So I was looking through the list and there are some goodies on there like “The Andromeda Strain“, “28 Days later“, and “12 Monkeys” (I have always loved the work of Terry Gilliam). But a few from the top I came across “Pontypool” and from the picture alone I thought I need to take a look at that.

It made another appearance in the current SFX magazine special on zombies at number 39 of their all time greatest zombie movies.. so it has to be worth a look.

Something of a surprise

Like all good zombie films it starts innocently following the journey to work of former “shock jock” Grany Mazzy. It looks like its going to be just another day for Mazzy in the backwater hole that is Pontypool but strange things are already happening but no one has caught onto it yet.

Being the grizzled zombie film watchers that I am I thought it might be interesting but didn’t hold out much hope it would be up to much, after all I have never heard of it.

As soon as I started watching I knew something about this one was going to be good, it has a great gritty feel to it and the direction and acting are excellent. Like all really good horror there is a fair dose of comedy and you get a good feeling for the characters.

All the action takes place in the basement of a church where the radio station is setup, and you only hear about what is happening outside from broken reports and odd bits of news. This only serves to highlight the problem as it is so badly defined anything could be going on.

This is where the film takes a sharp turn from the normal zombie style film and adds its own twist to the proceedings. I am not going to tell you what it is you will have to watch for that, but it is a genius and terrifying idea and one that I can’t believe hasn’t been used before (that I have seen at least).

Not perfect

What is the perfect zombie film, only two spring to mind for me. Night of the living dead (the original George A Romero film the whole genre started from) and Shaun of the dead.

You are probably thinking “what the hell is this idiot saying?”, cool your jets! When I say perfect I mean in terms of character development, plot, pacing. All the things that are really hard in any film. They are not the best zombie films (close) but they are get well made films that hang together well. Most zombie films have problems with gaps in the plot or slow scenes that stop the flow of the film.

Pontypool doesn’t escape these problems but they are few and far between. You can forgive any film its minor moments and its worth powering through the few slower moments to get to the reward.

Does not reward stupidity

Something I have seen more and more in recent films is a tend to make them more appealing to idiots. Why have a subtle plot when you can put it in someones face? Pontypool I’m pleased to say doesn’t do that, if you are not following what is going on then you are out of luck, and the ending is sure to leave you confused.

Conclusion

Worth a watch, might not buy it but if you see it cheap or on the TV it’s worth spending the time.

It is ambitious and yet somewhat successful. I say somewhat because they have turned a space opera, a slow dramatic show that at times had me as close to tears as I’ve ever been since I saw Optimus Prime die in ’86, into a Hollywood style blockbuster.
How? why? well simple really, you can’t have anywhere near as many near destruction encounters as in the original. The Yamato doesn’t get heavily damaged and fixed again many times over, there just isn’t time. The pace of the film is understandably quick and there are many things that were cut out but I enjoyed the film and as a film it makes sense even if some f the changes may be a little hard to swallow.

What’s it about?

In the year 2199, mankind loses their final showdown in space against invaders from the Gamilas race. With human tech no match for the attackers, Captain Okita is forced to retreat to the radiation soaked Earth where humans live in underground cities after the surface was hit by radioactive meteors sent by Gamilas. Earth gets a ray of hope in the form of a capsule from Iskander, it contains a map and schematics for a wave motion engine capable of warping a ship through space and powering a canon powerful enough to destroy any Gamilus ship.
The defence force construct the Space Battleship Yamato using these plans, its mission, fight past the attackers from space and travel to Iskander and retrieve a device from the high-tech culture capable of purifying the Earth. Character wise it revolves around the hotshot ace pilot Susumu Kodai, the hard hitting love interest Yuki Mori and wise old Captain Okita and his passing of the torch to Kodai.

Modernising Yamato

The whole cg look of the film’s effects seems to be lifted from the 2005 Batlestar Galactica so it isn’t the best cg you’ll have seen but then this is a Japanese movie and budget-wise can’t be expected to compete with Transformers for cg budgets and effects.  The music is instrumental version of the legendary Yamato theme.  I’m too old school and mis the words but duing the film the music is just modern remixes of the classic theme which is perfect as the original’s music was a masterpiece up there with Star Wars.

