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Finally finished Torchwood...

  • 16th Jul, 2009 at 7:54 PM
me
Have to say that was pretty spectacular. I dont think adult sci fi on TV has been that good since Nigel Kneale was doing it.

Some spoilery thoughts under the cut.

Read more... )

This weekend ...

  • 13th Jul, 2009 at 2:18 PM
me
...I endulged in a couple of orgies of satanic worship ;)

No thats not as exciting as it sounds lol...I watched 2 great 70s horror films based around devil worship. Firstly 'Race with the Devil' from 1975. Good stuff for those who havent seen it think 'The Wickerman' meets American road movie and you're pretty close. I'll not give too much plot away because if you havent seen it, its one of those films thats better if you dont know much about it but it starts with 2 holidaying couples witnessing a black mass and develops from that. The second was one I've never seen before called 'Blood on Satans Claw'...this film looked as though it might be pretty bad when it started, but quite the opposite. Its all based around a strange skull being found in a 17th century village and people who come into contact with it falling under the influence of a local satanic cult led by a rather stunning looking young Linda Hayden, and growing a demon-like claw and skin...also of interest to Dr Who followers is it also stars Wendy Padbury who was Pat Troughtons assistant, Zoe. Lots of taboo breaking in this one and generally an underrated horror gem.

Also watched 2 other horrors this weekend...The Howling, which has aged pretty well (not seen it since I was 10) and Revenge of Frankenstein, which wasnt bad, but not my favourite of the Peter Cushing Frankenstein series...I much prefer Curse of Frankenstein, Evil of Frankenstien and Frankenstein must be Destroyed. I still havent seen 'Frankenstein Created Woman' or 'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell' yet though.

Still havent wathced parts 4 and 5 of Torchwood yet, have already been spoiled about something major in it though. Its a good job I'm not worried about that sort of thing.

Big Night Out

  • 9th Jul, 2009 at 11:19 PM
me
I've been watching Vic Reeves Big Night Out today....still absolutely bloody insane and hysterical even now! Utter nonsense, but my humour...completely :)

Bugger...Arse...feck...shoyte

  • 8th Jul, 2009 at 6:21 PM
me
Another external hard drive knackered...almost 500gb worth of music, film and TV on there gone simply because the electric went off. At first I thought it was my entire PC and I shit myself because it wouldnt boot up. It turned out it booted up ok once the external drive was removed and it wont connect up now at all.

I know I should back stuff up onto disc, but it kind of defeats the object of having all that extra memory and buying 2 to have a back up of the same stuff seems like money wasted. I'm really not sure whether to bother with getting another one now, as they just seem so fragile.

Hannah Montana

  • 7th Jul, 2009 at 10:20 PM
me
Never really took any notice of this before but isnt it just a bit twisted having a 14 year old school girl dress up as a sexually provocative pop star who looks 20-ish?

Isnt that just asking for trouble?

Torchwood (no plot spoilers)

  • 7th Jul, 2009 at 10:13 PM
me
Good episode of Torchwood tonight...looks like we're getting to the sci fi more tomorrow so even better. More of an action suspense feel to tonights episode though.

Trust bloody John Barrowman to have a naked scene slipped in, the mans ego is phenomenal....I'll be avoiding reading the Torchwood sites because I expect there will be more talk about that than anything else :S Hopefully we can have Eve Myles naked tomorrow to address the balance ;)

Torchwood (no spoilers)

  • 6th Jul, 2009 at 10:05 PM
me
Seems ok up to now...not much happening so far but nice creepy atmosphere and it was only part 1. Could get good.

Torchwood still seems like a light snack between meals to me and I'm not one of those people who obssesses over it (probably because I'm not of the Captain Jack/John Barrowman effected), but with the lack of a full Dr Who series this year the spin offs and specials keep the interest going just nicely.

