Monday Review: Next

I've probably commented here before that I have read quite a few Philip K Dick stories, and seen quite a few films adapted from those stories, but never seen the film of the stories I've read (and vice versa).

True to form, I haven't read The Golden Man, the story on which Next - starring Nicolas Cage - was, loosely, based. But I did watch Next on TV recently, so here are a few of my thoughts. I actually didn't realise, until I started to watch the film, that it was based on a PKD story, or I might have made a point of watching it earlier (it was released in 2007). Trailers and reviews at the time didn't really grab my attention, or raise it above any other Hollywood action flick. With, it turns out, good reason.

Nic Cage stars as Chris Johnson, a man with an uncanny ability to see two minutes into the future, a power which he hides in plain sight by earning a living as a C-list Vegas magician, supplementing his earnings by winning at blackjack every now and then. Until, that is, he comes to the attention of the FBI who call upon him to save the world from an inadequately explained terrorist threat.

Explosions ensue, and with a bag of popcorn and a can of beer it's a reasonably entertaining way to spend an evening, but it never really lives up to the thought-provoking potential of a decent PKD story. (I am making the unfounded assumption that The Golden Man wasn't a rubbish story, of course.)

What it does live up to is a sort of mash-up of Groundhog Day, generic action movie, and romantic comedy, but without much comedy. Actually, if they had played it for laughs it may have been a better film... as it is, it doesn't seem to know what it is, with the result that it does half a job of being several things - none of them especially badly, but none of them well enough to warrant a second look. Sure, it's an interesting premise, there are some fun time-bending tricks as Johnson plays out various permutations of the next few minutes and uses his talents to fox the bad guys, and one or two amusing moments along the way, but they only serve to demonstrate how the film could have been better... Unfortunately the plot-holes, the blu-tacked on terrorist threat and the general nothing-specialness do sort of detract from the more promising moments.

Not bad for mindless vaguely sci-fi action, but could have been a lot better.

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

It seems like a while since I've done this, so without any further ado, let us celebrate the CSFF Blog Tour for The Bone House with.... the Top Ten Bone songs:

10. Guns n' Roses: Dust n' Bones
And we start with some classic 80s hard rock - contains a swear near the end. (Those naughty rockers eh?)

9. The White Stripes: Bone Broke
A nice loud blues rock number by Jack White and his, er, female relative of some sort.

8. The Raconteurs: Store Bought Bones
A nice loud alt rock number by Jack White and a few musician pals.

7. Elbow: The Bones of You
They should have renamed themselves 'Funny Bone' just for today, in a vague attempt to be humerus...

6. Radiohead: Bones
For some reason, bone themed songs seem to be more popular in the indie/rock genres than elsewhere. So here's some from somewhere near Kit Livingston's home town. Probably.

5. Brian Eno: Bone Jump
Electronic offerings are thin on the ground this week, but here's a practically non-existent ambient piece from the master of the art.

4. Alice in Chains: Them Bones
Heavy metal meets grunge - turn it up to eleven!

3. George Thorogood & The Destroyers: Bad to the Bone
Theme tune to the movie 'Christine'. I had a car called Christine once. Evil it was. And a Mini.

2. The Dead Weather: Bone House
Well, it had to be didn't it? And, hang on, isn't that Jack White again?

1. The Kinks: Skin and Bone
A warning against extreme dieting, in Ray Davies' inimitable style:
She don't eat no mashed potatoes, She don't eat no buttered scones Stay away from carbohydrates You're gonna look like skin and bone.

Almost forgot, which would be a shame now Spotify has reached the colonies: The Playlist!

Don't forget to visit the rest of the CSFF Blog Tour (full list yesterday) as they look at The Bone House by Stephen Lawhead.

Sci-fi song of the week

It was in the Top Ten Bone songs; it was also in Terminator 2 (I need your coat, your bike, and your underpants, that bit). It's George Thorogood and the Destroyers....

Monday review - The Potter Movie

I'm not sure I really need to review this, any more than I did Blade Runner last week. So I guess I'll keep it brief, because you already know whether you're going to watch it (and indeed probably have).