As for some of the more noticable character changes:

Dr Sado, the Yamato’s chief doctor and drunk in the series was a small balding drunk who was always entertaining as he hung around with his cat, the analyzer robot and a bottle of sake. In the film he becomes, well a woman who doesn’t get to do much other than stand around with her cat and a bottle of sake in homage. Not really the best of changes but in this day and age you probably couldn’t get away with the old doctor.
Analyzer goes from being a red human sized robot with perverted tendencies that hangs around with the doctor lusting after Yuki to a ummm, an artificial intelligence living in a tablet pc operated by Kodai for most of the film (but this redesign is totally redeemed  near the end of the film with a super baddass upgrade).
Aihara was a guy who didn’t do much in the original series (but did more in later series), him becoming a she I can live with.
Yuki Mori has undergone some sort of personality transport and goes from lifestyle officer and nurse to fighter pilot… That said, it works for the film, if you hadn’t seen the original series you’d never know.  If you have, it’s hard.
Saito is a character who was lifted out of the second season of Space Battleship Yamato, he’s less obnoxious than in the series and actually a good addition.

The commander of Gamilus, Desla is a key character of the main story in the anime, in the film, yeah not much time at all and his appearance…  Well he was a blue humanoid before, he isn’t now…

Final Thoughts

Without giving too much away I’ll tell you that you can quite happily watch this film without having seen the original series, in some ways it may help.  What I will also say, is that because of the way it skips large events and actually takes large chunks of Yamato 2′s ending.  You can quite happily watch the series afterwards and be in for a thoroughly enjoyable story and you won’t be left thinking seen all this, you won’t have because so little of the original is in here.  Is that a good thing, I don’t know, but all things considered, I just don’t think it’s possible to compress the whole story into one film and have the same impact.  Instead we get a highly entertaining action packed version of Yamato which is either a great introduction, or a nice alternate telling of it for existing fans.  Either way, this is one anime to live action conversion that is *gasp* actually a good film!  I just hope it gets an official blu-ray release in the UK or more likely the USA.

You do not want to be on the receiving end of the Wave Motion Gun

Akira Collectors Edition Steel Book

Yet another edition of Akira you just have to buy. Talking to Sideswipe today this is this will be the firth time he has bought it, the third time for me.

A bargain too. Get it from Play for £17.99

As you may or may now know I am a dedicated lover of Akira I am very choosy about what Akira has to be in order for me to buy it. More specifically it has to be the original American dub of the film. I have seen the original Japanese version (makes a little more sense) and the improved dubbed version but I am not a fan or them. It has to be Leonardo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and most of that era or voice actors running the show. If I am not thrown back to my childhood when I watch the film I am just not interested.

What can I tell you? As far as I can tell Cameron Clarke is Keneda… that means this is the original dubbed version of the film, cleaned up, remasters and made better than ever. Check out Mr Clarkes bio on IMDB and give praise to him, he is your childhood and you don’t even know it.

The Incredibles

Probably my favourite of all of Pixar’s work is finally coming to high definition. There is very little I can actually say about it that hasn’t been said before, it is just a great film all around and takes the usual superhero’s film and turns it on its head.

Only £15.99 from play and I think that is a deal.

Superman: The complete collection

Who does not love Superman on some level? For a long time I really didn’t like these films. I don’t even know why, I think it was probably because they were on so often you just become sick of them. On reflection, having seen them recently after such a long time, I have come to really love them. The special effects don’t really hold up very well, it is filled with over acting, and the stories are not very good. But that doesn’t matter, there is a joy in these films from the cheesy special effects used in the titles when John Williams score picks up and you know this is not just a film, it’s a “Motion Picture”.

Not a bad deal on play considering its 8 disks, 3 good 1 crap film. But you have to have them all. £36.99

Don’t forget

There is a lot coming out at the moment, some of the other things I think are worth checking out:

• The Fifth Element (£13.99) – Always an amazing film that I wrote about it recently.
• Tangled (£15.99) – This is a surprise for me from Disney. Darker than I though it might be and actually a lot of fun. Not really a surprise when John Lasseter is involved.
• Laputa : Castle in the sky (£14.99) – All of Studio Ghibli’s work is being brought into the high definition world and its starting here. Saw this again recently after a long time and I had forgotten what a potent film it is. Saw this film for the first time on the BBC with my sister when I must have been about 10, stuck us both as an amazing film even then.

