h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

OK... I got home and just watched that last clip you linked, Rab C. Nesbitt, was it?

You asked how that might translate to the American audience.

I have an answer to that...



Not at all.

Seriously, there is no American equivalent. The closest we could get to it is some variation of an urban Jeff Foxworthy on welfare... It just doesn't work.

Would it surprise you to learn that it's not available (or even heard of) on Netflix?

DAMMIT!

No, it doesn't surprise me at all that it's not on Netflix But it looks like you can watch several of them on YouTube if you don't mind watching it in three parts on your PC, which is how watch Good Eats these days. I've also got a little Firefox add-on for ripping the files to my HD. They're not the best quality of course, but VLC plays them perfectly well.

An urban Jeff Foxworthy is probably a good analogy, although I know only a little about JF. Nesbitt has its moments of poignancy though throughout the run of the show. The writing is excellent, but Gregor Fisher's characterisation is what really makes it.

This one was under the radar. It has Quentin Tarantino's name on it so I'm very surprised I hadn't heard about it. Tarantino wanted to make the greatest "biker" movie of all time so he teamed up with biker movie legend, Larry Bishop. Bishop wrote, directed and stars in Hell Ride; Tarantino produced it. So, it's not really a Tarantino film, but it definitely is the kind of film he loves; it's an exploitation flick. Bikes, blood and boo...reasts, in ample proportions of each. This is not an overly cerebral film. It is gloriously gratuitous.

The basic plot revolves around a biker gang (gang, not club, these guys are outlaws, more in the wild west vein than anything else) called The Victors and their nemeses, the Six-Six-Sixers. Something happened back in 1976 that haunts them today, but you really don't care. The plot seems superfluous. Oh, there's probably some Shakespearean pretensions, but this is style over substance at its core.

Dennis Hopper has a notable role as one of the elder generation of bikers. (According to IMDb, he's riding his own 1938 Indian but on the special feature about the bikes in the film they didn't mention that it was his). Also making a brief appearance is David Carradine. His one big scene has him tied up in a seedy motel room. Well, isn't that special. (too soon?)

Of the main cast, Vinnie Jones stands out as Billy Wings, the film's main bad guy, a role he knows well. Of course, this time he's even more menacing than usual with a pneumatic (for lack of a better term) "cross bow". (He also has a memorable scene where he explains how he earned all the different color wing tattoos he has. I won't explain here, Hunter Thompson wrote about bikers' wings in his book, Hells Angels if you're overly curious and want to read a great book.) Micheal Madsen also plays to type as The Gent, a sort of biker fop in his dusty tuxedo with gang patch on the back. Larry Bishop plays their president, Pistolero. You gotta like the guy no matter how much he swaggers.

Overall, this is good film for its genre. Is it "The Best Biker Film of All Time"? Nah, but it's a good modern "Grindhouse" (note the big G) variation.

I haven't seen the film yet but we showed it 'for one week only' at Lamar when it came out, and I have a very spiffy limited edition poster for it on my wall (number 51/200... number 42 might have been better ).

I shall add it to my queue.

Yea, it had a DVD release before it had a theatrical release. Oh, one thing I was going to note about David Carradine. I noticed on his IMDb page that there are quite a few posthumous films in his list. There were 5 released in 2010, two listed as in production and Stretch, the film he was working on at his death, is completed and due out in 2011.

http://www.postersandtoys.net/servlet/Detail?no=520

The odd-looking coloured bits at the corners are intentional, supposed to look like old sellotape marks I guess.

Never before have I wished someone had spoiled a film for me.

I mostly liked it. Loved the cast, especially Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis and I always like seeing Tom Waits in a film. The style was nice and gritty, like a graphic novel. The action was good. But the third act just turned me off. Didn't like it. Didn't like the premise. I felt like a kid tricked into eating Brussels sprouts. Only worse, because I actually like Brussels sprouts.

Enjoyable movie on several levels. One thing I noted was this film definitely passes the Bechdel Rule.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94202522

This isn't out yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuersBn6jYc

Gawd Bless America

I never would have thought I'd enjoy watching a feature length review of a film. Especially a review of a film that I refused to watch because I despised the two previous films so much.

Well, now I need never watch SW: Episode III because I've watched Mr. Plinkton's Review of Revenge of the Sith. Find a couple of free hours to watch this three part dissection of everything that is wrong with Revenge of the Sith.

http://www.redlettermedia.com/sith.html

If you never seen a Plinkton review of a film, you're in for a treat. (although, feel free to check out some of his other reviews first if you like, they're shorter.) They're snarky but they're quite reasoned and very indepth, but most of all, they're genuinely funny.

Gah... Plinkett, not Plinkton.

There's probably some very nice Mr. Plinkton out there reviewing movies who's NOT not a cat eating serial killer / curmudgeon. Wouldn't want to cause confusion.

I thought I had better to bookmark this conversation . I'm not sure as yet of the h2g2 protocols regarding replying to a comment in a converstion or just posting a general comment to the conversation.

Anyway I am hoping that the new film based on a Philip K Dick short story, "The Adjustment Bureau", which opens 4th March 2011 (in US), is going to be interesting

I will also be pleased to see the end of the Harry Potter serial films [8 films spanning a decade]...

It seems so long since I saw a trailer for Adjustment Bureau that I thought I must have missed it somehow, but I'm glad to see that didn't happen. It looks interesting, and of course it's Philip K Dick.

I wasn't aware of it yet.

I'm currently reading Radio Free Albemuth. So far, I've generally liked films adaptations of Dick's books although some are better than others.