Lots of action, tons of magic effects, the plot does a bit of a wriggle, and almost everybody dies (at least, that's the way it seems at times).

I like a dark movie. I liked Part One because it was dark. Part Two, similarly so, in an epic last stand sort of a way - and who doesn't love an epic last stand?

If you've seen the previous couple of Potter movies, this will be a satisfying climax. If you haven't, then you'd be silly to go and watch a film with 'Part 2' in the title, wouldn't you?

From the perspective of a Christian viewer, it's full of witches and wizards, and if you go to see you'll burn in hell. Obviously I'm kidding, just threw that in to confuse the google stats. There is a resurrection motif, some afterlife stuff and the whole sacrificial love thingy that made Harry Harry, which have probably been discussed to better effect elsewhere.

So there you go, a pointless review. Maybe I should make that a feature?

Monday Review: Blade Runner

So, I just watched the Final Cut of Blade Runner. I don’t suppose there is really any need to review it properly, it is, after all, a classic science fiction movie.

I could join the debate about whether it’s a great movie, or just an over-hyped one, but even that is a bit redundant, because any film fan or science fiction fan really should watch the thing and make their own mind up.

Personally, well, the visuals are great – the imagining and visualisation of the dystopian world, the flying cars (that by rights we should have by now) whose strings are no longer visible on the latest remix, the constant rain…. Not quite sure why rain is so inherently dystopian, but then I’m English.

The thing is, if I didn’t know there was this mystery subtext about Deckard, I don’t think I would have spotted it, the whole origami thing being a bit too small and obscure, at least first time round. That said, the ambiguous ending of the Final Cut is better than the fluffy Hollywood ending version; the tone of Blade Runner doesn’t lend itself to a happy ending.

I’m not sure if it’s ironic or intended, but the only character that really sticks in the mind after watching is Roy Batty, as played by Rutger Hauer. That’s not to say the Harrison Ford, or Sean Young are in any way bad, but Roy’s change from angry, violent replicant-on-a-mission, to abandoned son confronting his father, to the final acceptance of his own death, is the definite stand-out.

Ah yes, the violence. There’s a lot of it in this version, I don’t remember wincing quite so much when I’ve seen earlier cuts. But this is not a happy film; not one you can switch your brain off for a couple of hours and relax with. There is a lot in Blade Runner (some of which I may revisit later) but a lot of it requires thought, and none of it is especially happy.

Perfect for a Monday review then.

Tuesday Tunes: The Return of the Sci-fi Song Of The Week!

Apparently, so my Great Uncle Wikipedia informs me, it's one of the blokes out of Run DMC's 47th birthday today. And because I've been writing about ghosts lately, it seems only logical to mash the two together, zap them with a little sci-fi magic (without crossing the streamers, mind), and see what turns up to reintroduce the Sci-fi Song Of The Week.

I always thought Ghostbusters II was a poor relation to the original; the walking Statue of Liberty tries to top Mr Staypuft, but just comes across as silly. And I can remember several fun one-liners from the original movie, but from the sequel I get stuck after the 'Do' 'Ray' Egon' moment, which was probably the comedy highpoint of the film. Or maybe I've just watched the original a lot more than the sequel.

No, actually, I'm pretty sure GBII was rubbish. Still, gotta love the wacky pop-rap cover version of the theme, eh?

Oh yes, and happy birthday DMC :)

Friday Review: Paul

I was planning another artificial intelligence post earlier in the week, but our internet was out for most of a day, so it didn't get finished. Anyway, enough excuses, on with the review!

Before I say anything else about this film, I’ll say this: if you get offended by bad language, you’re gonna want to give this one a wide berth. There is a lot of it, to the point of gratuitous swearing being a running gag for much of the film. Much of the gratuitous swearing is therefore deliberately comical, but if you don’t want to hear it, save your pennies.

On the other hand, if you’re a fan of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and especially of Spaced, then you’ll get a kick out of this movie.