Fondly remembered

This film is very special to Nikobe and I as it represents possibly the best value you can get for your money. It came out in June 1997 (wow.. that is along time ago now), and there was the first ever (and I think only) National Cinema Day. Every cinema in the country was showing their films for £1. We had both seen the trailers and posters for The Fifth Element, but the reviews were not great and the trailer was a little cryptic (they were just numbers and an element).

Neither of us had seen the full trailer (this was before the Internet at decent speeds you will remember) so we took a chance.. it was only a pound. As it turns out it is probably the best pound I have ever spent.

What do you get

Right now I just don’t know, there are plenty of reviews out there of it but they are actually of the original Blu-Ray release that was revoked. That original version was pulled for a good reason, it was one of the very first Blu-Rays and as such suffered all manner of problems with its transfer to HD. Will keep looking in case some more information comes up. Again the original issue was light on features, I hope this has something better. With such a stunning sound track and amazing costumes and designs I can’t understand why you wouldn’t pack this disk with features.

No matter what it has on it I will be getting it I’m sure.

You can pre order them right now on Play

• Original Trilogy (£33.99)
• Prequel Trilogy (£33.99)
• Complete Saga (£69.99)

Apparently the whole is worth more than the sum of the parts, of course Lucas is the only one who would think he could get away with that. No one else would sell the combined pack for more than the two pieces combined.

So now I have a problem

I don’t think I want to buy them. The original trilogy is the only one I would want, I have no interest at all in the prequels. But these are not the “Original” versions, these are the versions that have been messed about with to have various parts changed and removed. Most notably of course is the removal of Anakin from the end of Jedi which is just plain wrong.

What a sad state of affairs it is when I really have no interest in these films.

“It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring”
- Carl Sagan

I found out I needed to know more about Sagan by listening to “The Sceptics Guide to the Universe” and they kept talking about him and his ideas. A wonderful weekly podcast where they discuss all things science. It was when they played this I realised that not only what he was saying was special (even if it is to music here), but there was something bigger I needed to know about.

Discovering Cosmos

From there I had to watch Cosmos, Sagan’s definitive work on trying to make us all understand how we fit into the universe. Made in 1980 it is still a wonderful series and dives into concepts and ideas still more than powerful enough today to be unsettling to a lot of people. But Sagan brings a humanity to the ideas and shows his hope for what the future of humanity holds for us all.

“Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.”
- Douglas Adams (The Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy)

Made during the cold war it is all to obvious one of his real worries would be that we would destroy ourselves before we were ever able to truly make steps into the universe.

The 13 part series is a master piece, each episode an hour long they deal with a range of space based subjects. From the library of Alexandria and how and when they worked out the planet was round, all the way to the inconceivable reality of a 4 dimensional being and how it would cast its shadow into our dimensions.

These have been a joy to watch, and I have watches a few of them a couple of times. Even those a few parts are a little dated, the science is rock solid. It is a shame there are not more science based TV shows out there any more. The BBC has done a few in the last year with “Wonders of the Solar System” being the best recently.

But it makes me wonder how this show might have changed my life if I had seen it in the 80′s, I lived from programs like Tomorrows World, and this show would have just blown my mind. But it would have also given me a much better graps of things like what happens at the speed of light or relativity theory. Things I have always found facinating, but never got that kick start in life to help me understand other than what I could peice together from books.

The Sagan Series

Nasa has started putting out a new series called “The Sagan Series”, and series of talks by Carl Sagan set to video and music. If you are interested in Science, or just listening to Sagan’s wonderful voice they are worth checking out. Part 1 and Part 2. I am looking forward to seeing what the rest of the series is like.

There is still a lot more I want to know about Carl Sagan and his thoughts, I have a lot of catching up to do and trying to keep up with him is exhausting. But I would rather know than not.

Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.
- Carl Sagan

While it is mostly well done and the action is a lot of fun, it just doesn’t engage. The characters are interesting and two of the best you can get (Cameron Diaz and Christopher Waltz) are relegated to mostly background characters and never given the space to really show why they are stunning.

The legend of Bruce Lee

If there is one thing I really loved it was the few references to Bruce Lee. As you may or may not know “The Green Hornet” TV series is what made Bruce Lee famous in the US. He was already well known in Asia but had never made it in the US. He was given the role of Kato, very much a second fiddle to the lead. But Bruce made it his own and shown as the star he was. That broke him into the US market and the rest is history.

In the film there are two really great references. One is in Kato’s drawings where there is a whole page of classic Bruce Lee poses, the second is Kato doing the infamous one inch punch Bruce was famous for.

I hate 3D

This film has confirmed that I just can’t stand 3D, it is over priced rubbish. There is nothing in this film that needs 3D it would be perfect in normal 2D. But the cinemas around me have decided they want to con their customers and are only showing a lot of the current films in 3D, its a nice little extra for them for no additional cost.

I have come to the conclusion I am not going to see a 3D film again it is a waste of money, and if they want to play that game I just won’t see that film.

Update: See comments below. I come of quiet harsh against this film when really its my hatred of 3D that is the problem.

This new show from Genndy Tartakovsky has only just started but it is already one of my favourite shows, fortunately for me it slots right into the “Big Giant Robot” theme perfectly.

How can you be sure this is going to be great?

Lets set aside the actual story and style for just a moment, I will come to those very soon. Lets also not focus on the fact the star of the show is a Big Giant Robot (how can that ever fail?) and instead lets just look at the man behind the show Genndy Tartakovsky.

If there are a few people currently making cartoons that I think are producing really interesting work he is one of them. Of course you have to include Matt Groening as the creator of the Simpsons and more importantly Futurama he is a huge influence. But if you look away from the main stream you start to see some of the really interesting shows being made.

Craig McCracken and Genndy Tartakovsky are the guys to watch. There work is cleverly disguised as kids shows, but they treat their audience with respect and slip in a few nods for the adults (As I write this I am actually watching McCracken’s Fosters home for imaginary friends). Between them they have made Dexters Lab, Powerpuff Girls, Fosters Home, Samuari Jack, Star Wars:Clone Wars, and now Sym-Bionic Titan. That is the sort of reputation you can’t buy, all of these shows are pure genius (I have warmed up to Clone Wars since the second series).

Samurai Jack is a greatly overlooked show, it is surprisingly deep and well written, the story of Samurai who is the only saviour for the world. Thrown forward in time to when his enemy is the all powerful ruler of the world he has to find a way back to his own time and save the world. Of course its not all the easy.

The most distinctive thing that always stood out to me was the style. Deceptively simple it is very expressive without being overly complex.

On to the show

That distinctive style is improved in Titan, carried off superbly it brings a great feel to the show. It has a very Anime feel but remains unique. Of course no matter how good the style is, it is nothing without story. Titan has story, setup, and ideas coming thick and fast, with enough left unspoken that you get the feeling there is a lot more to come.

The basic premise is Princess Ilana and her protector Lance escape from their plant under orders from her father. As the planet is over run he sends them to safety on a far off planet, crash landing they are presented with the earth forces headed by General Steel. Of course nothing is as it seems, and they are not as easy to defeat as Steel would like. Aided by their robot Octus they escape and need to find a way to blend into the population.

It is a classic set up, but watching does not feel forced or contrived. Although it is not all new, it feels fresh and it seems there is a lot of back story just waiting to burst through. Come the end of the first episode a huge fire monster has been sent after them. They are left with a moral question, should they face this threat and reveal their presence on the planet, or remain hidden and let the humans deal with the problem. They come through and you get the first glimpse of the Titan, with a neat twist that even Lance, Octus, and Ilana don’t know how to use the Titan.

The Titan transformation is very satisfying. You can feel the influences of classic shows like Robotech and Voltron coming through.

