The latest issue of VideoVista is now live and contains two reviews from me this month.

The first is the very good (if quite slow) Macabre (Macabro), the directorial debut of Lamberto Bava, a sometimes quite wonderfully barmy slice of giallo.

The second is the genuinely appalling (my joint worst film of the year - in fact, it’s so bad, it’s probably in the running for worst film of this decade) Serum. Are there any upsides to this debacle of straight-to-video dreck? Well, this is perhaps - to my mind, at least - one of the funniest reviews I’ve ever written and if you don’t click the link, how else will you discover what ‘death by cereal’ means?

On Saturday, David ericgnome and his family met up with Alison, Matthew and myself and we went to the opening day of the new Kettering marketplace. Within ten minutes, we’d done everything and looked to go on elsewhere. Somebody (it was me!!!!) suggested Wicksteeds and off we trooped - we did the swings, the train, the little and big rollercoasters and had an ice-cream break. Then we all went for dinner at The Trading Post so what was originally a meet-up for a couple of hours ended up being a gathering for a whole afternoon and into the early evening. Great fun was had by all.

On the way, David took a picture and he posted it to Facebook. He reckons it looks cheesy. I don’t agree (my Danger Mouse T-shirt alone, surely, lifts it into the class quality).




In other news:

The latest issue of VideoVista is now on-line and contains two reviews by yours truly.

Diagnosis: Death is an amusing, dark comedy from New Zealand, that I quite enjoyed

Infestation is a giant-bug, survivalist horror/dark comedy, that’s actually very good fun (apart from the very last sequence).

Gary Greenwood originally posted this on his blog, so I thought I’d hijack it and do my own version. To quote him (and Rob Rogers, who Gary lifted it from); "This is not about the best movies you've ever seen. Describe eight experiences watching a movie that stick in your mind as being particularly memorable - for whatever reason."

Star Wars
Still my favourite film of all time, I saw this when it first came out (which I believe was 1978 in this country, making me all of 9). We’d tried to get in for one showing but it was full, so Dad took me and my friend Claire back to Rothwell. We headed off down the Rec., which was fog-shrouded and only realised the time when we could hear Dad calling us, to go off to the next showing. I don’t remember much about the actual film from that day, except that I watched that Star Destroyer come over the camera in almost the first shot and I knew I’d never seen anything like this before in my life.

I was lucky enough to see it in the cinema a few more times - a double-bill with “The Empire Strikes Back” and then a triple-bill (what a marathon that was) with both “Empire” and “Return Of The Jedi” - and I also caught the special editions at the cinema too.

Brilliantly, I’m not getting Matthew into the film and re-experiencing it through his eyes.

Dead Ringers
My friend Craig & I used to go to the cinema a lot in the late 80s/early 90s, alternating between the Kettering, Burton Latimer and Corby ‘theatres’. Can’t do that now, can we, Mr Odeon? I’d loved David Cronenberg’s films since watching “Videodrome” way back in the mid-80s, so rushed along to see this. It wasn’t a popularly held view - including me and Craig, there were only 6 people in the cinema. It’s the quietest I’ve ever heard an audience file out - all of us looked shocked and white faced. What a brilliant film it is.

Basic Instinct
Rubbish film, I know but Alison & I went out as mates on a cinema trip. We went to The Point in Milton Keynes, booked a double bill and watched “Waynes World” first. We then went to get something to eat and, midway through, I asked her to go out with me. Therefore, our first film as a couple was Verhoven’s sleazy thriller. Well, it could be worse…

The Land Before Time
Back in the late 80s, I used to take Sarah to the cinema during school holidays (this was just as video was starting to get a real grip, but we didn’t have a player, so the only place to see big Disney films was at the flicks). I picked this one only because it vividly reminds me, every time I think of it, of the difference between kids and adults (I would have been in my late teens, Sarah around 5 or 6). One of the dinosaurs’ mothers dies, right near to the start. The kids went mental (it was quite a spectacular death if I remember rightly), laughing and shouting. I thought it was very sad and looked around me, trying to see if I was alone, wiping away a stray tear. Turns out I wasn’t - whilst most of the kids were thoroughly enjoying themselves, most of the adults seemed to have “something in their eye”.