The writer Clive Gollings (Nick Frost) and Graeme Willy (Simon Pegg) are living every British geek’s dream: a road trip from San Diego Comic Con along the Extra-terrestrial Highway. As is the tradition with road movies, they pick up a motley crew of hangers-on along the way – in this instance a stereotypical grey called Paul, and a similarly stereotypical Bible Belt girl called Ruth. (If Christian-bashing is going to offend you, you might also want to skip the film. If not, we’ll come back to Ruth.) They also pick up a crowd of pursuers, Men in Black, the FBI, Ruth’s dad and his pet shotgun…

So, the film. It’s funny, in a Pegg & Frost way; the pair are perhaps not quite as chummy as in, say, Shaun of the Dead, but the gag rate is high, and the ‘aliens abroad’ theme is completely subverted by having an actual alien having more clue what’s going on than the humans. Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen) gets all the best lines, and a weird love triangle with Graeme and Clive, who almost fall out over hogging the alien experience.

Which brings us back to Bible belt Ruth, who sort of gets in the way of the aforementioned love triangle by wanting to fornicate with Graeme. Yes, her alien encounter brings about a rather abrupt conversion to, well, some brand of hedonistic atheism maybe; or maybe just a belated rebellion against the religion instilled in her by her father. Even Christians in the UK find it easy to laugh at these stereotypical trailer-park dwelling ‘Christians’; I’m not sure how well that will go down in the States, but the character’s of Ruth and her father, and how they interact with the wider world around them, gives plenty of scope for meaningful discussion – Paul hands you one the second he meets Ruth, and there’s plenty of debate to be had, not just about how Christianity would react to alien life, but about fundamentalism done badly, what Christians are really like in real life, the whole miraculous healing thing aliens have evolved, and no doubt plenty of others.

Oh yes, and anyone who was on the CSFF Blog Tour last week might find something familiar about the way Paul does his alien healing thing too!

That said, most of the fun to be had with this movie, is in trying to spot all the geeky references and cameo appearances as the fly past with varying degrees of subtlety. I will be looking out for the DVD in the hope of an homage-o-meter similar to the Spaced DVDs. A lot of fun for the geek in your life!

Artificial Intelligence

Following last week’s little adventures into the world of cyberspace and artificial intelligence, I thought that, this being a sci-fi blog and all, I would attempt to continue that conversation, first with a quick overview of AI as a fictional device and how it could relate to Christianity.

Artificial intelligence in sf started out as the pinnacle of transhuman evolution, notably in Isaac Asimov’s The Last Question, where the final evolution of the man-made multivac AIs ultimately becomes God – a concept which surely requires more attention at a later date.

On a somewhat smaller scale, computers are generally intended to be useful; in sf a good artificial intelligence can conveniently remove the problem of human error in, say, navigating a large space vessel (the Nostromo from Alien, or any number of ships in the Culture novels of Iain M Banks).

However, as the giant supercomputers of 50s and 60s pulp sf gave way to networks of far smaller machines, the combined processing power available led to the idea of such a network achieving consciousness (Skynet, anyone?) and leading a cybernetic revolt, such as led to the slavery of humankind in the world of The Matrix.

Another angle on artificial intelligence, and one which has interesting potential for Christian fiction, is the idea of downloading a human mind into a computer, usually for the purpose of prolonging ‘life’ indefinitely. There are a few alternative directions this could go off in, some of which have already been tackled from a Christian perspective; The Personifid Project allows for human minds to be uploaded into artificial bodies, less prone to the common cold and so on. Alternatively the prospect of a digital afterlife might allow for similar discussion around what happens to the soul of a digitised person, and is explored in Greg Egan’s Permutation City. Expose your digitised minds to a computer virus, on the other hand…

That is far from a comprehensive outline of Artificial Intelligence in fiction, but it’s a few of the ways it has featured, and I’ll come back to some of them and try and find some way of using them in Christian Fiction in future posts.

In the meantime, feel free to chip in with any questions, comments, suggested reading, or anything else you care to add. Especially if you’re a sentient computer program.