Great hopes

They are already up to episode 3 and I have enjoyed every moment of it so far. Some classic themes are coming through but all done with a unique feel. There has even been some surprisingly dark moments back on their home planet as the fallen hero Modula claims power.

I am looking forward to seeing how this will turn out.

It is a shame to say that the film is just not good.. in any way. The acting is wooden, the story is weak, everything just feel stilted. Its a shame to say that even some of the famed special effects shots were not even that well done.

There must be balance

I did see another film this week, a film I have been waiting to see for a long time. That film was the amazing! “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World“. It is one of the best films I have seen in a long time, and I am going to see it again.

But if you see one good film you have to see a bad one. This is that bad one.

The basic premise

The basic story is that of book 1, Aang awakes and finds the fire nation has taken over the world. All of his fellow air benders have been rounded up and killed, and he is the last of his kind.. also he is the avatar, the one who can sort it all out. I can totally forgive the setup, there is a lot to cover and this just works.

But the entire affair just feels wrong, because they have to cram so much story into the one film there really is any time develop much. The real victim of this is the characters, I felt absolutely nothing for any of them. The consequence of course is I really don’t care what happens to them.

That is not to say there isn’t a great idea in here (that is why they made the cartoon), there could be a really interesting plot with why Aang has run away from the responsibility of being the avatar (which they pronounce with an odd twang in the whole film). This is touched on a number of times in the film, and it is about the only time there is something to enjoy.

3D doesn’t help

Going to see a bad film is not much fun. But having to spend £19 for you and your son to do it is even worse. I HAD to see this in 3D not because I wanted to, but because that was all they were showing it in. It seems to be a trick my cinema likes to pull, only have them in 3D and they can get extra money for nothing at all.

3D just doesn’t work, that is all I want to say on the matter. With a lot of fast motion as there is in this film it is even worse.

Didn’t want to hate it

I really didn’t want to hate this film, and I can’t say that I do. I really don’t feel anything for it. This is one of those films that has a lot of potential, but just never seems to do anything with all the ideas it presents. There is some great martial arts in here, and a fair bit of average work as well.

In short.. avoid this film! If you have nothing better to do and you really have to see it.. I would still consider finding something else to do.

Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Terry Crewes, Mickey Rourke, Stone Cold Steve Austin and cameo’s by Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger.  It’s cast are all legends and almost all of them are used to headlining  their own movies.

Question:How can you possibly live up to that?

Answer: With some  good fights, lethal knife usage for brutal kills, lots of guns and a ludicrous amount of explosions.  The only thing Expendable about this is the plot which is vintage 80s storytelling (i.e. the story is more of an excuse than an actual plot and you know that’s deliberate here).  Oh and Charisma Carpenter has a small role in it and is still hotter than all of the explosions in the film combined.

The Glory

So much glorious content for action heads, although Arnie is only in it for a couple of minutes, he is a one liner machine in that time.  Dolph vs Jet Li, Stallone vs Stone Cold, when you’ve got fights like those, there’s no need to worry about plot, just sit back and make sure you’ve got plenty of popcorn as this film is an unashamed action film.  A reminder that simple can be brilliant.  There are highlights aplenty including Dolph being just plain awesome as a drugged up mercenary who’s gone way too far over the line, Terry Crewes with the biggest, loudest and most destructive gun there is and him doing an insane shot putt that has to be seen to be believed.  Jet Li deserves praise for showing more character than in a lot of his own films, he cracked me up a few times and still managed to crack the limbs of his opponents in usual fashion.  Stone Cold makes a helluva good bad guy and for the love of God just stop reading and go book your tickets.  Sly is Sly and that alone is worth watching a movie for, never mind with this kind of backup.  Randy Couture doesn’t get much character sadly but he is a beast of a fighter in it.  I wish there was more of him and Terry Crewes in it but hey, maybe a sequel, Stallone isn’t adverse to making those

Anyway, I loved this film and I really hope this does well enough to warrant a sequel because it was FUN, moreso than the A-Team, which tried to take itself seriously. The Expendables rocks and you really need a cinema sized screen and surround sound to do it justice.

Here’s a trailer because I can, and it’s great and I enjoy watching it..

The Expendables Trailer