Watching movies on TV schedules

Some of my most favourite movies in my teenage years, were caught late night on terrestrial TV schedules. When channel hoping between the five UK channels, it was often that I would stumble upon an interesting film with no knowledge of what it was. This was especially difficult with BBC channels as they never go to an advert break, thereby not showing the title of the film when coming back to the feature after the advert break.

Probably the strongest example for me was the wonderful Battle Royale, that I accidentally started watching on Channel 4, many years ago, after watching a Hollywood film on the same channel. I didn't know what the film was called until I looked at the TV listings the day after. Battle Royale also marked my first venture into South-East Asian cinema. I enjoyed thinking of what I would do in the same situation, especially if I was just given the saucepan lid.

I also watched Pulp Fiction for the first time on BBC uninterrupted, being considerably late to the party to watch the film. I remember being audibly astonished when I realised that the cafe that Jules and Vincent was in at the end of film, was the same time and cafe that Pumpkin and Honey Bunny were in at the start of the film.

In regard to Pulp Fiction, here is a wonderful way to waste a good chunk of your afternoon: Pulp Fiction edited in chronological order, beginning with Christopher Walken and his watch:

TV was always best, when I was younger, at showing horror movies that I might have missed or not been aware about. Watching the Scream trilogy in consecutive weekends on channel 5 was a particular highlight and channel 4's banned season, where they played formerly banned 'video nasties' such as Evil Dead.

When I was just entering my teenage years, other films I stumbled upon were Eyes Wide Shut and Sex and Lucia but that is a whole different type of blog...

What films have you accidentally discovered on TV and now treasure? Let's share some prattle down below.

Tom climbs tall building IV

Saw the first showing of Tom climbs tall building IV (Mission difficult but they still do it (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol)) at the BFI IMAX near Waterloo, on Wednesday. It also, as I'm sure you are aware, unless you only read my blog for film news, which you really should by the way, had 'The Dark Knight Rises' 6 minute prologue attached to the front of the feature.

The undoubted 'highpoint' was Tom Cruise's ascent of Burj Khalifa building in Dubai, a whopping 2,723 ft tall. A breathtaking, practical stunt and made all the more impressive with IMAXs giant screen increasing the feeling of vertigo. It even felt to me, that Brad Bird, the director, dolly zoomed when going across Burj Khalifa or maybe it was just the feeling that the building was fucking massive anyway.

The gadgets and technology, as per usual, were marvellous and ridiculous in equal wonderful measure. They ranged from an illusion creating iPad and sticky traction gloves.

A thing that stood out though, in the opening sequence of a Russian prison outbreak, that the first inmate to be freed by Simon Pegg's character, looked suspiciously familiar:

I genuinely thought, for a second, that it was Peter Serafinowicz and Butterfield in deep, deep cover in a Hollywood movie.

Tom climbs tall building IV also brought back one of the greatest sights in action cinema: the Tom Cruise run.

His run is just so incredibly efficient, it seems like Tom is always able to get from A to B in the most efficient time possible, without even being the fastest. I would love to know how he was at running at school. It is measured and controlled, the complete opposite of Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones, constantly scrambling.

The film is quite heavy-handed in ramming home it's central theme of teamwork. It even concludes with the whole team sitting down and discussing teamwork in a nice little 'circle time'. In addition, although funny in places, the film is a bit too comic in tone, it seems to think that Simon Pegg's operative, Benji is God's gift to comedy.

It also lacks a good, strong villain, Michael Nyqvist, given very little to work with. He only really becomes effective in his final scene, showing how strongly he is willing to follow his convictions.

Overall though, the film is a good, fun popcorn film, weaker than Mission Impossible 3 but better than Mission Impossible 2.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A quick comment on the Dark Knight Rises prologue. I almost completely understood Bane's voice, only misunderstanding his last words before the plane is dropped. I really liked his voice as you could hear the intelligence behind it and it reminded me of a Moriarty like quality. In regards to understanding Bane throughout the whole duration of the film, it obviously remains to be seen. In my opinion, most of Nolan's films have always had quite a difficult indecipherable quality to it's sound mix. I remember having difficultly in hearing some parts of Inception's dialogue last year, for instance.

