BS #26

The latest issue of Black Static magazine is #26 (Dec 2011-Jan 2012), and this Bristish fantasy award-winning bi-monthly features my 'Blood Spectrum' column of DVD & blu-ray reviews.

Here's the line-up of new & forthcoming titles covered, with ratings:

Umbrage: The First Vampire (1/10)
Helldriver (7/10)
Smallville - season 10 (7/10)
The Human Centipede 2 (5/10)
Guilty Of Romance (4/10)
Conan The Barbarian (5/10)
Super 8 (4/10)
Cowboys & Aliens (4/10)
Kill List (2/10)
Frankenhooker (6/10) 
Troll Hunter (4/10)

Interzone

The latest issue of Interzone (#237) includes my regular 'Laser Fodder' column of DVD & blu-ray reviews, and here's this month's line-up:

13 Assassins (7/10)
The Event (2/10)
Freedom (4/10)
The Devil's Kiss (1/10)
Green Lantern (5/10)
The Woman (6/10)
Alien Undead (1/10)
Maniac Cop (6/10)
Saint (7/10)
Assassin: City Under Siege (5/10)
Panic Button (1/10)
Deadly Blessing (5/10)
Redline (6/10)
Silent Running (7/10)
Transformers: Dark Of The Moon (5/10)
Final Destination 5 (3/10) 

Black Static 25

The latest issue of Black Static magazine (#25, November 2011) includes my 'Blood Spectrum' column of DVD & blu-ray reviews. Here's a listing of the line-up with ratings...

Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (5/10)
Tomorrow, When The War Began (4/10)
The Twilight Zone – season four (7/10)
The Cape (5/10)
The Cat o’ Nine Tails (4/10)
Fringe - season 3 (8/10)
Manhunter (8/10)
Tucker And Dale vs. Evil (4/10)
Gantz (6/10)
Stake Land (6/10)
Empire Of Passion (5/10)
The New Daughter (5/10)
The Ward (7/10)
Henry, Portrait Of A Serial Killer (8/10)
Mother's Day (6/10)
Straw Dogs (6/10)
Mimic - director’s cut (6/10)
Tree Of Life (4/10)
X-Men: First Class (5/10)

    Dregs of Grog: Round-up
Episode 50 (2/10)
Cannibal (2/10)
Blood Runs Cold (2/10)
Deadtime Stories (2/10)
The Man With The Severed Head (2/10)

Interzone #236

This month issue of Interzone (from TTA Press) includes my 'Laser Fodder' column of DVD & blu-ray reviews. Here's the line-up with rating scores:

The Twilight Zone - season 3 (7/10)
Source Code (4/10)
La Jetée (3/10)
Level Five (1/10)
Sans Soleil (2/10)
The Vampire Diaries - season 2 (2/10)
Stargate Universe – season 2 (4/10)
Supernatural – season 6 (4/10)
Insidious (4/10)
Julia’s Eyes (4/10)
Eureka - season 4.0 (3/10)
51 (1/10)
Quatermass And The Pit (8/10)
Warehouse 13 – season 2 (5/10)
Muckman (3/10)
Cannibal Holocaust (1/10)
2001 Nights (6/10)

    Used Clumpage: round-up
Cowboys & Zombies (0/10)
Strigoi (3/10)
Wreckage (1/10)
Hatchet II (0/10)
Midnight (3/10)
Black Heaven (4/10)
Pieces (2/10)
Rogue Ninja (3/10)
The Holding (4/10)
The Roommate (1/10)
Territories (1/10)
Sacred Blacksmith – season 1 (2/10)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer – season 8 motion comic (1/10)

The issue also has my first editorial for Interzone, so there's even more of my ramblings!

Black Static

The latest issue of Black Static (#24, Aug-Sept) includes my regular 'Blood Spectrum' column of DVD & blu-ray reviews.

Here's the line-up:

The Task (2/10)
Conan The Barbarian (8/10)
The Devil's Rock (4/10)
Giallo (4/10)
Obsession (6/10)
Slaughter High (1/10)
Bane (1/10)
Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus (1/10)
Evil Rising (4/10)
Moby Dick (1/10)
Scream Of The Banshee (2/10)
The Violent Kind (1/10)
Hobo With A Shotgun (6/10)
Limitless (5/10)
The Silent House (2/10)
Super (3/10)
Almighty Thor (0/10)
The Lost Bladesman (6/10)
The Rig (1/10)
Sucker Punch (5/10)
Twin Daggers (2/10)
The Witches Of Oz (3/10)
The Extraordinary Adventures Of Adele Blanc-Sec (8/10)
Quarantine 2: Terminal (5/10)
Second Coming (2/10)
Uninhabited (2/10)
Wasted On The Young (2/10)
Waterborne (0/10)
Iron & Blood: The Legend Of Taras Bulba (4/10)
Red Riding Hood (4/10)
Scream 4 (5/10)
Beastly (2/10)
Atrocious (0/10)
Attack The Block (5/10)

