What I Watched This Week (w/e August 31st 2008)

Blu-ray

Hellboy - After watching its sequel I realised it had been ages since I saw the first instalment in Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of Mike Mignola's comic book. It is a excellent origins movie with Ron Perlman superb as the titular creature summoned from hell by Nazi occultists and Rasputin. Karel Roden is as good as he was in Blade II, providing real menace and intelligence to the indestructible Russian monk. The disc is extremely impressive with stunning AV quality, a brilliant (as always) commentary by del Toro and well over two hours of supplementary material that I have yet to watch. :)

Dark City: Director's Cut - This visionary masterpiece by Alex Proyas has been largely overlooked and unnoticed since it's innocuous theatrical release, so that it's only really loved and appreciated by those who know of its existence. It's a film that improves with every viewing and the director's cut, with expanded scenes and no (completely unnecessary) introductory voice over is fantastic. The supplementary material is fairly extensive, AV quality superb and there are just the three additional commentaries plus a trivia track to get through! :D

Diary of the Dead - George A. Romero continues to produce high quality ghoul movies with socio-political subtexts. As Night of the Living Dead dealt with Vietnam and civil rights, Dawn with rampant consumerism, Day with increased militarism under Regan and Land with immigration and Iraq, Diary tackles the dangers of the splintered nature of todays media and the manipulation of events by mainstream TV. As you'd expect, he finds many new and innovative ways of despatching the undead (acid is my favourite, followed by scythe) and I think this is as good as Land whilst falling short of the standards set in the original trilogy. Given the amount of extras and the fact that this is a rental, a purchase of the disc is likely to come sooner rather than later. :)

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - I thought this was great when I saw it at the cinema and haven't changed my mind. The blending of horror, musical and tragedy works wonderfully and Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and the rest of the cast of non-singers show that they can really belt out a tune. The movie looks fantastic with fastidious attention to detail and superb production design, art direction, costumes and special make-up effects. As with Diary of the Dead, this is a rental that I am likely to buy soon. :D

Mona Lisa Smile - Thought I'd hate it, but didn't - review here.

DVD

The Spiderwick Chronicles - I really liked this at the cinema and enjoyed it again on DVD, probably even more - it seems to be a cross between The Golden Compass, Bridge to Terabithia, Nanny McPhee and Lemony Snicket with a bit of Narnia thrown in. It's perhaps more enjoyable than all of them with a good story, excellent CGI, well paced and directed with real energy; at the cinema I felt that the casting of Freddie Highmore as the twins was odd and would have been better with an American actor but I didn't have the same problem this time. I watched it straight after Sweeney Todd and didn't think the difference between Blu-ray and DVD would be that noticeable - I was wrong. :)











Dante 01 - A really interesting and visually arresting sci-fi film by Marc Caro - full review to follow.

Le Mans 1986 - Great race overshadowed by a fatal crash - review here. I have also uploaded the reviews of Le Mans 1984/85/87/88 and 2008.

The Ultimate Anime Horror Collection - Only partly horror in content and far from an ultimate collection but watchable stuff - review here.

Shotgun Stories - A very well crafted drama by newcomer Jeff Nichols - review here.

Cinema

Hellboy II: The Golden Army - I saw this at an advance preview and loved it and felt the same watching it for a second time. Full review here. :)

Get Smart - I've never seen the TV show but it must be better than this dull and uninspired film. It didn't seem sure whether to go for gross out and silly comedy or a straight spy caper and fell between the two stools. Anne Hathaway looked bored and Steve Carell, normally a reliable source of comedic moments, did little to raise a smile - post-Austin Powers spoof movies, particularly in this genre, need to be better. :(

Books

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Volume One - I read this a while ago and saw it cheap at Amazon so ordered it and Vol. 2 - Alan Moore proves what a great writer he is with the comic and then the Allan and the Sundered Veil taduki drug trip story at the end. The film is terrible but there have been worse comic book film adaptations such as Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Catwoman, Batman and Robin and Electra. I just wish that Amazon would hurry up and deliver the (superior) second volume.

Television

Déjà Vu - I should know by now to stay away from films made by the teaming of Tony Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer - they are generally big, loud and irritatingly edited. This had the potential to be a really interesting P. K. Dick type film but it's predictable and Denzel Washington shows that he needs a top director to bring the best out in him. :(

Dead Silence - James Wan and Leigh Whannell hit the big time when they made Saw and have been involved in various related projects since. This features a puppet, similar to the wooden mannequin shown on the screens in the Saw films, which seemingly murders Jamie Ashen's wife but he is arrested. This seems like it was almost entirely lifted from Child's Play with a killer doll that no one suspects and that episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer with a murderous ventriloquist's dummy. It's unoriginal and pretty dull with a pay off that fails to satisfy. :(

Ivan Calderon vs. Hugo Cazares - The WBO junior flyweight champion kept his title in this rematch with the man he beat for the belt. After boxing beautifully, a clash of heads opened up a terrible cut on Calderon's forehead causing the bout to be stopped and go to the scorecards - it is one of the worst cuts I have ever seen. Calderon is one of the best pure boxers in the sport today and a third clash is inevitable as he is too small to go upto flyweight and I can't see the other belt holders wanting to voluntarily risk their titles against him.

The chief support bout between Roman 'Rocky' Martinez and Santos Benavides was a superb tear 'em up as they both left their defence in the locker room and went at it from the first bell. Martinez was down in the second round but came back to stop Benavides in the sixth.

Tri Nations - I would have liked to watch Australia's clash with South Africa but Sky inexplicably only made it available to those with interactive Sky boxes!