Whore
I went to see this at The Point, in Milton Keynes, with a friend of mine called Julie. I wasn’t a big fan of Ken Russell, but I did like Theresa Russell. The film started. It was vile. It got worse. To date - and I’ve seen a lot of films at the cinema - this is only film I’ve ever walked out of.

Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger
1977 - my friends and I go on our own to a matinee showing of this (I assume that none of our parents wanted to sit through it). The cinema is chaotic, popcorn everywhere, a lot of noise. This quietens down during the film which I seem to remember I quite enjoyed - no doubt because of the presence of Ms Lambs Navy Rum herself, Caroline Munro. A friend of mine, who’d already seen it, kept telling me about this huge seal that comes out of the ice and attacks the goodies. I was, quite frankly, terrified of what I might see. And then I saw it and realised that my imagination, on occasion, could be three times more powerful than what film-makers could get on the screen.

Raiders Of The Lost Ark
Nick - who I have now known for 33 years and count as one of my closest friends - and I fell out during the summer of 1981. Not being friends wasn’t pleasant, but neither of us was going to back down (and I can’t even remember what caused us to fall out). It just so happened that, at the same time, “Raiders” arrived at the cinema and nobody I knew wanted to see it - they either didn’t like spiders or snakes or ghosts. Quite by chance, a few days later, our mum’s met in the high street and, whilst talking, discovered that both of us wanted to see the film. I can’t remember now who it was precisely, but we made up and went to see the film and haven’t fallen out since. The irony is that now, I like horror films and Nick doesn’t, yet it was me who covered his eyes when the first ‘angel’ turns into a ghoul at the climax! A fact Nick has never forgotten.

Fatal Attraction
For our first date (I do pick them, don’t I?), I took my new girlfriend Sara to see this at the old Northampton ABC - it was a beautiful old Art Deco theatre, complete with a balcony and an organ that came out of the stage and is now a Jesus Army Centre (thanks for that, Mr Out-Of-Town Odeon). I didn’t think the film was too bad and, as soon as it appeared that Glenn Close was dead in the bath, I knew what was going to happen. This is why, when she leapt out of the water to be shot by Ann Archer, I was watching the rest of the cinema rather than the screen. And I swear it was as if everyone moved into the seat directly behind them - it was a wonderful ripple effect. I’ve never seen it since.

I could also discuss the “Live & Let Die/The Spy Who Loved Me” double-bill my Dad took me to see, in 1978 - the first Bond films I’d ever seen at the cinema. As an added attraction, not that I really needed one, Corby cinema also had a speedboat in their foyer, which Dad convinced me was Bond’s one from the film. To this day, Roger Moore is still my favourite Bond and these remain my favourite Bond films.

Or “Star Trek 3: The Search For Spock” - one of the tabloids was running a competition, where you could queue up for free tickets. We did - me and my friend Steve and his sister - and spent a happy few hours in the queue, chatting away to our fellow would-be patrons and got the tickets and enjoyed the film. I later wrote an essay about the day, which won an English prize that year at school.

Anyone else got anything?

This month’s VideoVista is now online and contains my review of The Cell 2, which I probably wouldn’t have even known about otherwise. And my life would have been a little bit more blissful for that. Anyway, check it out if you get the chance.

I also reviewed “Passengers”, a real con of a film starring Anne Hathaway, which will be published at a later date.

Just a quick heads up that the new Video Vista is now online. I have two reviews this month:

He’s Just Not That Into You - a kind of chick-flick that didn’t do a great deal for me

Laid To Rest - a horror film that I really quite enjoyed.

Check them out!

A little late this time, but the June issue of VideoVista is now live and contains three reviews by yours truly:

Anamorph wasn’t bad,

The Tale of Desperaux wasn’t very good

Running On Empty, an Oz film from the early eighties, was pretty good.