Star Trek Next Generation

  • 5th Jul, 2009 at 9:03 PM
me
I have to admit I'm really struggling with season 2 of Star Trek TNG. Too many 'nice' episodes...too many soapy episodes too (just watched ep 14). I think this is around the point I gave up on it whilst it was on TV. I really enjoyed Season 1, I flew through that. I just hope it gets better than this because the only ones I've watched of the later ones have been Borg episodes (brilliant) and a few Klingon ones (also good)....theres not exactly much alien conflict/ powerful beings/ weird sci fi phenomena going in season 2 so far, thats the elements I loved about the original series and they should never have got away from that too much.

Catergories of classic horror

  • 5th Jul, 2009 at 7:07 PM
me
30s to 70s:

Hammer, Cushing and Lee (Frankenstein/Dracula/Mummy series, Vampires and other monsters/ some thrillers)

Universal, Lugosi, Chaney and Karloff (Original Frankenstein/Dracula/Wolfman/Mummy, Invisible Man, Creature from Black Lagoon etc)

Vincent Price (Dr Phibes, Theatre of Blood, Diary of a Madman etc)

Roger Cormon films (Mainly Edgar Allen Poe adaptions/ b movies)

Amicus fims (mostly anthology films)

Tigon Films (70s Hammer rival)

Italian Horror (Argento and Fulci)

Romero and 70s zombie films

Hitchcock/ Psychological horror

Herschell Gordon Lewis/ Splatter/ Gore

70s shock horror (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Exorcist, Hills Have Eyes, Halloween etc)

Is there anything I've missed out there? I'm trying to make a definitive list.

Weather

  • 5th Jul, 2009 at 3:58 PM
me
Thank Christ... The weather's looking cooler for this week. The last 2 weeks have been horrible. sick of feeling sweaty and dirty at work and sick of having to get 3 baths a day to keep cool. hopefully that'll be it for a bit. I was coping well with this summer till last week when it got too much, but bloody hell, how do people enjoy being hot sticky and sweaty all the time?...it baffles me.

'V' the Remake series

  • 30th Jun, 2009 at 3:48 PM
me
I must say this does look pretty good!

Silver Surfer

  • 29th Jun, 2009 at 9:05 PM
me
The Silver Surfer animated series could well be the 2nd greatest superhero adaption for TV I think I've seen. Coming in a close second after Batman TAS. A great pity they only did one series as the mix of traditional and computer animation makes for a great visual experience, especially with DVD upscale. The only thing is they changed the storyline so it doesnt include the Fantastic 4 and doesnt tie in with Marvel Animated Universe's main continuity line set up in the 90s shows of Spiderman, X Men, F4, Iron Man and Hulk...but it looks so good it hardly matters. Spiderman and X Men were outstanding shows too, but the surrealness of Silver Surfer just puts it in a class of its own for me.

Really enjoyed watching the 'V' mini series and 'V: The Final Battle' over the weekend too...Its aged really well despite how much you can tell its from the 80s (big hair and shoulder pads everywhere). I believe a remake is in production too....Bitchy lizard leader Diana seriously effected my hormones back when it was originally on TV, and pretty much still does lol.

Michael Jackson

  • 27th Jun, 2009 at 9:19 AM
me
So now they seem to be saying that Michael Jackson was murdered or more likely medical malpractice. Personally I dont class a medical mistake as murder, if the correct procedure has been followed its accidental death, lets face it Doctors arent miricle workers and make mistakes like everyone else. But the question now is was it intentional? It doesnt seem any coincidence that its shocked the world because there were no obvious signs before, because I do believe people pick up on things when somethings not quite right and a lot of people seem to have with this. Theres also the matter that news of the death wasnt broadcast straight away and the press were still led to believe he was alive for another hour.

Personally I was never a fan of Michael Jackson's music myself, but you dont necessarily have to enjoy talent to see its there. He was the best at what he did and despite the accusations about his personal life (which we probably will never know are true or not), its left a dent in the music world. He effected everyone on some level and this is probably the biggest shock to the music world since the shooting of John Lennon and Freddy Mercury's death....I dont think even Kurt Cobain's impacted so many.