On toy robots and masturbation

OK, it’s actually just an excuse for another retro review, but hey, how long will it be before somebody googles that exact phrase? (If that was you, by the way, welcome!)

So, Transformers then. Big action movie, fun special effects, every Hollywood cliché in the book, Megan Fox as eye-candy, and a happy ending. If any of that tickles your fancy, you probably saw this already, and if it doesn’t, you don’t care. So why, I hear you ask, are you blogging about a movie whose sequel has already been blogged to death?

Well, out of curiosity as to what the greater Christian public actually makes of films like this. There is, it must be said, a lot of good stuff in the movie – as with any good movie of this kind, the heroes are there to demonstrate self-sacrifice, justice and defending the weak, as well as looking cool and kicking Decepticon butt. This is all good. There is a lot of violence and reckless destruction of stuff, but it’s all cartoon violence, there’s no gory stuff and the body count is not excessive. Our hero, Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) is an ordinary teenage guy, who just wants a cool car and a hot girlfriend. Although some may consider this shallow (and rightly so), it’s also realistic. That’s what teenage guys want out of life. OK, so I generalise, but that’s a moot point, as during the course of the movie Sam discovers more noble traits like friendship, honour, and bravery, and generally matures over the course of the movie. Again, all good.

Although some Christian reviews I perused took issue with Sam’s shallowness, there did seem to be a problem with the sci-fi elements. In the movie, the good and bad Transformers are looking for the ‘AllSpark’, the means by which they were given life. It seems to me you can take this one of two ways; either it’s an allegorical version of God, or it’s a grotesque blasphemy. As this is just a story, surely it would be better used as an allegory, a way to teach children about the creation of man, than blamed for encouraging them to grow up worshipping robots? Yes, kids will want the toys, yes they will fantasize about worlds inhabited by shapeshifting robots, but I expect most will know it’s not real. And really, is there anything wrong with imagining – or even believing in the possibility – that God created life elsewhere than on this random chunk of rock we call home? And, at the risk of leaning towards the grotesque blasphemy, that such life may be completely unlike ourselves? I guess I’m just biased though.

Oh, yes, you were wondering when I would get to that bit weren’t you? Yes, there is an awkward scene where Sam’s parents think they’ve caught him masturbating, and a conversation about his special alone time ensues. Yes it was unnecessary for the plot, and unsuitable for children of a certain age, but films have ratings for a reason after all (in the case of Transformers, 12/PG-13). I suppose it may have given the teenage audience a slightly embarrassed moment of humour, but in its defence, the moral outrage it caused among Christian movie-goers probably saved the sci-fi elements from more of a bashing.

My take? Sam is a teenager. OK, most mums wouldn’t tackle the subject quite the way his did, but treating it as taboo, and calling it the ‘M-word’ in your internet review, are not going to make it go away. I don’t have the answer, but in our increasingly sexualised society (see Mikaela in this movie for an example) we shouldn’t be walking out of films that mention it, and we shouldn’t be ignoring it.

Hence, I suppose, my title for this post :)

Friday Review: Batman Begins

OK, so it's a bit retro now, but I've been catching up on some TV and movies lately, and slightly irreverant movie reviews are quite fun (and fill blog space). I guess most people with a vague interest will have seen it by now, so I won't waste too much time, but I will share a couple of thoughts with anyone who cares to read them.

Now, I'm no comic book or superhero expert, but I am reliably informed that the recent crop of superhero movies have been (on the whole) a lot better in terms of faithfulness to source material than a lot of earlier ones. Certainly the previous Batman franchise started off ok (the one, I believe, with Buster Keaton in the title role) but deteriorated into camp naffness. Batman Begins, on the other hand, gives a lot more time to developing Bruce Wayne as a character, and showing how he became Batman. It's quite a dark movie, and Batman is a hero with a dark side, but because we understand Wayne's back story, that is not gratuitous, and is exactly how it should be.