We also watched, for pleasure, Frank Henenlotter’s “Bad Biology”. I’m glad now that I didn’t have to review it, since I’m a massive Henenlotter fan and I adore “Frankenhooker”, but this wasn’t good. His films have all suffered with pacing but, combined with more nudity and an unwise teaming up with rap stars, mark this out as not being very good at all. Which is a real shame.

The April issue of VideoVista is now online and includes three reviews by yours truly.

There’s a charming Japanese film called Turtles Are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers, which I loved;

a ‘in-the-wrong-place” horror thriller called Borderland, which is pretty good

and

the awful, awful, abysmal Uwe Boll massacre Seed, which is probably the longest and most enjoyable (for me, at least) review I’ve ever written. The film is terrible though. Did I make that clear enough? No? Oh, okay then - “Seed” is rubbish.

The latest e-issue of VideoVista is now online and I have three reviews in it, if you’re at all interested. One film was appallingly bad, one wasn’t bad but wasn’t what it had the potential to be and one was pretty good fun.

Click on the title to be whisked to the review:

The Cellar Door
Next (with Nicolas Cage)
Asylum


In other news, I've just about cleared up a nasty little bout of conjunctivitis. I've never had it before but my lovely little son (and it's a good job I do love him!) passed it on to me, as he did the bug that laid me out for the best part of a week. Ah, the joys of parenthood.

We had a nice, quiet New Years Eve - Matthew went to spend the night with his Gran & Grampy (hard to tell which of the three was most excited) and Alison & I went for an Indian, then a brisk walk and saw 2009 in with the Hootenany.
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I’m getting more used to the laptop (and trying to avoid Spider Solitaire at all costs) and I’ve manage to arrange the bulk of the files and photographs on it. I keep bumping into things, with Vista, that don’t work as I want them to but it doesn’t appear as bad - yet - as people keep saying. Though downloading to DVD through the Media Player is a bad, bad, bad idea.
- - -
We had a busy Saturday, which wasn’t planned. Mike, Melanie & Alesha Pateman called over in the afternoon and it was good to see them - we exchanged gifts, had a laugh and Matthew and Alesha got along really well.

We’d hoped that the Pateman’s would still be at ours when David ericgnome, Julia and the girls arrived, but the latter were delayed (very unusual for the punctual Roberts, who usually turn up ahead of whatever time you arrange!) and so it wasn’t to be. But it was good to see everyone and whilst Dude was playing with the girls, David put some software on the laptop for me and sorted out a couple of things that had been puzzling me.

Busy, but fun.
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On Sunday, we went to Irchester Country Park, which was almost deserted (it was close to freezing) and so we had the run of the place. Strange thing though, we kept finding decapitated rabbit heads all over the place.
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Also on Sunday, I realise it’s a bit early in the year to make this declaration, but I think we saw the Best and Worst films of 2009.

Alison is a fan of ‘spoof’ movies and we saw one late last year, called “Superhero Movie”, that wasn’t too bad. Dude & I went to Blockbuster and I picked up “Disaster Movie”, which mentioned ‘Superhero’ on the blurb, thinking that if it was as good, it wouldn’t be a bad rental. It was worse - far, far, worse. Turns out it wasn’t linked with ‘Superhero’ at all, but “Epic Movie”, which I hated. And I hated this one even more. It was so rubbish, in fact, that I can only muster giving it 1 out of 10 because one joke made me smile and the leading actress was quite attractive. And that’s me scratching for compliments. It’s a dreadful, dreadful waste of time (yours) and expense (yours and the people that funded it and could have better spent the money on dozens of indie films). Whatever you do, do NOT rent “Disaster Movie”.

