What I Watched This Week (w/e September 7th 2008)

Blu-ray

Apocalypto - Only Mel Gibson would consider making a hyper-violent drama set in the dying days of the Mayan Empire using a dead language. With The Passion of The Christ he also made an extremely violent horror film with (mostly) dead languages and continues his cinematic sadism with this tale of Jaguar Paw, a man whose tribe is killed or kidnapped by the Mayans and must escape to get back to his pregnant wife and infant son.

The film is visually breathtaking, shot digitally and looks amazing at 1080p with the rather simple story playing second fiddle to Gibson's visual flair. Like The Passion, this has moments of extraordinary brutality with heart removals, beheadings, primitive weaponry being used to good effect and a jaguar eating someone's face.

The disc isn't great with only a brief making of, one deleted scene, a 'show off your HD setup' feature and a rather dull commentary by Gibson and his co-writer. :)

DVD

24: Season 5 - I think I've had this in an unwatched state longer than any other DVD I've owned as it's sat on a shelf for over 18 months, still shrinkwrapped, and each time I thought about watching it, I had something better to do or wasn't in the mood. Over 6 days I watched the increasingly far-fetched and unbelievable story unfold, with more twists than a plate of spaghetti bolognaise.

Beginning with Jack Bauer coming back from the dead when David Palmer is assassinated, together with successful and otherwise attempts on the lives of those who knew that he staged his death at the end of Season 4, this turns quickly into a hostage situation at an LA airport before moving into a mix of political intrigue and national emergency when Russian separatists are loose with deadly nerve gas.

As always, Keifer Sutherland is thoroughly believable and convincing in an unconvincing role - no one is that good! - and the supporting cast of new and experienced actors impress. The score is generally good but one episode gets a little too James Bond-ish, turning the tension into unintentional comedy.

This is a franchise that needed to kill off Bauer but obviously won't, each season is inferior to, and less believable than, the last. Despite this, it's still extremely entertaining and gripping stuff, practically impossible to stop watching once you have started. :)

Under The Volcano - A very good film with a great drunk performance by Albert Finney, shame about the vanilla disc.

Cinema

The Strangers - This isn't exactly the most original horror film of all time, treading the now familiar territory of a couple with difficulties being terrorised in a seemingly secure location. The last example of this I can think of is Vacancy, but Funny Games and Ils (Them) all use the same premise. Despite the unimaginative basis, the film is very tense with some well crafted jumps - it's the sort of thing that can tie your stomach in knots just by showing Liv Tyler with a man in a sack cloth mask in the background. I still have trouble with Liv Tyler's lips, they look unnaturally big, but I got passed that odd quibble of mine and really enjoyed this. :)

Babylon A.D. - Every scene in this latest film by Mathieu Kassovitz seems to have come from somewhere else, with obvious allusions to Blade Runner, The Transporter, The Fifth Element and Children of Men. After it finished I was discussing it with those I went with and we came up with a massive list of plot holes, bad dialogue, bad editing and the films that have been ripped off in the process. It's completely rubbish and the latest in a long list of bad films in which Vin Diesel has appeared. >:(

Books

Double Indemnity - James M. Cain was, together with the likes of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, one of the great noir writers that created the literature which was adapted into so many great noir films. Chandler and Billy Wilder adapted this fine book into an even better screenplay for the film which starred Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck and Edward G. Robinson. The book has the characters named Huff and Nirdlinger so changing them to Neff and Deitrichson was a very good move. The story, about an insurance salesman who kills a man for a woman and for money, getting neither is typical of the noir subject matter but I'm not sure whether I prefer the ending in the book or film - certainly this is a fine novel. :)

Television

NFL - The season kicked off on Thursday night with Washington's trip to New York to play the Super Bowl Champions (I still can't believe they won) and it was a low scoring but interesting affair, with defences dominating to the point where there wasn't a single point scored in the second half. I'm now mid-way through the Sunday night triple header after seeing New Orleans doing just enough to beat the Buccaneers and put a smile on the faces of those who've suffered in Louisiana. In an untelevised game, I was keeping tabs on the Patriots game with Kansas in which Tom Brady suffered a serious injury to his knee which, combined with his already injured foot, may keep him out of action next week. In this game the Cowboys look good against the Browns though I doubt I'll stay up to 4:30 am to watch the last game.

F1: Belgian Grand Prix - I only watched the qualifying, build up and first two laps before heading upto Kingston Park to watch Newcastle vs. Sale but listened to the race on the radio, even staying in the car in the carpark to catch the end. On the way back from Newcastle, listening to the coverage of Leicester's trip to Kingsholm, I heard the dramatic news from the stewards' inquiry - I'll have to watch the recorded race tomorrow along with the two televised games from the Premiership.