Nevertheless, without obviously seeing the whole of the film, some have jumped to conclusions with Bane's voice in the film - with funny results.

What did you think of the prologue? Type some buttons down below and we will have a friendly chit-chat

Horrifically effective scene in average horror movie shocker

I was stumbling upon some horror movie scenes upon Youtube and fell upon this extremely effective scene from extremely average Poltergeist 2, from 1986, starring Craig T.Nelson and JoBeth Williams. It's chilling, disgusting and bloody weird.

The....thing-ma-bob that comes out of his mouth was designed by no other than HR Giger, designer of the Aliens from the Alien movies.

I'm sorry if I ruined your dinner.

The Jerk: completely irrelevant and silly 32 years on

Finally, finally got around to seeing the wonderful 'The Jerk' last week, having had it as a DVD for quite a while now, having found it in one of the wonderful CEX stores. With unfortunately only being weened on a diet of 90s to 00s Steve Martin movies, from the Father of the Bride movies to Cheaper by the Dozen series, I have never really experienced any of his films or stand-up that led to him being described as the funniest man on earth.

Steve Martin and his frequent collaborator, Carl Reiner, made a series of silly, crude comedies long before the wave of successful 90s Farrelly movies, such as Dumb and Dumber.  The Jerk had great recommendations from many luminaries from across film:

"The Jerk...is by turns funny, vulgar and backhandingly clever." Janet Maslin, New York Times

"An artless, non-stop barrage of off-the-wall situations..." Variety

"The Jerk is one of the funniest films ever...FACT!!" Uncle Alan, Last Reel Reveal's Uncle

See even my uncle says its good! Armed with this knowledge I popped in the DVD and watched one of the most consistently funny comedies I have seen for a long time. Here is 5 key reasons why you should be watching it right now (but not right now, read my blog instead!).

Bernadette Peters: weapon of mass sweetness destruction

Although, The Jerk is well known for its ridiculousness and silly humour, it also has quite a touching central love story within the layers of cat juggling and needing pointless items. This is exemplified best in this scene where Steve Martin's character, Navin Johnson, sings with Bernadette's character Marie, whilst on a date together. The song they sing is 'Tonight you belong to me' an apparently hit song from the 1950s and the two turn a potentially cringey scene into a sweet, moving one. Also, at 4:34, when Navin gets up, you can hear a small crunching sound where he steps on the ukulele. He also mentions his special purpose, which neatly brings us to our next point.

Navin's special purpose

Navin has a special purpose and wishes to share his special purpose which as much people as possible. His mum, when he was kid, tells him that a part of him has a special purpose that he will find when he gets older. Navin enjoys using his special purpose and writes about it in detail in a letter addressed to his family. His grandma then proceeds to read it out. Cue hilarity. 

It rightly points out the hate that some people have for cans

This is an important subject that the film touches on, as most mainstream media are unaware of the malevolent activity that some parts of society participate against the humble can. Navin, working at his first job as a petrol station, comes under fire from an assailant, played by M.Emmet Walsh, who picked his name at random from the phone book, his name only recently being added. You have got to think that the sniper's aim must be terrible to miss him quite so many times. 

Freshest wine

One of my favourite scenes in the film was where Navin and Marie go to a fancy restaurant and Navin thinks he knows about food. He sends back the snails and the wine and utters my favourite set of lines in the whole film: '...no more 1966. Lets splurge! Bring us some fresh wine! The freshest you've got - this year! No more of this old stuff'. 

The great ugliness in Mexico

How can I discuss The Jerk without mentioning it's most famous scene, it is as important to mention as the great ugliness that is happening in Mexico at this very moment. Easily, the most bizarre scene in the movie, a man in a Mexican bar appears to juggle three kittens. The footage is shown by a Mexican priest to Navin, hoping to gain some sort of support or help to stop this occurring any further in his country. I must warn you, you must have a strong stomach to watch this clip.

The Jerk is simply, in my opinion, one of the greatest film comedies ever. You can watch it now. I've finished.