Thankfully, my other choice was “The Dark Knight” which I’ve wanted to see for ages and events have conspired against that, but I sat enraptured for the 2.5 hour plus running time. I loved it. By turns beautiful, stately, gritty and brutal, this is what cinema should be. An absolutely cracking film (and Heath Ledger’s portrayal was as exceptional as I’d been led to believe) that was only let down by the bizarre choice of making Batman speak like he was air escaping from a balloon. Otherwise, 9 out of 10 for this - exceptional.
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And on the subject of films, I’m pleased to say that I’m now on the VideoVista Review Crew! Tony Lee, head honcho of VV, saw my comments on “Wanted” on here and asked me to submit something else, so I put forward a review of “Deathproof” and it’s hit this months edition - it’s online here if you’re interested. I’m quite looking forward to seeing what films come my way!

So 2008 is almost over and, along with countless other blogs, I thought I’d post my “Best Of” lists for film and books.

I’ve been really pleased with my reading this year - I set myself the resolution that I’d read 12 books over the year (and have easily surpassed that), to try and get myself back on track after reading 7, 7 and 9 books from 2005 to 2007 respectively. Not only that, I also set myself the target of reading the first 30 Three Investigator books between mid-2008 and the end of 2010 and have accomplished the first stage of that too. So, without further ado, my favourite books of the year.

My Books Of The Year

1. My Word Is My Bond
2. If Chins Could Kill
3. Alison
4. Rain Dogs
5. The Vertigo Murders
6. Breeding Ground
7. Dark Hollow
8. Is It Me?
9. The Autobiography - Johnnie Walker
10. Classic Saturday Night Telly

and the rest (in order):

11. TV Cream Toys
12. Islington Crocodiles
13. Blockbuster
14. The Autobiography - Eric Clapton
15. Attack Of The Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons
16. Sculpting A Galaxy
17. Scientific Progress Goes Boink
18. Boys' Toys
19. Rain
20. George Lucas - The Creative Impulse
21. Postcards From Terri
22. Best New Horror 19
23. My Boring-Ass Life
24. Total Film 50 Greatest Interviews
25. Romeo's Pain
26. The Hollower
27. Don't Stop Me Now
28. On The Edge

Top 10 Non-fiction
1. My Word Is My Bond
2. If Chins Could Kill
3. Is It Me?
4. The Autobiography - Johnnie Walker
5. The Encyclopaedia of Classic Saturday Night Telly
6. TV Cream Toys
7. Blockbuster
8. The Autobiography - Eric Clapton
9. Sculpting A Galaxy
10. Boys' Toys

Top 10 Fiction
1. Alison
2. Rain Dogs
3. The Vertigo Murders
4. Breeding Ground
5. Dark Hollow
6. Islington Crocodiles
7. Rain
8. Postcards From Terri
9. Best New Horror 19
10. Romeo's Pain

In addition, I read 7 Three Investigator books to give me a total of 35 reads in the year, my best figure since 2003!


With films, this is my list of favourites of those that I saw for the first time this year. It might be that they were released prior to 2008 but since I haven’t been to the cinema in years, I generally have to wait for the DVD. Anyway, here we go…

My Films Of The Year 

1. Eastern Promises
2. Son Of Rambow
3. Them/Ils
4. Mamma Mia
5. Juno
6. Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
7. Iron Man
8. The Bank Job
9. Vacancy
10. Cloverfield

11. Rambo
12. Planet Terror
13. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
14. Hancock
15. Doomsday
16. Transformers
17. In Bruges
18. All The Boys Love Mandy Lane
19. Run, Fatboy, Run
20. Over Her Dead Body
21. Deathproof
22. National Treasure 2
23. Shoot 'Em Up
24. Paradise Lost
25. Black Sheep
26. Undead
27. Catch & Release
28. Superhero Movie
29. Bee Movie
30. St Trinians
31. Rush Hour 3
32. Knocked Up
33. Walk Hard
34. Wanted


So that’s me - it’s been a good year, all in all and let’s hope 2009 has some great things in store for all of us.

See you next year!

