An Incidental Week - Part The Last

The Long Slog
The casting, the filming, that’s the interesting bit; the part where you get anecdotes and funny/scary/other adjective stories. The editing - well, that’s where the film comes together but it’s a long slow slog and not exactly a wealth of interesting tidbits. It also took around three years to complete - when you’re making a low-to-no budget film, you still have to work to pay the bills. So work and social lives took precedence and the editing was done when the editing could be done.

As with any film, you’re always thinking about the stuff you never did - like making a full fake music video for the student band or filming all of the extra scenes cut from the script to use as trailers. Still, you do what you can with the time and resources you have at the time.

The Final Product
Until… well, see for yourselves:-

Yes, that is the whole film available in its entirety for you to watch on The YouTube (as the kids all call it). 

If you want a direction with me and Rich wittering all over the top of the actors doing their speaky bits (or Director's Commentary, as they're known) then you can have a squint at this version:-

And if you want some behind the scenes stuff and just general mucking about, there's these two vids:-

Basically, we put all of this out on DVD at a point when people where moving away from DVD and just wanting stuff digitally/online. It’s all in the timing. (But if you would like a copy on DVD, I’ve still got one or two or one hundred and fifty left so just get in touch - they make excellent coasters.)

So there you have it. A whistlestop tour of the story of the film ending with the film itself. What more can you ask for from a free blog on the internet? Well, yes, alright, apart from dirty videos. Yeesh, no pleasing some people.

An Incidental Week - Part The Fourth

Leaving The Country
Making a feature length film on pretty much zero budget with nine days shooting in a foreign location was never going to be the easiest thing to try and do. Our first snag cropped a few days before leaving when, due to one of the cast members having a non-EU passport, we needed to get a visa to allow them access to Bulgaria. I’ll just highlight the phrase “a few days before” there. This was squeaky bum time. Our only option here was to queue up at the embassy with them and hope that we could get the visa pushed through there and then. After many hours of queueing and some fraught moments, the first hurdle was overcome - we had a Bulgarian visa and could take all of our cast. Huzzah! It was somewhere around here that I, a non-tea or coffee drinker, started to develop a small ProPlus habit. Fulla caffeine-y goodness...

Bulgarian Adventure
Filming in another country was quite the experience. The hostel we were staying in was quite small meaning that we effectively took over the whole thing. The staff were lovely - giving us lifts into town with our equipment and allowing us (after the best of a day searching for the perfect cafe location) to turn the balcony area into a location by the end of the shoot! It was pretty grueling for Rich and me. We were putting in 20 hour days - getting up, doing the filming, reviewing the footage, writing promotional blogs and prepping scripts and shot lists for the next day. The ProPlus popping habit definitely hit an upswing around about here…

Fun (and hard work) though it was, there were the occasional terrifying moments too. Like the point where one of the team had an asthma attack so bad that she needed to be hospitalised. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Bulgarian hospital appeared to be of the semi-abandoned type routinely found in horror films in which hapless tourists are ruthlessly stalked and murdered. (Fortunately, after an adrenaline shot or two and a day's recuperation back at the hostel, she was back to her usual self.)

Or the moment where, whilst standing with a somewhat hungover actor covered in fake blood outside a castle at 5 a.m., we were approached by the police. A moment of apprehension was swiftly defused by the officer asking if we were with the film and then preceding to give us both a history of said castle and the Ottoman Empire in general. One of the stranger moments in my life.

Or the coach-based departure from Veliko Tarnovo which resulted in us not only being broken down on a road on the edge of a sheer cliff-face at about 3 a.m. but also then leading to us dashing to get taxis across town to the airport in Sofia, only to be held to ransom by the taxi drivers for more money than we even had left on us (we did get our luggage back and make the flight...just).

All of which makes it sound like quite the stressful experience (and it was at times) but it’s hard to convey the sense of community and camaraderie between a small group locked together doing long days ending in hysteria over the smallest things (and, come on, let's be honest, the happy fun times make for a much less interesting post...)

