Monday 10 September 2007

I'm baaaack!

Monday 10 September 2007
See, told you I'd manage to blog a few times while I was away! That's addiction for you. Anyway, the week's holiday gave me a chance to catch-up on some of this summer's blockbusters (Transformers for the spectacle, Bourne for the class and Knocked Up for the funny.)

I only managed to catch Saxondale and IT Crowd last week, so I'm catching up with Dirt (reviewed last week's episode today) and Studio 60 (review coming soon).

Oh, and I rewatched the superb Prestige with a friend who hasn't seen it. Only £6 from Woolworths! I love showing films I've seen to people who haven't. Maybe it's just me, but watching their reactions is often more fun than watching the film!

I especially like stealing glances at people during twist-endings: the slight drop of their bottom lip, the widening of the eyes, a hint of a grin. The Prestige is good for that, as is Sixth Sense, Fight Club and The Village (which I'll always defend from haters.)

Hide And Seek also caught my attention on Channel 4; a formulaic spooky thriller with Robert DeNiro and Dakota Fanning (doing a fine Wednesday Addams impression most of the time). It had a twist ending, too -- but it was obvious about 10 minutes before it happened, sadly. I can see why it died at the box-office.

Oh, and I also saw Virus on BBC1 with Jamie-Lee Curtis and Donald Sutherland. A very crap film, just as I'd been led to believe. It starred a Baldwin brother whose first name wasn't "Alec", so the film was cursed from the start. Very odd to see James Cameron mentioned in the credits, although the "cyborgs" did have a faint "Cameronian" style to them. Did he design those? Will have to research. Gale Ann Hurd, Cameron's ex-wife, produced this mess from 1999, so he may have done it as a favour to her... as part of the divorce settlement, perhaps...

So anyway, watch out for reviews of The Prestige, Knocked Up and last week's Studio 60 in the next few days.


P.S - also very weird to see the blog's traffic actually went UP while I was away. Are you guys trying to tell me something? Hmmm.

UPDATE: It seems Virus' director did the special effects for Terminator 2 and The Abyss, so that explains the Cameron similarities. Oh, and Hide And Seek actually got to #1 in the US box-office, but it died with the critics. That's what I meant. Ahem.