I saw two reviews for We Fade To Grey last week, both of which were very pleasing. One came from Stephen Bacon, a fellow writer, who said of “The Mill” - “[it’s] a haunting stab of exposed tragedy. I honestly can't remember reading anything with as much honesty, in the manner it deals with grief and the consequences of loss…The ending was subtle and heartbreaking."

Peter Tennant also reviewed the story in Black Static and seemed to enjoy it, which is nice. The weird thing is, reading what he had to say about the story reminded me of the sensation I got when he wrote about my story “The City In The Rain” - that he’d seen things in the text that I wasn’t aware of, but which made me - as the writer - sound much smarter than I think I am. Very nice.

If you’re a regular reader of this LJ and haven’t read “The Mill”, all of these snippets and reviews and comments must make it sound like a grim, bleak story. It is - after all, it deals with bereavement and loss and the kind of grief that seems to pull at your soul - but I also think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever written and the fact that people are pulled in, once they start, is really pleasing to me. There are a couple of funny bits in it, but it’s perhaps best not to read it if you’re after a belly-laugh!
- - -

Next project for me? Well I’m leaning more and more towards “The Day It Rained” (nasty stuff in the rain, I think it’s cool) and I’m getting a lot more ideas and images towards it (the latest is the survivors, holed up in the Smithy, pulling in a victim of the rain who is suddenly missing his legs!).

When I initially started work on the idea, way back in 2004, I assumed it was going to be a long-form short story (what I now know, thanks to “The Mill” and Gary McMahon, is called a novelette) and that slowly morphed into a novella (up to approx. 45k words). Now, with the market as it currently stands (see previous posts and pretty much any writers blog over the past few months), I seriously think that a novel is the best way to go (and yes, I am aware of how long it takes me to write anything - In The Rain With The Dead was started on December 29th 2000, the third draft was completed February 18th 2002 and the book saw publication in October 2005). I’m not suggesting that it's an easier market (it’s harder, if anything), but the story is spreading and I had a lot of fun writing In The Rain With The Dead and what do I have to lose? After all, if a novella market opens up, “Drive” is still looking for a home.

Anyway, reading Sarah Pinborough’s wonderful “Breeding Ground” gave me an idea of how to open the story out and, in my head, it works a treat. What slowed me down in the past was trying to visualise how the siege was going to run, since that would have been the bulk of the story. Now, with my new idea, the siege is literally part two of a three part story. I can keep elements of the grim ending that I originally had (which will now be the end of part two, obviously) and ramp up the unpleasantness for part three. Which’ll be nice.

Wish me luck!
- - -

We’ve had some success with DVD rentals recently and, feeling cocky and armed with a free rental ticket, Matthew & I nipped to Blockbuster last night and I picked up “Wanted”. I won’t be linking to it as it’s one of the worst films I’ve seen this year. It’s terrible.

I like James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie is easy on the eye, I like slam-bang thrillers and this seemed to have it all. But it doesn’t. McAvoy plays a whining, snivelling little shit for too long of the running time, with a spot-on but “why bother” American accent and you have to hope that Ms Jolie wasn’t paid by the word. With stupid pretentiousness (a loom? It all comes from a loom?), action sequences where the CGI looks like it was created by Matthew’s nursery school class, editing by hummingbirds and slow-mo that is so unflattering as to be insulting, this was just a mess from start to finish. And it takes ages - both for anything to happen and for it to stop.

Right at the end, one of the characters says “What have you done recently with your life?” My reply? “Just wasted two hours of it watching this shit, so thanks for that”.

There are two extras on the rental disc, one’s rubbish but the other, about the Viper chase, is quite interesting. What I don’t understand, though, is the bus crash part. They crashed and rolled a bus in Chicago. A stuntwoman did a couple of leaps in a Viper body-shell. There were bits and pieces all over the place, it was obviously a big stunt and a lot of preparation time went into it. So what happens in the film? It’s all been through the CGI mill (because it forms the basis of one of the silliest stunts ever, beyond the one where McAvoy assassinates a bloke in a limo which has to be seen to be groaned at) and so none of it looks real. Which has to beg the question - why take all the time, talent and expense to roll a real bus and then jiggle it about with a fake car until the whole thing looks fake? Why not do it on the computer in the first place? As you’ve probably guessed by now, I’m not a big fan of CGI (unless it’s pretty much pitch perfect).