So we meet Bruce starting fights in a jail in the Himalayas, either by choice, or because he is truly lost, according to Merely Ducard, a stranger who turns up and invites Wayne to join the League of Shadows. The League follows a code which upholds the natural order of things, unbound by the hypocrisy of corporate Gotham City. And who, lost and in search of purpose, wouldn't be tempted to follow such a code?

It is during this journey that young Bruce, challenged to help the League destroy Gotham City, discovers the importance of compassion and decides instead to save the city; the vengeful nearly-villain becomes the hero and saviour of the city.

Batman Begins is a story of greatness (and goodness) coming out of tragedy and evil. It's a story of salvation, both of Bruce Wayne and Gotham City. It's a top-notch comic book/superhero flick. And it's got Charlie Croker in it, which can only be a good thing.

Blog Quote of the Week

We interrupt your regular scheduled blogging because this quote just tickled me a lot:

The film could have easily made its point about a sexually driven culture without contributing to one.

From Paeter Frandsen's review of Gamer. It sounds even better on his podcast!

What is the matrix?

It’s been 10 years since we found out what the matrix is. And yet, despite being one of the few movies I can watch repeatedly, it has warranted barely a passing mention on this blog.

Part of the reason for this is that The Matrix trilogy is so chock full of religious and philosophical references that I could be blogging about it for the next ten years if I really put some effort into it.

Now, regular readers will know that I don’t really believe in putting effort into blogging, but it seems about as good a time as any to make some reference to everybody’s favourite cyberpunk movie.

I don’t think I hate the sequels as much as some people, but they do seem somewhat superfluous in many ways. For me, the key thing about The Matrix was the concept, the false reality, the matrix as the world that is pulled over our eyes. The first movie deals with this so well that the sequels were always going to compare badly.

But I don’t need to review the thing, you’ve seen it – more than once if you enjoyed it. And you know all about Neo’s messianic pretentions, about Morpheus paving the way for him and Cyber betraying him. You’ve wondered whether to read anything into Trinity’s name, not to mention Zion or Nebuchadnezzer.

Actually, now I remember why I haven’t blogged about The Matrix before…

(cartoon from The Ongoing Adventures of ASBO Jesus)

The Matrix Trilogy is now also available on Blu-Ray, for those more hi-tech than me.

Friday Review: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Meh.

Stupid movie idea of the year

Yes, you've all probably heard it already, but I just want to add my voice to those saying what an utterly bonkers idea it is trying to make a new Buffy movie.

The original movie was pants. The fact that it spawned one of the best TV shows of the 90s shows that while the idea was undoubtedly good (witness the amount of sub-Buffy pretenders to have appeared since), it was the way the cast worked together, and the brilliant writing (is Buffyism in the dictionary yet?) that made it the phenomenon it was. (When was the last time you saw the name Sarah Michelle Gellar in a tabloid article without being prefaced by the words 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer star'?)

If Fran Rubel Kuzui can get a cast, and writers, that good, there should be no need to bring Buffy back from the dead (again, poor girl!). If not, well, why drag Buffy's good name back to the Hollywood mediocrity from whence it rose?

And as for doing the whole thing without a link to the show, or involving Joss Whedon... I refer to my previous comment about mediocrity.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, they want to reinvent Ghostbusters too... but at least having the Pete, Ray and Egon there to hand over to Eliza Dushku (am I right in thinking Dollhouse is just a big Dusku fetishist's paradise?)

And isn't it annoying when bloggers who pretend they can write keep starting sentences with 'and'?

Ok, rant over. Thank you for your time.

Friday Review - A Scanner Darkly

Philip K Dick was a man who knew his dystopias - Blade Runner being possibly the definitive movie dystopia.

A Scanner Darkly is nothing like Blade Runner. For one thing the rotoscoped animation gives the film a uniquely twisted look, which allows for surreal moments befitting the subject matter; for another, it’s a far more personal dystopia, one where America has lost the war on drugs and the obligatory police state is dedicated to tracking down those behind Substance D. More importantly, Scanner is apparently more faithful to the novel than some film adaptations, as befits what was, a semi-autobiographical story. (I can’t comment directly on this myself, because it is an unwritten rule that I cannot watch a PKD adaptation if I’ve read the book, and vice versa.)

