Randomly checked the site where I got my trail runners a few months ago; saw they’re having a sale and bought another pair. You never know, right? #aside
###
Date: August 2024
Randomly checked the site where I got my trail runners a few months ago; saw they’re having a sale and bought another pair. You never know, right? #aside
###
I have been outside. Despite the dew point not matching the temperature, it is very humid #aside
###
RIP to Sid, the master and ruler of the world #aside
###
#NowPlaying Melt-Banana - 3+5 (the new album, their first in over a decade, and it’s a great one) #aside
###
Right, that’s the Dutch Grand Prix done; now for six hours of wrestling live from Wembley #aside
###
This same realisation may or may not have induced me to panic-buy a complete DVD set of DS9 #aside
###
This came to mind upon seeing an ad on YouTube with a clip from Stranger Things and realising I’ve never seen even a minute of an episode, and most likely never will, I have almost zero frame of reference for it, and that’s the way things are now #aside
###
Remember, in The Old Days, you’d click around channels on your TV and maybe happen upon a series you’d heard about but never caught when the hype was big and you watch for a few minutes to see if it’s for you, and maybe you’d do that a few times and discover things you ended up loving? Yeah, that kind of thing does NOT happen anymore #aside
###
The story goes that after the success of Death Race 2000, Roger Corman asked Paul Bartel to make another car picture, but this time more ‘real’. Bartel had no interest but he needed the money, hence this rehash that strips out the dystopian setting and vicious satire — as well as the gore and mean spirit — for a lighter action jape across America, loaded with cameos and familiar faces and one especially witty scene (Bartel’s favourite, as it happens) where the director plays a Cole Porter pastiche on the piano while Dick Miller gets the shit kicked out of him. More…
###
Managed to get ahead on a big work project that I thought would have me frazzled till the end of next week. I deserve this weekend! #aside
###
Someone outside is burning smoky fuel and irritating my throat something fierce; besides that being illegal and all, it’s not even that cold yet? It’s still August? #aside
###
Far too much being made here about the whole ‘they never mention climate change lol’ thing, as if no one knows the climate in which movies like this are made. The producers picked their battles and went with the unscrupulous developers angle, which in itself is fairly radical for a summer popcorn flick that’s meant to convince the denizens of flyover country to hand over their dollars. More…
###
A ‘teen’ movie that only features two teens (played by 20-year-olds, so almost) and is mostly built around a cadre of military men of advancing age debating the ins and outs of computer-assisted warfare. Because that’s what the kids really want. Also, I can’t help but think about how Aaron Swartz got hounded to his suicide because he downloaded some journal articles, so just imagine what they’d do to the likes of Matthew Broderick’s phone-phreaking hacker today. More…
###
Twenty-some-odd years ago, I ordered a Burmese CD from Andee’s label tUMULt and he included a very nice thank-you note, which he absolutely didn’t need to do but it meant so much that I still remember it now. That’s the kind of people these are, no bullshitting. (Shame about the Jef Whitehead bits, though.) More…
###
I’ve been watching a lot of air crash investigation videos lately (it’s my thing) so you think I’d be inured to it but that plane falling out of the sky in Brazil today gives me chills #aside
###
#NowPlaying a pristine, almost-original coloured vinyl pressing of the Meat Puppets’ Huevos #aside
###
I guess I’ve set my bar pretty low as I found this poorly reviewed French buddy-cop comedy to be perfectly fine. The plot’s as clichéd as anything but they’re all tried and tested tropes. The action is on the tame side yet with a few impressive moments. The humour is broad but just enough to translate internationally (I think anyone can get the joke about people from Marseille hating Paris) while only stooping once into scatology (the American version of this would’ve been done with surround-sound farts and you know it). Best of all, it’s all wrapped up in around 90 minutes. More…
###
This early Charles Band production wouldn’t be out of place as a ’70s Doctor Who story, cheapo production values and all — though I feel the BBC camera operators and editors would take a little more pride in their work. More…
###
Had a blast with this one. Michael Rooker gives Stallone a run for his money as a fellow mountain rescuer caught up in the gleefully evil John Lithgow’s plot to retrieve three suitcases full of cash dropped from an executive jet onto the rocky peaks below (in an awe-inspiring set piece of the kind they’d blandly previz in CGI today). Sly’s plugged into the ‘climber with a crisis of confidence’ role for the star power, but the film’s got its own energy to spare, not to mention some stunning matte paintings and composites that more than make up for some mildly ropey miniature work. More…
###
“Special effects”? Steady on there, chief. This movie has effects, sure, but there’s nothing special about it. More…
###
A near-perfect blockbuster: high concept, relentless pacing, thrilling effects where the practical stuff grounds the digital in reality, a game cast that really sells the mission, and the kind of orchestral score that makes you wish you had a bucket of popcorn in you lap. Points deducted only for the very dated ’90s radio tuneage. More…
###