Do not rent this film, it is dreadful!
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And finally, I’d just like to wish the faithful readers of this Journal a very Happy Christmas and all my very best wishes to you and yours for 2009.

Take care!

He’s back! He’s alive!

Haven’t posted for a while, variety of reasons, none of them all that interesting, but a couple of people have pointed it out to me and so I thought I’d make amends. So, what’s been happening?

( In life - with a picture )

( Friends )

( Films )

( Books )

( Writing )

So that’s me. Hopefully I’ll post beforehand but, if I don’t get to, I hope that every reader of this little journal - and their families - has a wonderful, happy and hearty Christmas period and my very best wishes to you all for 2009.

Oh and bye bye, Woolies, it was nice knowing you…

We had our friends Jon & Sally over yesterday afternoon, along with their children Amelia and Harvey. Amelia loves little kids and Dude likes the ladies, so they got on like a house-on-fire. Harvey is a couple of years older than Matthew and it was quite interesting to see their initial squabbly reactions to one another, as they tried to work out who was top dog. It resolved itself quickly and by a fifth of the way into the walk (we went across the fields, rather than down through the gully’s), they were the best of pals. Good times…
- - -
The paperback edition of “We Fade To Grey” arrived on Friday (along with my cheque) and both were very nice. The book looks gorgeous, the paper is nice and heavy and the cover has reproduced beautifully. I’m very proud of this collection and really looking forward to the signing session next Saturday at FCon.
I’ve also set up a Facebook page for “We Fade To Grey”, if anyone’s interested in joining and it’d be worth your while as Chris is running a competition - I’ll post the details below here, to whet your appetite:

To celebrate the impending launch of this literary feast of supernatural thrills, which shares it's title with a well-known early 80s pop-song, both myself and the fount of 80s trivia Mark West have racked our brains to ask thee a single question:

"Who links 'One man on a lonely platform, one case sitting by his side, two eyes staring cold and silent, show fear as he turns to hide' with 'It's five and I'm driving home again, it's hard to believe that it's my last time, the man on the wireless cries again, it's over, it's over'?"

The winner shall receive the following:

- A free copy of the hard cover edition of We Fade to Grey, which will not only be numbered and signed by all contributors, but shall also be personally inscribed with whatever message they desire;

- Also, a free copy of any other Pendragon Press title (check out www.pendragonpress.net to choose).

Send your entry by e-mail to: chris at pendragonpress dot net - preferably with your message, just in case you're the happy winner...

Closing date for entries is midnight (GMT) Wednesday 17th September 2008 - the winner shall be notified on Thursday, with their books posted on Monday 22nd September 2008.

No correspondence shall be entered into and the decision shall be final.

So there. :)

- - -
I finally did draft 3 of “Drive” last week - for various different, silly reasons, I’ve been putting it off for a while but I decided enough was enough and got cracking. I also gave myself some pressure (I wonder why I tend to work better, writing-wise, when there’s a deadline looming?) - I asked someone to read it and I need to start work on a screenplay with a friend by the end of the month. Anyway, it went much better than I expected it to, I used the notes and comments from my pre-readers and cut about 800 words out altogether, bring me down to a little over 26k. The one thing I didn’t do was explain at the end what happened to Pete and Flic, which my sister and kiminorkey had both asked for!
- - -
Currently reading “Blockbuster” by Tom Schone, which is - for the most part - really quite enjoyable but he’s made a couple of elementary errors regarding “Star Wars” and George Lucas that, really, he shouldn’t have. It’s not that I’m the biggest fan in the world, or being particularly anal about this, but we’ve both read the same source - “Skywalking” by Dale Pollock, which I’ve read several times - and it pulled me out of the narrative flow for a bit.