Although it starts out sounding like just another stoner movie - the comedic antics of three strung out housemates, one of whom is completely failing to have sex with his girlfriend – it soon develops into a serious look at the effects of addiction, notably on Bob Arctor, an undercover agent who got hooked on Substance D while trying to infitrate the supply chain, and his understandably paranoid flatmates.

Paranoia is followed by schizophrenia and ultimately extreme withdrawal - and then the plot starts getting really twisty.

This is definitely one to watch, although it’s been around a while, so if you haven’t already, you really should. Unless, that is, you really don’t like films with a smattering of sex and a lot of naughty words. And all the drugs, of course. Or if you don’t like films with humour, sadness, philosophy, great visuals, and commentary on the issues facing the world today.

Phursday Photos: Phight the Phuture

In the spirit of X-Files mania that has gripped, er, me, here's a couple of old photos I dug up from the last time Mulder & Scully hit the big screen:

Agent Mulder believes we are not alone...

Agent Scully believes there is a rational explanation for everything.
Even a Mini in a ginger wig.

The future they are fighting is, of course, the sinister Millenium Mini...

More pictures from the Christian Mini Owners Club going a bit X-Files mad back in '98 here.

And if anyone has a Mini and fancies doing a sequel this September, well, Yoda and I will be up for it!

Tuesday Tunes: Fight the Future

It probably hasn't escaped the notice of readers that there is a new X-Files flick out this week. No, really, there is.

So I figured I would dig out the album from the last time round. Not the film score, 'The X-Files: The Album', which apparently features music inspired by the first X-Files film.

It's a mix of big names (The Cure, Foo Fighters, Noel Gallagher, Sting) and slightly more obscure artists (Soul Coughing, anyone?).

The European release opens with a variation on the X-Files main theme in the style of Tubular Bells, which actually makes more sense when you hear it, and closes with The Dust Brothers rendition, both of which I think are pretty cool in their own ways.

In between you get a selection of post-grunge rock tracks (although the Foos are in melancholy mode for Walking After You), pretty typical Bjork fare in Hunter, and the slightly more ethereal vocals of Sarah McLachlan's Black. Noel Gallagher's contribution is an (overlong) instrumental piece, so thankfully no annoying Mancunian whining. (Yes, I was definitely a Blur person.) More Than This is not The Cure at their most depressing, but it's no Friday I'm in Love.

Only a couple of the songs appear briefly in the film or over the end credits, but there's actually not much that brings the X-Files directly to mind, except possibly Filter's One, and One More Murder by Better Than Ezra. But it's a nice selection of tracks, with some great artists who lurk on the fringes of my music collection - The Cure and Foo Fighters in particular are sadly underrepresented in my CD cabinet. The only track I would skip is Sting doing Invisible Sun with Aswad. I don't need Sting in my life, I'm afraid.

Oh yes, and there's a subtle hint on the cover: 'Hear the truth revealed at 10:13' which points you to a bonus track revealing some of the mythology behind the movie.

Sci-fi Song of the Week

So, which track from the album am I going to add to the mixtape this week? Well, actually I'm not. I'm going to throw in another alternative version of the X-Files theme which I quite like, by Rugby psychadelic rockers Spiritualized. I haven't heard the Version from UNKLE yet, but currently Spiritualized is my favourite X-Files theme.

Eight Random Facts

Posts are a bit thin on the ground here at the moment, mainly because the pesky day job keeps dragging me across the country for one reason or another. Tsk.

Still, those nice bloggers at The Sci-Fi Catholic tagged me for this, so I figured that since it saves me actually thinking too much I'd take a stab. So here are 8 (count 'em) random facts about moi:

1. My fourth car was a Mini. Yeah, my first one was too, but that sounded a bit predictable and not at all random. My second and third cars (and fifth and sixth) were Minis too.