       Eyes Wide: anime round-up
Yu Gi Oh: Bonds Beyond Time
Shikabane: Corpse Princess
Black Butler – series 1, part 1
Sekirei – complete series
High School Of The Dead
Nabari no Ou – series 1, part 2

IZ 235

The latest Interzone (#235, July-August), from TTA Press, has my 'Laser Fodder' column of DVD & blu-ray reviews. Here's list of this issue's coverage, with ratings:

The Fifth Element (8/10)
Hereafter (4/10)
Eyeborgs (5/10)
The Twilight Zone - season 2 (6/10)
Detective Dee And The Mystery Of The Phantom Flame (8/10)
Don't Look Now (8/10)
Never Let Me Go (5/10)
Tenebrae (6/10)
Assassin Rising (3/10)
Caprica - TV series (4/10)
Drive Angry (7/10)
The Pack (5/10)
Robot Chicken - Star Wars episode III (0/10)
The Adjustment Bureau (6/10)
The Funhouse (6/10)
Unknown (6/10)

    Anime Nations
Eden Of The East - The Movie I: King Of Eden (3/10)
Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance (6/10)
Akira (8/10)
Musashi – The Dream Of The Last Samurai (6/10)

    Deadweight Horrors: Round-Up
Prey (2/10)
The Rite (3/10)
Hunger (1/10)
Siren (2/10)
World Of The Dead: Zombie Diaries 2 (0/10)
The Resident (4/10) 

This issue of Interzone also includes my review of Michio Kaku's book, Physics Of The Future.
TTA Press have announced a new offer of lifetime subsciptions for Interzone and sister magazine Black Static. 

Blood Spec

The latest Black Static (#23, June-July) includes my Blood Spectrum column of DVD & blu-ray reviews, with 30 releases (including a couple or three boxsets) covered in 9,000 words over 11 pages. Here's the line-up, with my rating scores...

Chatroom (5/10)
Confessions (5/10)
Enter The Void (5/10)
Time Traveller (5/10)
Salon Kitty (4/10)
Black Swan (8/10)
Spartacus: Blood And Sand - season 1 (4/10)
Trackman (4/10)
The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (6/10)
Fertile Ground (4/10)
Red Canyon (2/10)
Stanley Kubrick: Visionary Filmmaker Collection (7/10)
Agnosia (6/10)
Fading Of The Cries (2/10)
5150 Elm’s Way (3/10)
Psalm 21 (6/10)
Seconds Apart (5/10)
Zombie Undead (1/10)
Cross (2/10)
Cross Of Iron (6/10)
Demons Rising (0/10)
Red Hill (2/10)
Apocalypse Now (10/10)
Eaters: Rise Of The Dead (1/10)
Needle (2/10)
Trail Of The Screaming Forehead (0/10)
Witchfinder General (7/10)
Savage Streets (3/10)
Neighbour (3/10)
The New York Ripper (2/10)

IZ# 234

The latest Interzone (#234, May-June 2011) has my Laser Fodder column of DVD & blu-ray reviews.

This month's line-up (here with ratings) includes:

      Made in Spain: Fantastic Factory
Beyond Re-Animator (7/10)
Faust: Love Of The Damned (5/10)
Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt (6/10)
Arachnid (4/10)

Universal Squadrons (3/10)
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows – part one (4/10)
The Twilight Zone - season one (6/10)
Woochi – The Demon Slayer (7/10)
Blood Reich: Bloodrayne 3 (3/10)
The Devil’s Tomb (2/10)
Dark And Stormy Night (1/10)
I Saw The Devil (5/10)
Pandemic (4/10)
Sweatshop (2/10)
The Frankenstein Experiment (4/10)
The Walking Dead (4/10)

BS #22

Black Static #22 received today from TTA Press.

This issue includes my regular 'Blood Spectrum' column of DVD & blu-ray reviews. Here's a list of month's line-up (coverage of 24 releases on 10 pages), but due to budget deficit cutbacks affecting numbering of ratings, there are no 8, 9 or 10 scores this month. The figures won't run to anything that high!

And Soon The Darkness - remake (3/10)
Bathory: Countess Of Blood (4/10)
Death Notice - Ikigami (3/10)
Marchlands (1/10)
Phenomena (7/10)
Saw: The Final Chapter (6/10)
The Beyond (7/10)
Savage (5/10)
Age Of The Dragons (3/10)
Husk(2/10)
Island Of Death (1/10)
Primevil (3/10)
Demon Empire (6/10)
Wake Wood (3/10)
Blooded (1/10)
Caged (3/10)
The Last Lovecraft (1/10)
Prowl (2/10)
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest (7/10)
Monsters (7/10)
Rubber (6/10)
Tekken (3/10)
Chain Letter (2/10)
The Door (7/10)

New printer

Following 'death' of my old Epson 660, its replacement is a HP DeskJet 1050 all-in-one (printer, scanner, copier) J410 series.