After Sunday nights “Cloverfield” success, we followed it up with “All The Boys Love Mandy Lane” on Monday night and “Son Of Rambow” last night.

“Mandy Lane” is an interesting film, harking back to the 70s with it’s lense/sun flares, gritty image and stark locations and it generally works quite well, though you only really get one sympathetic character and that’s limiting. Also, (SPOILER ALERT), identifying the killer that early on (END SPOILER) was a mistake but it did trick me into not guessing the ending until a little while before the reveal. But overall it's a decent enough film that appears to have been treated badly by its distributors (though thank goodness for Optimum Releasing, who also put out “Dead Man’s Shoes” and “Rambow”), which is well worth a look.

“Son Of Rambow”, by contrast, is a hugely heart-warming film, that had me smiling broadly apart from when I was occasionally wiping away a tear. A story about two kids in the early 80s (difficult to pin down exactly when, but 83/84 by the pop culture), who decide to make their own film version of “First Blood”, I thought this was superb. It probably helped that I was the same age in the same time period and that I was involved in making cine-film ‘homages’ to popular hits (and we had a very interesting French exchange), but I loved this film. There are dark parts, of course, but in the main this is spritely, funny and a really nostalgic wallow in the early 80s. Very much recommended and this sits easily within my top three films of the year.

In fact, whilst I’m here, let’s do a top ‘10’ list. Why not, eh? With the film version, you have to bear in mind that I haven’t been to the cinema for a long time - it’s very expensive, we obviously need to find babysitters and, above all else, I don’t want to get everything paid and arranged and then have to endure other peoples noise. So my list is what we’ve seen on DVD this year (meaning it could have been released last year). Ah, you get the idea.

With the books, I’ve not included the Three Investigator ones that I’ve been working my way through. Or the Thomas The Tank Engine/Night Garden/Bob The Builder tomes I read every other night.

( My films of the year, so far )

( My books of the year, so far )

We watched Undead on Saturday night, a “Speirig Brothers film”, which I picked up because it was from New Zealand and was in the ‘style’ of Peter Jackson’s early efforts. Well, it was from NZ, certainly and some of the acting was obviously amateur but this had a certain slickness to it (especially some of the exceptional visual effects, though the milk-in-a-tank cloud stuff got wearing) that seemed to push it towards higher expectations. Which is when the story itself shot it in the foot - the zombies weren’t really, the aliens weren’t what you expected and the whole film seemed to veer from one thing to another with no real reason for any of it. It was enjoyable enough and well made, but it kept throwing me and I don’t think I’d bother with it again.

Then, last night, we watched Rambo. Holy crap! I enjoyed the first film a lot, the second wasn’t too bad (the only one I ever saw at the cinema) and suffered the third but I’d heard a lot of good things about this and wasn’t disappointed. It really harks back to the first film and takes a very visceral approach - you are there, watching men, women and children in trouble and once it gets going, it’s on a par with the opening for “Saving Private Ryan”. The visual effects (especially the neat little digital touches) really aid the whole thing and I really enjoyed it, if that’s the right term. My only quibble - on the DVD, why not have a featurette about the effects?

I bought some books at the weekend, four in total. Two were in Tesco (as part of their “two for £7” deal), the new Jeremy Clarkson and No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay. I’d seen the latter around a few times and, although it’s got a dreadful cover, it kept drawing my attention. So I got it. Then, yesterday, Matthew & I went into Kettering and in Smiths, I got him a new “Night Garden” book and I picked up The Private Lives of Pippa Lee by Rebecca Miller for myself. Again, the cover sold me and I’m aware of Ms Miller, but to her credit, she doesn’t mention her husband or parents anyway, apart from “to d” and “thanks to my mother and father” - I only hope she writes with a fraction of his genius.