2. I don't currently own a Mini though. Technically Yoda belongs to Mrs UKSteve.

3. I've gone off the idea of progress. It's over-rated.

4. I have an annoying tendency to quote The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy whenever the opportunity arises. Also Red Dwarf and The Italian Job if they are more suitable.

5. I have read His Dark Materials. Yes, the whole trilogy.

6. And if I go to hell, it probably won't be for that.

7. One of my first published writings was a witty little thing called '101 Things to do with a Kettle'. The sequel, '101 Things to do with a ZX81', was far better in my opinion, but due to the more limited target audience I have yet to make a fortune from it. I made a couple of half-hearted attempts to put it online, but never quite found the right format.

8. I don't think this blog has eight regular readers, especially not eight that haven't already been tagged by DGD and his blogging pets.

So, if you happen to be passing through and haven't done the 8 Random Facts meme yet, consider yourself tagged.

Actually, that was quite fun.

Spooky coincidence

Last night I was being industrious, and getting some long overdue web updates started elsewhere in my virtual empire.

I was uploading these photos, and decided I should try and find a suitable link to serve as a reminder of what the X-Files movie was all about and what it had to do with Minis.

But I couldn't track down the official movie web page because of all the chatter about the sequel. Well, let's hope that drags some more custom round my little corner of the webbiverse, eh?

I haven't seen the X-Files in a long time. I kind of lost interest in that last season, the one without Mulder, and I think it went on a bit too long. Surely Mulder finding his sister, and Scully becoming the believer, keeping the X-files going with a sceptical partner, surely that was the end?

I dare say I'll go see it, or if Her Babyship doesn't allow, watch it on DVD. Who knows, maybe it will even have the desired effect and send me scurrying out to amazon to get the TV series on DVD...

miscellaneous bloggery 9

I've spotted a few interesting titbits around over the last week or two, which I was going to share but Elliot beat me to it.

This looked fun too: What 5 scifi movies do you watch over and over? Well, based purely on the movies I've actually bothered to buy on DVD....

• Star Wars (Episodes 4 & 5. Is that two choices?)
• The Matrix
• Serenity
• Back to the Future (Part 2 if I could only take one)
• ...and, if the judges are lenient and let The Empire Strike Back, I'll put Ghostbusters in for light entertainment.

And here's a little something that's been amusing me lately: The Ongoing Adventures of ASBO Jesus.

Proper writing may resume shortly. If I can find the time.

Friday Review - The Day After Tomorrow

It seems that the freak weather we've had in these parts (and in Europe) is set to continue, so I'm using that as a gratuitous (and possibly inappropriate) reason to revisit this movie.

The Day After Tomorrow is a fairly typical disaster movie, taking global warming and turning it on its head, to create a sudden super cooling effect on huge swathes of the northern hemisphere. Yes, I know, but there is an explanation given which sounds plausible enough if you try not to think about it. I guess any film that opens by plagiarising a Road Runner cartoon can't really be taken that seriously.

From there on, it really is just a typical disaster movie: the kids (led by Donnie Darko) trapped in New York, while Donnie's father treks through miles of snow to rescue them, accompanied by a couple of hardened adventurers, one of whom sacrifices himself for the sake of the mission. There's a shedload of effects, from hail-boulders to frozen helicopters crashing out of the sky. And, of course, there's all that snow - enough, apparently, to make the Statue of Liberty go all Planet of the Apes. And, of course, an incredibly cheesy finale in which the President of the USA humbly thanks the Third World nations for welcoming (presumably at gunpoint) all the refugees from the frozen Northern hemisphere.

For all that though, it's quite an enjoyable waste of a couple of hours, more so if you like effects heavy disaster movies, and despite its best efforts, it probably won't make you think too seriously about climate change (at least, not in the way five feet of river flowing through your house will).

Whether the conditions here at the moment are related to the real, actual effects of climate change, or just plain old freak weather, is not quite clear at the moment. What seems to be clear, though, is that it's not over yet.

Truth, they say, is stranger than fiction. Just, not quite as spectacular.