Just pulled up his filmography. They MADE a film out of Radio Free Albemuth already? Looks like it was an arthouse/film festival only release; not available on Netflix.

Anyhoo... As far as his films have gone, I haven't actually read too many of his books yet (that have been made into films yet anyway). Total Recall wasn't a good film. They're remaking it apparently (probably in 3D). Blade Runner was one of my all-time favorites. Minority Report is in a very small minority... it's a Tom Cruise movie I actually enjoyed. Paycheck, I can't remember much about it, but I don't remember hating it. I think I liked it just not enough to remember much about it. A Scanner Darkly... That's the only film I've seen where the use of digital rotoscoping makes any sense. It's the only time I've seen it used where I didn't just absolutely hate it. I hate even the stupid commercials they air over here that utilize it. They're usually bank commercials of just customer testimonials, so why should they look like cartoons?

Well, off to view the Adjustment Bureau trailer....


Oooh, That one looks good. Dick is always good for a bit of paranoia. And I do seem to prefer adaptations of short stories rather than novels.

It's a shame David Hemmings died a few back - he and Terrence Stamp were both bright young things during the 60s, and now they're both older it would have been nice to see them together in something. Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay worked together in The Dresser and A Very English Marriage (both on Netflix) in recent years, and those were two fantastic pieces.

I just watched this for the first time since the early 90's and noticed something I hadn't before. I'll cross post what I just put in the Useless Info thread:

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I'm sure I've mentioned before that Henry & June (1990 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099762/ ) was the first film to receive the NC-17 rating from the MPAA.

What I just learned (after rewatching it, noticing something I missed when I first saw it theatrically, and checking IMDb's trivia) is why, specifically, it received the NC-17 rating.

A major factor contributing to the MPAA's judgement was a brief view of a postcard of Japanese erotica, three minutes into the film. The postcard depicts The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife by early 19th century artist, Hokusai. (I'll leave it to readers discretion whether to look this up, but do consider that this did result in an NC-17 rating for the film so it is obviously Not Safe For Work or those with moral sensitivities.) Anyone familiar with some of the more deviant genres of anime might find it to be a possible early influence.
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Anyway, besides all that I did quite enjoy watching it again. It's a very well done film. Philip Kaufman made a beautiful movie based on, as it says in the production notes, "one of this century's most complex, erotic, passionate and liberating journeys to the center of one's self."

But I'll be honest. The main reason I wanted to view it again is Maria de Madeiros' eyes.

I don't know if I mentioned it here, but I recently bought a new Blu Ray Player and, for the most part, it's been great. The only problem was that I couldn't get its Netflix application to connect. That wasn't a huge problem as I could access Netflix with my Wii, but still; I paid for it, I want it. Well, last night I turned on the player and was pleased to see that it had an update pending. 20 minutes later and I was watching Stone of Destiny.

I hadn't heard of this film until just a few hours earlier, from a coworker. It's the story of the folks that stole the Stone of Scone back in 1950. My previous knowledge of the Stone and it's theft came from an episode of Hamish MacBeth. I was quite delighted to see Robert Carlyle in this as well. It's a fun film, a caper, of course. It's one of those stories that are fun even though you know how it ends. (Of course I was curious to see if they would make a copy of the Stone to send back to Westminster as they purportedly did in Hamish MacBeth.) Over the credits, they played Wild Mountain Thyme and I was a bit overcome. I hadn't heard it in years, but the last time I must have been quite emotional about it (and probably quite drunk). I still can't quite remember the circumstances or who the performer was when I had last listened to it but I think I remember listening to it over and over again, so it couldn't have been a pleasant time. I feel the same way when I hear "This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush. At least with that one I know why.

Well, Harry Brown was enjoyable. But it seemed lacking. The bad guys were just paper thin generic punk kids. Harry's character is also rather two dimensional. He's given the obligatory motivation to go vigilante and that's about it. The story isn't very complicated. Sometimes that's fine, especially with a retribution flick.

But one thing about the movie really did bother me. The use of CGI blood. It just didn't work. Seriously, it detracted from the film. It just didn't blend in with the scenes. It jumps out and screams "VIDEO GAME!" There's one scene where Harry watches a beat down from his flat window. A fellow gets his head split open apparently. You see a large puddle of blood around his head. The ruffians kick him and I swear the pool of blood MOVES in relationship with his body.

Anyways, Michael Caine is still Michael Caine, so it's still fun to watch. Speaking of which, I saw a clip the other day of Michael Caine on some talk show. He's talking about how people do impersonations of him, badly. He then does an impersonation of someone else doing an impersonation of Michael Caine. Brilliant!

Once again you've turned up a film that I've never heard of which I've added to my Netflix queue

I watched the trailer at the IMDb and it looks pretty good except for... well, I'll wait until I've seen it before I comment about that. Someone in the reviews section made a comparison with Gran Torino.

That clip of Caine on a talk show is from Parkinson. Michael Parkinson was the king of talk show hosts for several decades (he's still alive btw, just not doing telly any more). Intelligent, insightful, stayed in the background and let his guests do the talking. Muhammed Ali was a frequent guest, and he practically made Billy Connolly into the star he became, just by having him on the show again and again, but not as a performer, mostly. Simply as someone with plenty of stories to tell. There were far fewer musical performances on Parkinson than on most other chat shows, and even calling Parkinson a chat show demeans it somewhat. It was better than that.

Have a look at this - one of the most fondly remembered episodes of Parkinson. Unfortunately the first minute or two have been cut off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qyGX6z7cpg