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Other Reviews / Re: The completely self absorbed 2000ad re-read thread

« on: Today at 07:23:26 pm »

I've got a guilty soft spot for Purgatory - it is crass, puerile, derivative and unpleasant, but it succeeds in its aims and, like all of Millar's work, tells a story well. (The story may be stupid, or riddled with lapses in logic, but he tells it well.)

Me too. Pure nonsense, but gorgeous to look at, and well, fun - if you can accept the character named 'Grice' (who coincidentally bears a passing resemblance to former Judge Grice), it goes down fairly easy.  Inferno, because it mistreats so many characters and elements, is harder to swallow, despite being equally lovely to look at.

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Film & TV / Re: Last movie watched...

« on: Today at 07:17:01 pm »

Damn hard to beat, that's for sure.  I first saw it on a dodgy projector in a parish hall with almost non-existant sound and I fell completely in love - and I was all ready to hate it because I was a devotee of the Buster Crabbe incarnation, and however curvy his pecs, Sam Jones was no Buster Crabbe.  Everyone else though, even Peter Duncan, just magnificent.  Even thinking about it makes me smile.

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Film & TV / Re: Last movie watched...

« on: Today at 01:13:55 am »

Mmmm, thought it was terrific that the stakes were so simple: (1) Janet would stay lost or (2) Ava would disintegrate (or whatever), and set against this (3) if he got involved Scott could go back  to prison and let Cassie down. A wonderful antidote to world-ending threats, all the better for having three father-daughter relationships,  or perhaps just three families,  at the heart of each dilemma. 

Went with three kids 8, 11 and 12 and they all loved it - after a laughter-filled cinema,  you could have heard a pin drop at the end of the middle credits scene.  Superbly judged stuff.

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Film & TV / Re: Last movie watched...

« on: 18 August, 2018, 11:47:31 pm »

Cor yeah,  Antman & the Wasp,  that was a fine,  fine movie. Delighted they managed to sustain the humour and visual inventiveness from the first one,  not an easy feat.   Gotta love a film where everyone except the Eric Trump lookalike turns out to be a fine human being in the end,  and nobody gets hurt or dies. Well, up to a point, obviously...

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General / Re: McCarthy Dredd in (virtual) real life...

« on: 18 August, 2018, 01:24:15 pm »

That McCarthy can design, that's for sure. Lovely work Steve, not sure you need much more practice though!

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General / Re: Dredd actually being human

« on: 18 August, 2018, 01:08:31 pm »

Though 'The Satanist' is not a great story, "I need to get to know her now." is a great moment.

It's a rare case of Wagner asleep at the wheel, that's for sure: two separate scenes of Dredd breaking his chains in the same story, dear Grud. But I do enjoy Dredd instantly dismissing the Pasternak ghost tricks, the chance of a trip to Brit-Cit, and as Greg says, the bit at the end.

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Film & TV / Re: Current TV Boxset Addiction

« on: 18 August, 2018, 12:50:58 pm »

Yeah, long live the Knights of God!  I know it had a conclusion, but always felt like it was only getting started, and rather hampered by its unexciting Songs-of-Praise title.  Patrick Troughton's last work too, wasn't it?  It's not available anywhere, is it?

KoG always reminded me of another post-apocalyptic quasi-Arthurian thing, a short series of kids' novels, where Winchester was (again) the capital of England, and machine guns held the balance of power.  I can see the armoured lad on the cover, but not the title!

Told the missus about the Robin of Sherwood Blu-Ray, and it's already been ordered!  A geeky wife is a joy forever.

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General / Re: 2000 AD Art Stars Summer 2018 - Judge Dredd

« on: 18 August, 2018, 11:01:12 am »

This thread just keeps getting better.  Incredible work.

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General / Re: Dredd actually being human

« on: 18 August, 2018, 10:56:35 am »

I'll take up my traditional role of advocating for Alan Grant's best Dredd, 'John Cassavetes is Dead' in this category (see that Colin MacNeil really spread his wings!). And of course the classics of touchy-feely Dredd, 'The Black Plague' and 'Error of Judgement', so much Ron Smith goodness.

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Film & TV / Re: Star Wars Episode IX

« on: 18 August, 2018, 10:46:57 am »

S'right.  My eldest was 2-and-a-bit when The Clone Wars came out, too young to see it in the cinema, but we he watched, and loved, the cartoons from the time he was 3. He still loves them at 12, and can't wait for the 'new' season. 

