Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Son of Thunderwolff

I'm not actually off to Snives (say it in one word, like Snozzle (St Austell) and Snagnes (St Agnes)) til Saturday, so I'm around a few days yet, you lucky sexy bitches (see? I can't do it).

Slightly random update: This made me laugh.

Danny Stack has his first (very) short film 'On The Death Of His Wife available for viewing by Windows Media or Real Media. He's described it as 'no-budget' and for a writer's first film, it's admirably dialogue-free. Certainly worth a look.

This link to Triumphs and Tribulations of a Victorian-Era Superhero by way of thanking Evans for providing free accommodation in London last work, and being sparkling company as ever. She also snuck me into a preview screening of Land of the Dead, which oddly enough looks more like a mid-Eighties John Carpenter film than any actual mid-Eighties John Carpenter film ever made. A bit disappointing, frankly, apart from one fantastic shot at the end, where (spoilerish alert) the head zombie leads his people out of the abandoned city across a walkway, the whole thing seen in silhouette. I don't know who set up that shot, but it makes all the rest worth sitting through.

Watched a bit of Love Soup last night, but I'm afraid the moment it became apparent that Tamsin's character's love interest was an American Man, I was possessed by a monstrous spitting fury and had to go and do something else instead. Rather unfair on American Men, who I'm sure are all lovely, but I can't stand dramas that seem to have one flirtatious eye on US telly, like a rather cheap hoor winking a gammy eye at a man not only out of her league but also very clearly gay. Let it go. If you write good stuff, they'll buy it.

Oh dear god, have I just tried to give advice to David Renwick? I think I'd better have a lie down**.

Also, it seemed a bit slow. Still, other than that it looks great, and anyone more rational than me (so everyone then), should go and watch it.*




*Think I got away with that.

**Also I just called all of UK TV a cheap whore. And said that US TV was gay. Whee! Blogging is fun.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

It never occurred to me that Gil's character being American wasa cynical attempt to interest american TV - I only noticed that he takes the same type of hypertension medication as I do! In my opinion, for what it's worth (nothing then) the script sounded a little, well, script-like as if the characters had given a great deal of thought to each utterance before making it, even those comments which were supposed to be unguarded sounded like this. No doubt this was done for a type of Comic Effect which I am too dense to "get". Will keep watching - Tamsin Greig is always very watchable and it might just be a bit of a slow starter?

James Henry said...

I should make it clear that I don't know that's what it was necessarily. It just didn't feel right to me, and that's always my first suspicion.

It's weird, Americans just look out of place on a certain kind of british tv. Maybe because it's digital video (I asume) and Americans should be on film stock, which is cooler-looking. I'm aware that Mister Logic is no longer co-pilotting now.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you were saying that was why Gil was an American - I only meant that the possibility hadn't even occurred to me - I'm a bit thick about things like that.
Perhaps Gil and Alice are both meant to look wrong, as both characters feel little or no connection to the world around them?

James Henry said...

But also, they use film don't they? Which is why Friends looks great and My Hero looks rubbish, isn't? Well, not the only reason, but you know what I mean.

I know there's a move towards DV which is then field-removed (ooh, get me, even though I'm probably wrong) which gives a grainy/almost imperceptibly slowed-down effect (as in GW). Or maybe the Americans use more lights.

Current Dr Who looks cheap and overlit to me in a way that Lost, for all its plot faults, never does. Explain please.

James Henry said...

Actually this is the internet, isn't it? I keep forgetting. I'll go and have a look m'self...

Kirses said...

i have decided to perservere with Love Soup - but only because Tamsin Grieg is in it. I thought it was precictable and a bit dullish...can only hope this is because it is a slow starter as suggested by Marsha

irony in motion said...

Snives sounds a bit like Fort Neef.*

I tried to tape Love Soup but taped BBC2 by accident, which was what I was actually watching last night so it wasn't particularly helpful. Will I be able to pick it up next week?


*Thorton Heath

Tim Clague said...

Didn't watch it. Too busy writing. So should you be. In fact so I be. Better go now.

Tim Clague
PROJECTOR FILMS
My Blog

Anonymous said...

*sticks neck out to unprecedented degree*
(PP is right on both counts, btw, I wondered the same thing myself)

Have seen first three epsisodes, criticisms are valid, however...

.. it's grown on me
.. Trudi Styler is no longer as irritating as she was in episode one (though I'm still not convinced she needs to be in it, except Gil apparently has no male friends)
.. it gets funnier as you go along
.. it's charming in a low-key, BBC1 kind of a way
.. I never liked One Foot in the Grave anyway
.. I'll shut up now

Clearly I'm going to be the only person who likes this show, but despite myself I do. It definitely gets stronger as it goes along though.

James Henry said...

Yes, I worry I'm at the vanguard of a hate campaign I never meant to began to begin. Hello Kitty by the way, long time no see, hope you're spreading the Cornish love up country.

Totally losing faith in Lost - about three weeks behind cello - is it really going anywhere? Enquiring minds want to know.

I've drunk some wine. Shhh, no-one can tell.

Dave said...

I was going to say what Kirses said, so take this as a ditto.

Danny Stack said...

I enjoyed last week's ep of Lost but last night's just pushed my patience to the limit. And knowing some spoilers for the end of this season and the beginning of the new one only increase the frustration.

Anonymous said...

Last night's Lost was not enhanced by my a) missing the first half, and b) having drunk some wine (the two facts not being unrelated). Shall watch it all on Sunday and take stock.

May relegate it to "watch if I happen to be in but not bother taping" status, I hate admitting defeat and giving up on things entirely.

Matt said...

i have to say im quite a big fan of Lost, but all the cliffhanger endings are seriously damaging my sanity. a few weeks back they put in a cliffhanger 15 minutes before the end of the episode and they still havent fully explained it! although i do have an idea about it now...

didnt see that other sit com thingy with the lovely Tamsin in. the ariels bad in my halls (im doing an animation course too) so i cant get any of the BBC channels.

Anonymous said...

I only caught the last ten minutes of Love Soup, so am of course unqualified to comment, but will chip in anyway, to say that surely he's not an actual America, but rather someone doing a (poor?) American accent? It sounded uncomfortable and laboured to me, I can't COPE with British people doing poor American accents, they just can't pull it off.

I will persevere, but found the ending about as weak as it gets, the shopping list in bed, as though intended to be a quirky last-thing-you-should-be-thinking-of-when-in-bed-with-a-man thing.

I like Tamsin a lot, but am fearing this is a shoddy vehicle for her. Oh dear. Perhaps I will love it further on into the series, and wonder what I was talking about here.

irony in motion said...

No, I think Michael Landes is American.

Anonymous said...

There you go, I will wonder what I was talking about. He sounded a little more American to me this week, I guess it's just my mind being played with by the juxtaposition of English and American accents...oh so complicated!...