his head. Daft, but fun, and certainly more entertaining than The Terrornauts (but then so is giving yourself a tonsilectomy).