Rebels came out when he was 8, and while he enjoyed watching it, it was never really his thing - the main character was a kid, and there weren't enough Clones, even when Rex, Wolfe and Gregor showed up.  (I liked it a lot, especially the McQuarrie aesthetic, and the mystical bits).  He already knew what he wanted from SW and this wasn't really it.

At the ripe old age of 12 he took one look at the Resistance trailer and condemned it as being 'for kids' (although I'm sure he'll watch it with me nonetheless, he likes to humour the elderly). 

This is how it should be.  You have your own bit of Star Wars, pitched perfectly when you are the right age (for me that Star Destroyer overhead at 6, for my son, the Second Battle of Geonosis at 3), you enjoy others, and some bits just aren't for you: they're for someone else.  I was thrilled to find that TLJ was another SW moment that worked perfectly for me - but I didn't expect it.

Going on the internet and systematically down-voting, 'boycotting' and bitching about something that may not be for you before it's even aired, IMO largely because you've been sucked into some kind of quasi-hysterical socio-politically motivated group-think... This one isn'y for you, move the fuck along, find some rape-porn and dig in. I honestly think I'm completely done with modern 'fandom'. It's beyond pathetic, and its starting to make me dread every new release, rather than looking forward to it.

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Film & TV / Re: Star Wars Episode IX

« on: 17 August, 2018, 11:23:18 pm »

... large chunks of Clone wars were quite adult in tone ...

Large chunks certainly, but by no means all, or even most. I'm currently watching the 5th Season with my son, and while there are plenty of complex intense arcs, there's also an 8-episode block in the middle where we follow Younglings playing Treasure Island, then a gang of comedy droids  led by a incompetent bombastic frog.  The (serious) episode where the Jedi Temple is bombed features a Crime Scene Investigation droid called (for no in-story reason) Russo, who keeps taking his robo-shades on and off.  Clearly this Dave Filoni is the natural heir to Vittorio de Sica.

Now I like these silly stories, probably because I'm capable of enjoying material that doesn't include a certain number of decapitations per act, but for that too-vocal section of fandom to suddenly decide that they didn't abhor Ashoka, demanded Lucas stopped interfering, and moaned incessantly about cutesy story arcs on every available forum...

I have zero problem with Star Wars cartoons being made for kids, and I fully expect to watch this. Although I suspect the realisation that - yet again - pretty much all these characters will be dead by the end of Episode VIII is going to be a downer.

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Film & TV / Re: Star Wars Episode IX

« on: 17 August, 2018, 07:38:35 pm »

Well, comment-thread opinions are in on the Resistance trailer, and. Dear. God. Nooo! It's for KIDS!  What are Disney thinking, SW cartoons for kids.  The monsters. 

My favourite dismissal: "Dave Filoni is barely involved in this".  Because after all he was fully involved in Clone Wars and Rebels, and those were for adults.  Weren't they?  I mean I'm sure I don't remember anyone giving out about the animation style, childish storylines, bratty characters in those...

Star Wars 'fans', at this point I'm almost done with them.

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Other Reviews / Re: Red Fang

« on: 17 August, 2018, 05:17:51 pm »

The highlight for me remains the extensive range of polished hardwood textures that Chris Blythe employed, never since equalled (thank Grud!). 

More seriously, Red Fang always seemed like it should work, it just never really did.  An original enough premise (for 2000AD), a intriguingly villainous lead, sharp designs (I can still visualise the characters today, and I'm fairly sure I've not read it in a dozen years)... ah well.

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Film & TV / Re: Star Wars Episode IX

« on: 17 August, 2018, 05:11:37 pm »

Don't worry your post was better constructed than the script for The Last Jedi 

 

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Film & TV / Re: Current TV Boxset Addiction

« on: 17 August, 2018, 05:06:30 pm »

I wouldn't bet on that, despite the Divine Minchin* being involved. 

Didn't cop that this was a new release of RoS - hopefully they include the DVD commentaries (and extras).  The missus and I both loved that series at the time of broadcast, and we regularly re-watch it the DVDs.  It's sometimes hard to remember, aside from the 6th Doctor, The Tripods and V this was it for broadcast TV SF/fantasy in 1984.

We still play Dragon Warriors with my kids, the British RPG not-remotely-loosely inspired by it (it has an Assassin character class which is basically Nasir, right down to the white-washing and the fact that the example character in the book is called, errr, Nasir) simply because the spooky, grimy atmosphere still works so well.




*Daughter was in cut-down production of his Matilda musical last week, and despite by belted out by 50 Tallaght tweens, it was still lyrically mesmerising.  The man is a bonafide genius. But Friar Tuck...?  I dunno.