What I Watched This Week (w/e August 24th 2008)

DVD

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Blu-ray) - The last time I saw Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck together on screen was in the terrible Ocean's 13, but here they put in career-best performances and respond to the intelligent and involving script by writer-director Andrew Dominik. I missed this when it was at the cinema and wish I'd seen it then, because it was beautifully shot and it beggars belief that the Academy almost completely overlooked it, as it is one of the best films of last year. :D











Run Lola Run (Blu-ray) - The story is extremely simple: Lola's boyfriend has mislaid a bag of drug money and Lola says that she will help, but he intends to wait until midday and then get the money by robbing a local supermarket. The story is told three times, with little things changing each time to a different result. Tom Tykwer's direction is excellent, Franka Potente is fantastic in the lead role and the film doesn't suffer from repeat viewings. The BD is a bit short on extra material, but the AV quality is superb - I never realised how red Lola's hair was before. :)

Freedomland (Blu-ray) - Review here.







B.T.K. (DVD) - Review here.

Grindhouse Trailer Classics 2 (DVD) - Review here.







Le Mans 1984, 85, 87, 88 and 2008 (DVD) - Reviews of these and the 1986, which should be coming soon, will be on the site in the next couple of days.

Books

In a Glass Darkly - This collection of short stories predates the similar work by H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe and the Carmilla tale introduces vampirism and lesbianism way before any other writer, Bram Stoker included, had written of such things. I enjoyed that story the most, but the longest tale, The Room in Le Dragon Volante, is brilliantly written and includes the 'waking burial' section that features in Dreyer's Vampyr; it is also amusing that it's told by someone with the same name as my brother.

Television

Midnight Express - This is probably more well known for the reaction it received in Turkey and its controversy than for Alan Parker's direction, Oliver Stone's screenplay or Brad Davis' exceptional portrayal of Billy Hayes. Hayes attempted to smuggle hash out of Turkey and was caught and spent a great deal of time in a brutal jail before escaping and writing a book about his experiences. It is still powerful 30 years since its release and the treatment meted out to prisoners seems to resonate with the current 'war on terror' interrogation techniques and questionable legal procedures. :)



The Pixar Story - This is a fascinating documentary about the animation wizards, from their roots as programmers in the fledgling computer generated imagery technique to the highs they've reached and all the hardships and the rocky relationship with Disney in between. :)

Black Christmas - The original 1974 Bob Clarke-directed horror was a landmark in slasher/stalker films, with unrelenting tension and well-delivered jumps. This 2006 remake by Glen Morgan (a writer of Final Destination 1 & 3) is an impotent attempt at a horror film. It is unnecessarily gory, badly written, predictable and an insult to the original - I was stunned that Bob Clarke was an executive producer. >:(



Olympic Boxing - The schedule played havoc with my sleep (I don't like waking up at 6:30 am, particularly on a Sunday) and the 12-3:30pm sessions interrupted the middle of the day, the judging was terrible, the refereeing not much better and some of the scoring stunk the place out (Zhang Xiaoping practically had his name on the gold from the start) but there was still some superb boxing. It was great to see James DeGale win gold and it'll be interesting to see whether he stays amateur and boxes in 2012 or turns pro. I said it last week and I'll say it again: something needs to be done about the scoring but I'm not sure what.



Tri Nations Rugby: South Africa vs. Australia - I really though the Springboks would be challenging for the title but the loss of John Smit has really hurt them and, since they beat New Zealand in New Zealand, have lost three on the bounce and are virtually out of the competition. They were scoreless last week (the harsh would say pointless) and they look like a team that's beaten before the whistle blows. I don't know whether Australia are strong enough to prevent the All Blacks strolling to victory in the competition - the next round will show how good they are.



F1: European Grand Prix - A new venue always provides intrigue and the street circuit at Valencia is a stunning facility and a beautiful racetrack but it led to a fairly dull race. I don't know whether it will be the same next year when everyone knows about it, but this year it was a procession with no overtaking that I can remember and the only point of interest was whether anything will happen to Felipe Massa's victory and his spot on the grid at Spa for a controversial incident in the pits.