Setup is relatively easy, although I cannot figure out why the USB cable for connection to a desktop PC must be bought separately.   

Build quality seems a bit plasticky, and the machine is somewhat noisier than I had expected, but the very fast A4 printing speed is impressive, and it spits out address labels in a second.

Full-colour A5 printing is fine, but I haven't tried it with any photo-paper yet. 

Interzone

The latest issue of Interzone magazine (TTA Press) includes my 'Laser Fodder' column of DVD & blu-ray reviews.

Here's the line-up of reviewed titles, plus ratings:

Interzone #233

Psych: 9 (4/10)
Alien vs. Ninja (5/10)
Operation: Endgame (5/10)
Paradox Soldiers (3/10)
Vamp (3/10)
Paranormal Activity 2 (0/10)
Primal (6/10)
The Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra (0/10)
Altitude (4/10)
The Universe: 7 Wonders Of The Solar System (2/10)
Skyline (6/10)
The Gathering (5/10)
The Man Who Fell To Earth (8/10)
Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls Of Ga’Hoole (2/10)
Ink (4/10)

Epson660

My venerably ancient Epson Stylus 660 printer has finally died... 

Habitually creaking and whirring, partly fossilised, always prone to ‘communication errors’, it’s now announced its own demise with a full set of flashing red warning lights, and a complete failure to even attempt cleaning its own thoroughly clogged print-heads.

Bit sad to see it go, after all this time, because this was the last piece of equipment still in use from my very first desktop PC system; bought when this century was still new and shiny, and everything was beige.

BS #21

My 'Blood Spectrum' DVD & blu-ray column in Black Static #21 (TTA Press) has 22 reviews on nine pages:

Shogun Assassin (6/10)
Piranha 3D (5/10)
A Serbian Film (9/10)
Mirrors 2 (3/10)
Outcast (5/10)
Amer (7/10)
I Spit On Your Grave - remake (5/10)
Buried (8/10)
Let Me In (5/10)
We Are What We Are (3/10)

        Damage Control: Round-up
Ghosts Of War (4/10)
Choose (2/10)
Open House (3/10)
Sinbad And The Minotaur (1/10)
In Their Sleep (3/10)
Burke & Hare - remake (5/10)
Gnaw (0/10)
Bedevilled (3/10)
Terror Trap (1/10)
Damned By Dawn (3/10)
Someone’s Knocking At The Door (4/10)
The Unforgiving (1/10)

Best foreign film

Told in flashbacks, Oscar-winning Argentinean crime drama The Secret In Their Eyes concerns a retired judge, Espósito, writing a novel about an actual rape and murder case - one that he believed sent the wrong culprits to prison, two men who were framed by a corrupt authority for the sake of legal expediency. Haunted by the outcome of this ‘Morales case’, Espósito re-opens investigations to expose the injustice, and convict the real killer. 

Director Juan José Campanella maintains a fluidity of pacing in the unfolding narrative that most clearly resembles a superior TV movie, but its genre elements are too few for any serious consideration as horror or thriller, despite fine performances from the main cast in an intriguing mystery storyline, and some romantic complications of the protagonist’s life, which broaden the film’s appeal.

Lasered

My ‘Laser Fodder’ column of DVD and blu-ray reviews, for Interzone #232 (TTA Press), includes coverage of:

Metropolis (5/10)

The Avengers – series 6 (7/10)

Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie (1/10)

K-20: The Legend Of The Black Mask (6/10)

The Hole (5/10)

Mindflesh (8/10)

Dead Space: Aftermath (2/10)

The Shock Labyrinth (7/10)

Oh, and I got my name on the cover, at last.

Yay for me!

   

Bone to pick

Sight & Sound (February 2011 issue) has a piece on Coens’ remake of True Grit. The article’s titled ‘No country for young girls’ and that phrase neatly sums up the gritty hard-worn coming-of-age story in Winter’s Bone.

It’s a slice of realistic Americana, one that’s pitched about midway between the wholesome family TV entertainment of The Waltons or Little House On The Prairie, and the despicably unfriendly, with no-redeeming-features amorality, character-fest of The Devil’s Rejects. Which is to say that, its overall tone is halfway to nowhere in particular, and manages to take up 100 minutes of your viewing time without offering much drama beyond terse Missouri inhospitality and outright Ozark hostility (due to criminal activities involving making drugs, not moonshine), and stubborn teenage rebellion (yet with a ‘noble’ cause - that of saving a rundown family homestead from profiteers).

There’s a formidable-looking redneck bloke, some kind of community patriarch type, who’s named ‘Thump’. At that point… the bleak solemnity and dreary mood was just so OTT that oh, how I larfed! But, to be honest, I found this ‘people picture’ was mostly rather dull.