BS 36

Black Static #36 (Sept. - Oct. 2013) arrived, yesterday. This issue has my latest rants and raves about horror on blu-ray and DVD. Here's the line-up, with ratings, for my 'Blood Spectrum' column:

The Car (7/10)
The Returned (6/10)
Escape (6/10)
Possession (9/10)
Dark Skies (5/10)
The Last Will And Testament Of Rosalind Leigh (4/10)
Evil Dead - remake (5/10) 
The Moth Diaries (5/10)
Dead Sushi (5/10)
The Fall Of The House Of Usher (6/10) 

     Debris Fields: round-up
Apocalypse Z (1/10) 
A Field In England (0/10)
Little Deaths (2/10)
The Seasoning House (3/10)
Deranged (2/10)
Into The Dark (2/10) 

     Afternoon update... 
Interzone #248 just arrived. This issue features my 'Laser Fodder' column of blu-ray/ DVD reviews.
The sci-fi and fantasy coverage includes movies and TV, and here's my ratings:

Defiance - season 1 (4/10)
The Host (3/10) 
Blancanieves (0/10)
Pi (4/10) 
Oblivion (3/10)
Space Battleship Yamato (5/10) 
Olympus Has Fallen (6/10)
The Four (7/10)

Helicopter blues

Model helicopters in blue... I collect them because I'm very keen on helicopters in movies and TV (see my unique website RotaryAction.com), and blue is my favourite colour. To me, these models are cooler than a freezer full of ice-cream. This is the most expensive one I've bought so far: Blue Thunder, a diecast model based upon the modified Aerospatiale SA-341 Gazelle seen in John Badham's techno-thriller Blue Thunder, and its follow-up TV series.

Blue Thunder model by Organic (Japan).

The model is 1:32 scale and produced in Japan by Organic's dream machine project. Blue Thunder is certainly the most iconic helicopter in cinema, especially with its sci-fi dimension as a stealthy urban surveillance platform with limited capabilities as a gunship. The model's geeky qualities include rotors that turn, a swivelling and tilting front-cannon, and a removable cockpit canopy to view the cabin's interior detailing. There's a pilot figure, but no back-seat observer. Of course, it's an exquisite scale model, not a toy, and so many of the plastic parts are very fragile. The model comes with a long black plinth, but it can also be displayed without any stand, on its own landing skids. In my cabinet it shares pride of place with the 1:48 model of Airwolf (made by SGM-08).

The model Gazelle that I have is only a small 1:70 scale but, as it's a French helicopter I wanted this vintage red one for contrast, and because it was actually made in France by Majorette.     

I don't own one of the smaller and older 'Blue Thunder' collectables (made by Ertl, I think), but I do have a Matchbox 'Mission Helicopter' in a blue finish (they produced several different colours), which is quite obviously copied from Blue Thunder.

Collectors of diecast stuff might also like the Hot Wheels toy 'Sky Knife' - clearly inspired by the 

likes of Blue Thunder and other helicopter names such as Airwolf.

Heatwave

British summertime. My low rate of activity today was enlivened by delivery of the latest TTA Press mags.

Black Static #35 (July-Aug.) includes my regular 'Blood Spectrum' column of DVD & blu-ray reviews. This issue's line-up:

Curandero: Dawn Of The Demon (4/10)
In Their Skin (3/10)
Texas Chainsaw (5/10)
Apartment 1303 (4/10)
Beautiful Creatures (5/10)
Mama (6/10)
Warm Bodies (4/10)
Maniac (6/10)
Stoker (7/10)

    RetroMania
Black Sabbath (4/10)
The Brood (8/10)
Kuroneko (6/10)
The Legend Of Hell House (7/10)
The Man Who Haunted Himself (8/10)
Motel Hell (5/10)
Spider Baby (6/10)

    Tedium Scene: Round-up
The Incident (2/10)
Kill For Me (2/10)
Death Game (3/10)
Static (3/10)   

Also received BS sister mag, Interzone #247 (July-Aug.), featuring my usual 'Laser Fodder' reviews, as follows:

Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn (4/10)
Cloud Atlas (8/10)
Oz The Great And Powerful (5/10)
Falling Skies - season 2 (4/10)
Robot & Frank (7/10)

    Retronautics
Scream And Scream Again (6/10)
Devil Girl From Mars (5/10)
The Invisible Man (7/10)
Quest For Fire (8/10)  

This issue's book section has my review of graphic novel, Sláine: The Grail War by Pat Mills, Nick Percival, and Steve Tappin. If there were rating for book reviews, I'd give this 2000 AD reprint collection a 6/10 score.

Vehicle 19

A lone American flies into South Africa. After collecting a rented car at the airport, he finds a mobile phone and a handgun in the vehicle, and there’s also a bound and gagged woman hidden in the boot. Vehicle 19 is a criminal conspiracy thriller filmed entirely from inside a car (or, actually, often from around the car looking in). Either way, the car is very much at the centre of this undeniably preposterous drama, and the novelty approach soon wears out its limited welcome. 

Unlike Cujo (1983), but just like Five Across The Eyes (2006), this movie fails because of the artificial, wholly pointless, situational restrictions placed upon storytelling. It is nothing more than another gimmick flick and, despite its high quality production values; it quite obviously lacks any of the intensity of Rodrigo Cortés’ Buried (2010), another similarly constricted nightmare about an American abroad. While somewhat witless protagonist, Michael, performed rather weakly by Paul Walker (Timeline, John Dahl’s Joy Ride, and a mainstay of the Fast & Furious franchise), attempts to address his personal faults and correct all of the (presumably numerous) mistakes of his past, so our fugitive’s getaway vehicle drives through a car wash, and then visits a backstreet garage for a re-spray; mirroring the angst ridden hero’s final efforts to make a fresh start. (Gosh! That’s clever symbolism, eh?) 

Ultimately, this is a dismal effort and it drags on for twice the length required to adequately tell a middling tale. So, it is very easy to slip from wondering about what may happen next, to simply not caring at all. And, of course, such a reckless pursuit of redemption as this can only end in a tragedy during the inevitable confrontation with corrupt local cops. Yawn.

Miserables

Les Misérables

More than just a typically stilted musical in a period setting, and certainly better than Tim Burton’s black comedy horror Sweeney Todd (which also featured the always wonderful Helena Bonham Carter), this is a grandly cinematic adventure, a saga of surviving the hardships of poverty and finding a heart-warming redemption in coldly unsympathetic society of 19th century France. Russell Crowe is a sturdy presence as Javert, even when he’s not on-screen, and there is a great supporting performance from the talented Anne Hathaway as Fantine, easily vaulting far higher (like Catwoman meets Wolverine!), from the emotional depths of her blameless downfall than the lesser scales attained by Hugh Jackman’s weaker voice and acting ability as Valjean. Amanda Seyfried’s typical spectacularly-elfin glamour is subdued for her pivotal role as Cosette as “the pain goes on and on” for broken lives and failures in this longwinded retelling of an already familiar story of tragedy and misery. But, at the end of the day, I must admit that Billie August’s 1998 version, played - much less hysterically - as straightforward historical crime drama, remains a superior entertainment. The blu-ray is out now, and it looks and sounds great.