P.S Steve Martin also has embraced twitter, consistently twitting among the funniest twits every day. Follow him

What would happen if 8 actors who played multiple Marvel characters actually played the same character?

When actors appear in multiple Marvel comic book movies there is often uproar and outrage due to the much loved status of these characters:

That said, it's pretty lame to have the Human Torch play Captain America. It's a pretty iconic character. (Ponzer, Chris Evans imdb board, 14/05/10)

The uproar! The outrage! The misuse of it's!

There are multitude of actors that have appeared as different characters in two Marvel films, but what happens if they were actually playing the same character in both films? How did they get from one movie into the next? Will I hope to awkwardly answer these questions with ham-fisted descriptions and massive suspension of belief? Erm, yes...

Sam Elliot: General Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross, Hulk (2003) - Caretaker, Ghost Rider (2007)

Annoyed with his inability to capture Bruce Banner and the Hulk and mad about his daughter, Betty, still loving a rage embodiment monster (every dad's nightmare) he renounces technology and becomes the caretaker in a cemetery. Unable to clean and maintain the cemetery each day, he turns to the devil for help, becoming his Ghost Rider and a part-time caretaker with flexible hours. He receives double pay on Sundays.

Ray Stevenson: Frank Castle, Punisher: War Zone (2009) - Volstagg, Thor (2011)

After watching his wife and child being killed three times, Frank Castle finally goes mad and becomes convinced that he is a Norse warrior/alien called Volstagg and lives in a magic land called Asgard. The entire Thor movie occurs in his head and Marvel's cross-picture plan to combine all their heroes and films into one mega film, 'The Avengers' never occurs. Volstagg is actually a toilet cleaning product.

Ryan Reynolds: Hannibal King, Blade: Trinity (2004) - Wade Wilson, X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Hannibal King foolishly gets bitten and turns into a vampire once again, providing him with superhuman speed but with the thirst for blood. He uses an advanced serum, similar to Blade's dosage, inhibiting the vampire thirst but keeping his superhuman speed and developing superhuman wrists, changing his identity and joining William Stryker's 'Team X'. He then finds a mystical horse called Toby, with seven wings and flys to Saturn, where he befriends purple aliens that specialise in bread kneading. Hell the writers of Wolverine Origins can do what ever the fuck they want with Deadpool so so can I (zing!). 

Donal Logue: Quinn, Blade (1998) - Mack, Ghost Rider (2007)

Quinn reincarnates, curing himself of the vampire curse. Tired and unhappy of being henchman #1 to a vampire blood god and taking an another new, monosyllabic name, he starts a new career as comedy sidekick #1 for daredevil stunt riders. Is still unhappy. 

Chris Evans: Johnny Storm, Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) - Steve Rogers, Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

In a fight with the time-traveller Kang the Conqueror, Johnny Storm is lost back in time and becomes time-displaced, losing his memory. He reappears in the early 1940s, in Brooklyn, New York and becomes an artist, drawing fantastic images from deep within his subconscious. The stress of time-travel and displacement takes a heavy toll upon his weight. Emboldened by his former life and duty as a superheroic member of the Fantastic Four, he attempts to sign up for WWII, wishing to protect the public once more from tyranny. This then leads to him volunteering for Operation: Rebirth and becoming Captain America. Last Reel Reveal was also arrested for bad fan-fiction.

Rebecca Romijn: Raven Darkholme, X2 (2003) - Joan, The Punisher (2004) - Raven Darkholme, X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) 

This lady doesn't know who she is. Raven tires of having little speaking parts and very bad hygiene and finally has a wash getting rid of all that blue paint. She also chooses a normal life, buying a crummy apartment and taking a slightly less evil name of Joan. Using the money given to her by Frank Castle, she decides that actually she really likes the colour blue and to not wear any clothes and uses the money to track and rejoin Magneto once again.