Jacko

  • 26th Jun, 2009 at 4:59 AM
me
Michael Jackson dead? I almost dont believe it!

This is the first celebrity death thats actually shocked me since Princess Diana!

Upcoming film sequels...

  • 24th Jun, 2009 at 10:54 PM
me
New Nightmare on Elm Street film.... probably a remake of the first, no doubt they'll ruin it. No reason why Robert Englund cant still play Freddie though.

Ghostbusters 3...seems they've left it a bit long, but this might not be too bad if they get the original cast involved, I dont think their age really matters.

Scream 4...why bother? the first was bearable as a pisstake of the slasher genre (it wasnt meant to be serious was it???). 2 and 3 were just shite.

Serpent and the Rainbow

  • 23rd Jun, 2009 at 3:04 PM
me
I watched this and thought it was very good. Not a zombie film as a I thought, but more focused around Voodoo and supposedly based on truth though there were some more typical horror scares in the form of hallucination sequences (with zombies!) and a very squeamish torure sequence.

A hugely unnoticed and original film from Wes Craven...a lot better than most of the other stuff he's done!

Marilyn Manson

  • 22nd Jun, 2009 at 7:41 PM
me
I had pretty much written Mr Manson off after his last album, but I have to say his new album 'High End of Low' is pretty damn good. In fact I'd go as far to say its as good as 'Mechanical Animals' and certainly the best since 'Holywood'.

I liked his first 4 albums a lot, but things started to go wrong on 'Golden Age of Grotesque'...it wasnt a bad album, in fact it had a few good tracks on it, but the rest was pretty forgettable. Next up was 'Eat Me, Drink Me' which almost tried to capture an 80s alternative sound but just didnt cut it. An experiment that pehaps just didnt work.

I'm glad to say the new one is back on form and though its more mature than his 90s stuff, the grit and anger that made that period so good is shining through again,because for me thats what makes his music work. Without that his music seemed to descends into 2nd rate masses pleasing rock.

Fsvourite tracks? 'Devour', 'Pretty like a Swastica', 'I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies', 'WOW', 'Arma-godamn-motherfuckin-geddon','We're From America' and '4 Rusted Horses'

Not keen on the 2 ballads 'Runnin to the Edge of the World' and 'Unkillable monster' but thats just me...I dont think Manson suits doing slow songs unless they are dark. But liking 13 songs out of 15 isnt bad at all for me.

Psychovile website

  • 20th Jun, 2009 at 1:05 PM
me
The Psychoville website interactive experience seems pretty good. Theres a load of interconnected spoof websites that have clues to answer a question. Reminds me of what they did with Dr Who a couple of years back. Managed to see episode 2, not quite as dark as the first but perhaps a little stranger.

Psychoville (minor spoilers)

  • 18th Jun, 2009 at 11:10 PM
me
Well I enjoyed it. Twisted, yes, just as I expected. Was well pissed off I couldnt watch the second epsiode though because my remote control doesnt work so I couldnt press the red button!

I'm liking the darkness of it and all the messed up characters so far though...Mr Jelly the demented clown has to be best, but the unhinged midwife, the telekinetic dwarf and mysterious blind guy also have their twisted appeal. The mother and murder obsesssed son relationship is uncomfortably sick, but what else would you expect from these guys?

Star Wars

  • 17th Jun, 2009 at 10:41 PM
me
You know what, I just watched 'The Phantom Menace', which I've only seen twice before. Once when it came out and once a couple of years later. Its nowhere near as bad as I thought it was first time round. Perhaps I was just too busy looking for faults and to enjoy the film then. Ok, its still the least good of the 6 films and yes Jar Jar Binks is still shit, but in the total running time of the film he doesnt take up that much of it. Watching it as a film in its own right its really not that bad and maybe if the plot hadnt have been sold as a Star Wars film it wouldnt have a reputation as bad as it does...I can think of far less fun things to do with 2 hours!...National Treasure anyone? ;)