Two things came to light, from my purchases. One is that my staple reading diet (and purchasing) seems to be moving away from horror slightly, with most recent purchases being either biography or drama, with the odd thriller thrown in. I’m not too worried about this - the last time I slipped out of horror for a while, I discovered Kerouac and the late 80s stuff by Easton Ellis, McInerny, Chabon and the like, which was all good fun. The second thing is that both the Barclay and Miller books are “Richard & Judy Summer Reads” selections. Nothing wrong in that, I hear you cry and whilst I don’t like their show or the trivia of it, I’d been ignoring their selections in the past, assuming they’d promote Colleen-bloody-Rooney above decent literature and it seems like I was wrong. Hey ho, there we go.

As mentioned above, Matthew & I went into Kettering yesterday to pick up the DVDs and exchange a faulty birthday gift. He insisted on taking Ghost in his buggy and so we did. Strange thing is, this drew a lot of attention from women in their 20s and early 30s - I’ve never had so many ladies smile at me!

( Matthew and Ghost, attentive ladies not pictured )

Last evening, we went for our regular wander and walked into town. On the way back, I was looking at the old plastics factory and took a picture of an old doorway. I have performed a bit of digital magic on this and quite like it.

( Doorway )

Rowell Fair’s in town this week, which means that the centre of Rothwell is awash with rides and stalls and the smell of hot dogs, burning onions and diesel! We took Matthew down on Sunday for the blessing of the fair and, since it’s the 40th anniversary of the fair society - but the 804th fair! - the rides were open. He went on the tea-cups with his Gran and loved it. Chris, my brother-in-law and I went on the Oblivion, which was excellent - spun high and upside down over the town graveyard is something no-one should be denied!

( Rowell Fair related pics - and one of Dude playing his guitar - behind here )

Finally got around to watching Crash at the weekend - I caught it on Film Four. What an incredible film, I just wish I’d seen it sooner. The part with the locksmiths daughter and the shopkeeper had me watching through my fingers, hoping against hope that what I assumed would happen wouldn’t and then it did. Oh wow.

As the flip side to that, we watched Walk Hard on DVD on Sunday and it wasn’t good. One positive out of the experience though, I now know not to bother with any more Judd Apatow films! Whilst at Blockbuster, we also picked up Them from Blockbuster, which several of my horror-loving chums have raved over and I’m really looking forward to.

I finished Dark Hollow by Brian Keene the other day and was very impressed with it, probably my favourite of his (alongside “Terminal” - I’ve never been that big a zombie fan). I posted a small review at my Facebook, which I’ll put under a cut as there is a spoiler in it:

( ’Dark Hollow’ review, with slight spoiler, behind here )

Finally, it’s a Bank Holiday weekend coming up and I’m really looking forward to it, not least because we’re having a party on Sunday for Matthew as he’ll turn three on Monday. Yep, my little Dude will be three years old and starting nursery in September. Seriously, where does the time go? If anyone has any clues, please drop me a line!

Have a good weekend, one and all!

Had a very nice, family-orientated weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it. I don’t mind going away with work every now and again (it’s an adventure and international travel at someone else’s expense), but the idea of being away for two nights doesn’t fill me with joy. This, today, is compounded by the fact that I appeared to be Matthew’s favourite over the weekend - pretty much everything that he did, he wanted me to do it with him. Which was lovely, however tiring.

Didn’t get any writing done. At all. Oh dear.

On Saturday, we watched “Vacancy”, which wasn’t bad at all. That’s not to say it didn’t have glaring, huge holes in the plot (which appear to go hand-in-hand with works about snuff films, I had exactly the same issues when I was working on Project Bun but rather than carry on regardless - as the “Vacancy” folk did - I realised I couldn’t get it to work convincingly and put it to one side), or that it didn’t have moments of such monumental coincidence and contrivance you were staggered by the audacity of them but, well, there were parts that were just plain scary. Not the snuff movie parts, but the banging on the walls, the man with the bizarre mask, the sense of siege and claustrophobia. The actors acquitted themselves well, the dialogue was natural and the director didn’t rely on three-second cuts to try and create kineticism - even the stunts were old school. All in all, not bad at all and worth a rent, in my opinion.