Catch Up

Unfortunately, due to work, I'm not going to be able to be doing this on a regular occurance, which means there are going to be quite a few occasions where I'm going to be squeezing a fair bit in, for which I apologise in advance for.

Right, down to business. Saturday was movie night round Paul's and this week had a viewing of the David Moreau and Xavier Palud remake of Danny Pang Fat and Oxide Pang Chun's The Eye.

I'm very picky when it comes to horror films as I'm not a great lover of the genre, but I do find quite a few of the Japanese/Chinese/Korean horrors from the last 10 years have been pretty damn good and original. Then there's America. If somebody can point out a decent, original horror from the States from the last 15 years, I would appreciate it. Nearly every horror film from the U.S. over the last 15 years have either been a) bloody comical, b) boring, c) an inferior remake of a better American horror film or d) an inferior remake of a far superior foreign language film with virtually all the chills removed, which brings me back to The Eye. To be honest, there's not much I can say about it as it really hasn't stuck in the memory. The only thing's that stuck with me were the lack of scares (America really can't do tension horror) and that Jessica Alba really can't act. I would advise people to stick with the original. I just wish more people would look at a foreign film and think "that sounds good" rather than "it's not in English. I won't bother".

The after movie discussion quickly picked up on a topic that Paul, Adrian and myself had started earlier in the week. Movie distribution. Adrian has some good ideas on making revenue on producing low budget films, but his idea that all films will eventually be downloaded on to home computers to be burnt off as and when, thus spelling the end of cinema, purchasing DVD's and rental shops, really doesn't hold water with me. Even more so, his argument that the big studios WANT to do away with cinemas etc. I really couldn't get my head round his point. Adrian pointed out that lower costs would mean more profit, so cutting out every point of call that take a percentage (cinemas, retail costs etc) would mean the board members would be happy. My counter argument was that I doubted that movie studios would pass up the opportunity to charge people twice (in some cases, more) to see the same film, and then start bidding wars for rights to show them on tv. I guess only time will tell, but I want to go on record to say: CINEMA WILL NOT DIE!!!

Next up: Wednesday.

People who know me, know that I love stupid, dumb, over the top 80's action films and tv, so I had been waiting for the movie version of The A Team quite eagerly for a long time.

There have been a fair few remakes of '70's and '80's series over the last few years which have turned them into something a bit different such as taking the humor from an action series and upping it, until the movie version is more of a comedy than an action flick (Starsky And Hutch and The Dukes Of Hazzard being prime examples), which is a double edged sword. On the one side it can make them fun and entice people other than fans of the original series, on the other, fans of the original complain that the tone is all wrong and it doesn't feel like the series it was based on. It's a difficult balancing act that I'm glad that Joe Carnahan managed to pull off.

The storyline is effectivley the pilot episode that introduces the characters and their situation, that the series never really got (you were thrown in with not much back story in the series). The storyline is very sleight. The A Team are set up in Iraq for stealing money press plates and then sent to prison. After breaking out, they try to retrieve said plates in attempt to clear their names. Told you it was sleight, but let's face it, you don't watch The A Team for plot, you watch it for over the top action! On this, it certainly does not disappoint! A round of applause has to go to the casting people. A lot of speculation went round on who would be playing who (George Clooney as Hannibal! Jim Carrey as Murdock! Vin Disel or Ice Cube as B.A!). Never in a million years would I have thought of Liam Neeson as Hannibal, but he does it surprisngly well. Bradley Cooper was very good as Face and Quinton Jackson was ok as B.A (let's face it, nobody is going to out T Mr. T!), but the star of the film was with out a doubt the magnifficent Sharlto Copley. After this and last summers District 9, I would be damned surprised if he doesn't go on to be a bigger star. Fans of the series will not be disappointed!

If your looking for fun and action, and if you can find them, you should be watching THE A TEAM!