Ben Foster: Spacker Dave, The Punisher (2004) - Warren Worthington III, X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

Dave uses the money given to him by Frank Castle to pay for plastic surgery to repair his battered, tortured face. The plastic surgeon accidentally attaches massive, angelic wings to his back. Hey, it happens. The completed plastic surgery makes Dave look like the splitting image of millionaire Warren Worthington II's long lost son, Warren Worthington III. Dave is then adopted by Warren Snr. and comes into a massive inheritance. Dave's wings are then attempted to be surgically removed, on behest of his Warren Snr., by a surgeon that doesn't randomly attach massive wings to patients. 

Jon Favreau: Franklin 'Foggy' Nelson, Daredevil (2003) - Happy Hogan, Iron Man (2008), Iron Man (2010)

Depressed and almost penniless through Matt Murdock's insistence of running a philanthropist lawyer agency, Franklin parts ways with Matt and becomes a drug addict, keeping him 'Happy' all day long. He moves away and takes his mother's maiden name, Hogan, continuing his party-loving style. He meets Tony Stark and become firm friends through their mutual smugness. Stark then employs him as his personal assistant.

Have I missed any actors that play multiple Marvel characters? Feel like you can create or haphazardly fit a better story? Then have leave a comment down below and lets have a chinwag.

Red Planet Mars and 1950s Hollywood propaganda

In what film do you find a former Nazi scientist serving the devil, funded by Soviet Union money, a highly-advanced Mars nuclear culture, ruled by a Christ-like figure and a religious revolution in Communist Russia, inspired by American radio broadcasts? Only in wonderful 1950s, B movie, propagandist Hollywood can you find such a film, called Red Planet Mars, made in 1952.

This film is presented in its entity on YouTube, making a change from piecing together 13 parts of a film in a different language, until you find out that the end has been removed due to copyrighting. Through the technique of reading further down the page, you will find that I placed this unique film just below. Isn't that nice.

 

The 1950s were the peak of Hollywood's propagandist output  in the cultural Cold War between the capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union and the fight for people's hearts and minds. Particularly, religion became one of the most emotive themes used in Hollywood and the United States, due to the Soviet Unions persecution of religion throughout its combined states. It was Lenin's original belief that religion was a product of social, economic oppression and exploitation.  

Red Planet Mars perfectly and insanely encompasses pretty much all the 1950s Cold War themes in one film. Obvious anti-communism, the power of religion and alienation at home and even at other planets. The film even manages to fit in a distrust of science, with the antagonist and protagonist scientists both dying in a fiery laboratory explosion. Lots of rather large cultural eggs were put in a very preposterous, cold basket.

An American astronomer, Chris Cronyn, played by Peter Graves, starts to receive mysterious messages from Mars using a new invention named the 'hydrogen valve' to contact it. Through questioning and exchange of information, Cronyn realises that Mars is ruled by advanced intelligent beings. They live a longer that human life-span and have developed new, more efficient energy sources. The discovery causes chaos on Earth, with a threatened collapse of Western society, through stock markets falling and wide-spread depression. The original, ex-Nazi inventor of the 'hydrogen valve', Frank Calder, played by Herbet Berghof, along with Russian agent cohorts, looks upon gloatingly at the approaching western collapse.

This is until the discovery that Mars follows Christian values, through the message of, 'Seven lifetimes ago, you were told to love goodness and hate evil.' The news sends the Soviet Union into panic and chaos instead, where their people openly start to worship and embrace God once again, sending peace and revolution throughout the world. But then Calder reveals himself to be the true sender of the messages, in an attempt to dupe and bring down both sides using a radio-transmitter, high in the Andes mountains. Realising he has failed, he attempts to blow up the hydrogen valve, taking his life and Cronyn and his wife in an explosion. Just before the hydrogen valve is destroyed, one final, disrupted message comes through from Mars: 'Ye have done well, my good...' possibly proving that God was indeed on Mars. 

There is a clear attempt here to attach religion with freedom, liberty and democracy, a theme that is constantly used in America and Hollywood in the 1950s. They attempt to create the idea that capitalism, anti- communism and Christianity was one whole synonymous idea. The danger of science and dabbling in things we do not fully understand was also investigated, a theme common in Hollywood movies until the later wave of disaster movies in the 1990s and 2000s.