What I've Been Watching: Southland (2009)

A month ago, I picked up Season 1 and 2 of NBC cop drama Southland from Amazon. I’d seen snippets from a random episode late one night on Channel 4 which seemed good, and the fact it starred Ben McKenzie (whom I’m a big fan of from his performance as Ryan on The O.C.), made me decide to get it.

Originally aired April 2009, the show is about the Los Angeles police force, and the show follows patrol officers as well as detectives from the gangs and homicide divisions. Having now watched the first season, which consists of seven episodes, I thought I would share some thoughts on it.

The art of John Romita Jr.

For a recent job application, I was asked to write a 200 word critique of an artist. Having never critiqued art, the work of an artist or styles of art, I thought I'd take a punt on something abit more left-field.

So I talked about one of my favourite comic-book artists of all time, John Romita Jr.

Look Back: Metroid Prime: Echoes (Wii)

Hey, d'you remember when I wrote about Metroid Prime, the first game in the Prime trilogy released for the Gamecube/Wii? Well here's an article about the 2004 follow-up from Retro Studios, Metroid Prime: Echoes

Flickering Myth Archive

Here is a link to my profile at the brilliant film website Flickering Myth. This is a way for anyone who visits the blog to see a list of articles I have written for the site, which includes:

- an episode by episode review of E4's Don't Trust the B**** in Apartment 23 (which I really liked)
- a pessimistic review of The Amazing Spider-Man trailer (which I'm probably wrong on)
- an optimistic review of the Rock of Ages trailer (which I was quite likely wrong on)
- a favourable review of Blackthorn
- an unfavourable review of Battleship
- a kind review of Ricky Gervais' Derek

Thor (2011)

Speaking of The Avengers, here's a review I wrote about Thor way back in June 2011:

A Marvel Movie retrospective: why were the other films important?

You know what was awesome? The Avengers:

You've probably seen the film by now. It is, after all, the third highest grossing film of all time. But many people probably didn't see the other Marvel films, so lets take a quick retrospective of the series, to see how the other films set up the characters and stories for what, I believe, is the most fun film of the year.

Amazing Spider-Man

So I recently wrote an article detailing my thoughts on the new trailer for this summer's Spider-Man reboot over on Flickering Myth available here

Part of me is still really excited. I remember liking the first teaser trailer, Garfield and Ifans are both awesome, and the action in this trailer, especially the fights between Spidey and the Lizard that will take place in the sewer and on the ceiling of what looks like a school, look absolutely great.

But I'm bored with the super-serious, dark and gritty tone, and while re-interpreting a character is fine, making one of my all-time favourite comic book character him into a whining, moping jerk just doesn't seem like a good idea...

Cabin in the Woods (spoiler-free) Review

Having just seen Cabin in the Woods, I knew I had to convince my friends, StrawMatt and StrawMark, to go see it. But how could I convince them to see it within spoiling any of the story. It is, after all, a film literally driven by and about plot twists. The less you know about it before going seeing it, the more enjoyable and surprising it will be. Even the trailer and movie-stills currently released contain key spoilers, but it is so much interesting than that, as I tried to explain to my friends:

Derek - TV show review

No matter what people think of Ricky Gervais (arrogant arsehole or brilliant comic) he certainly provokes discussion. Last night's new show Derek led to an intense twitter-debate between myself and some friends about the merits of the Show, Gervais and the meaning and intent of certain words.

I think Gervais made something good last night, although maybe thats just because I really enjoyed the last 5-10 minutes. On the other hand, Gervais kind of "shot his load" with that last five minutes: it's unlikely that another episode would reach that same height of effective, emotional drama:

My review on Flickering Myth

Battleship: 2012

So last night, I went to a preview screening for the new film Battleships at the Empire in leicester square. It was a prrety bizarre experience. As the line shuffled into the lobby, complimentary beer and wine was available and bags of popcorn were left on every seat inside the huge auditorium where the screening took place. I suggested to my friend that the company putting on the screenin were trying to suck up to the audience, hoping that the audience would be inebriated from booze or hyper from sugar and wouldn't notice any problems with the film.

I think people did notice. there was a lot of tittering during the moments of the film when it tried to be at its most serious. It was kind of like watching a 5 year old trying to act like an adult: adorable and silly.

I think as I get older, I want film running times to be shorter. Maybe it's because I want to do as much as I can with what little time I have available as I move along this mortal coil, or some shit like that. Either way, at 131 mins, Battleships is a loooooooooooooong movie.

For more of my thoughts on the film, check out my Battleship review on the brilliant Flickering Myth

Highbrow/Lowbrow: John Carter

John Carter

Director: Andrew Stanton

Cast: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins

12A, 132mins

Set in the late 1800s, John Carter (Kitsch), a veteran of the American Civil War, stumbles into a cave and is transported to the middle of another civil war on Mars, this time between the technologically advanced Redskins, with the tribal Tharks (green, four-armed ten foot tall aliens) stuck in the middle. The change in gravity gives Carter super-strength and agility, and he becomes a valuable war asset. Sadly, that’s about as intelligible as the plot gets. Fighting ensues.

Look Back: Metroid Prime (Wii)

Metroid Prime, originally released in 2002 for the Gamecube, was re-released as part of the 2009 Prime Trilogy pack, combining all three games. This great value package updated the first two installments with the innovative motion controls utilised in Corruption, along with improved graphics. Three years on, I still think it is the best game I have ever played.

Look Back: Valkyrie (2008)

Does anyone remeber Valkyrie? That World War Two flick where Tom Cruise sports a rockin' eyepatch? No?
I'm not surprised.

TV Review: Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy

Okay, here's something more contemporary, a review of the first episode of:

Noel Fieldings's Luxury Comedy, Channel 4/E4/4OD (pick your poison really)

“Luxury Comedy” is an apt title for, what feels like, a vanity project for Noel Fielding, one half of British comedy act, The Mighty Boosh. Fielding has stated he intended to “make something in the spirit of Spike Milligan or the Kenny Everett Show.” If you don’t know who those are, get on youtube now, but suffice to say it is an appeal to recreate old-school British absurdism, and to me this animation-comedy mash up most closely resembles “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.”

Review - Madworld

Madworld, Wii, released March 2009
Developer: Platinum games
Publisher: SEGA

I played Madworld back in the summer of 2009, when its lack of sales meant the price had dropped to £5. It's a fascinating peculiarity, and a number of things struck out to me, which I wrote about in this review originally for the website DooYoo.

First post

So here is my blog. My attempt to cast my writing out into the giant black hole of the internet. Woo.

The intention of this blog is to be a placeholder for the reviews and articles I have written in disparate places across the interwebs and improve my writing for the benfit of others.

The theme for this blog will be, as the title suggest, high brow commentaries of low brow work, and vice-versa, or just reviews of geek stuff I guess, like films, comics and video games. I dunno, whatever takes my fancy. Geez get off my back!!

Happy March 3rd...