Home Again
After a few more days filming once we'd arrived back in the UK, we were wrapped, done, in the can, finito. Filming was complete and now the editing process could begin…

To Be Continued

An Incidental Week - Part The Third

The People
How do you go about getting together cast and crew for a film? Well, you bombard a load of websites for potential cast members and then wade through the hundreds of CVs that come pouring back in. We couldn’t afford to offer payment for our actors but knew that we would as a minimum have to cover cover any food and travel expenses (if you are hoping to entice people to do something for you for free, that's the least you can do) Fortunately that didn’t deter people from auditioning. Good job too as we ended up with a cracking core cast from the whole thing - Jay Croot, Hayley Williams, Nicholas Obileye and Andrew Cleaver. We also managed to put together a selection of great supporting actors too - not least Marq English, Damian Morter and Mark Beardsmore. Throw in most of our friends and family to fill out the cameos (as well as an appearance from each of us behind the scenes*) and you’ve got yourself a full cast!

Top tip - make sure you get people who really can act for your main cast. It'll make a big difference. Supporting / background roles can be nicely filled out by your mates and family (as they very much were on this) but make sure you've got people that can carry it in the meaty roles.

Networking at a local film festival (courtesy of Mr English) also provided us with our splendid one woman production department, Hannah Wiggins-Thirkill and a bit more internet networkery furnished us with our equally marvellous one woman make up department, Faye Hammond. Armed with Rich’s brother Rob, brother-in-law Andy, my brother Andy, and longtime friend Liz, we had our core production crew**

The Place
London locations were basically begged and borrowed from anyone and everyone, including but not limited to the local pub and kebab shop next to my flat in Acton, a church hall in Teddington (which I would in later years purely by coincidence end up living near to), a design company in London and my mum and dad’s garden. The last location was utilised to portray a fancy awards ceremony party using the marquee that we’d put up the previous week for my 30th birthday party. (Always recycle and reuse - cost effective sets can be found anywhere!)

Rehearsals took place at a set of rooms in Greenwich and were combined with costume trials for our main characters too. When you’re on a no budget shoot, you have to combine as many things as possible. Much hilarity ensued during the trying on of Andrew’s Robin outfit (for one of the flashback scenes in the film) due to some… let's say, disturbingly revealing tightness.

We were going a bit more ambitious for the main shoot, though. Yes, much like a 1970s big screen adaptation of a beloved British sitcom, we were aiming for a foreign location to give it a bit of glamour and a fresh look (plus weirdly, being based in expensive old London town, it would be cheaper to fly out, house and feed the cast and crew for 9 days than just pay their travel and food expenses***). Rich’s brother-in-law had been scouting abroad for a potential holiday home and had found somewhere where it would be cheap to film - the ancient medieval capital city of Bulgaria, Veliko Tarnovo. The local tourist office were keen (even volunteering to have the police close roads for us!) and, with flights and hostel accommodation booked (all expense spared on a no-budget shoot), we were on our way to a Bulgarian adventure.

The best laid plans and all that…


To Be Continued


* Fun and egotistical fact - the very last shot of the film is of my angry face. Hey, when you make the film, you get to be in it too. Them’s the rules.

** We were also ably assisted by many others throughout the course of the film - there were too many to mention here but they all got a credit on the film! Credit where credit is due…

*** Prices accurate as of Easter 2006.

An Incidental Week - Part The Second

The Words
Writers tend to roll their eyes wearily when people ask, “Where do you get your ideas from?” I mean, I get it, it’s the most cliched question you can ask anyone who puts pen to paper / finger to keyboard. Personally, I think the writer’s weary response is because either a) the answer would be mundane and demystifying; b) more often than not, it’s a just a jumble of things bumbling around together in the brain that just sort of collide into something that makes you go, "hmmm" or even "oh"; or c) sometimes you don’t really know. In this case, it’s a little of a) and a little of b). 

At the time that we were sitting down and staring at a blank piece of paper until our foreheads bled (the Douglas Adams method of writing), I had recently been a guest at the wedding of a friend. No unusual in itself, I know, but you know how at weddings there’s usually one person who’s the drunkest person there? Well, at this wedding, around eight people were the drunkest people there (myself naturally included). In the weeks that followed, a group of us that were there spent quite a bit of time (in the pub, naturally) piecing together what had happened throughout that day and evening. The constantly surprising thing was that, once we thought we’d got it all worked out, someone would suddenly drop another little bombshell into the mix that the rest of us didn't know about / had carefully erased through the application of alcohol.

Rich and I liked this as a concept:- following a group of characters piecing together a night out which would also give us a choppy non-linear structure to play around with. At that time, I’d also had a ten year reunion with some university friends*. We both felt that, rather than a wedding, a reunion would be a good hook. It meant that we could also show the reality of their lives since they last met contrasted with the way they were presenting themselves to each other. It also meant we could keep the cast relatively small (hey, when you're funding a film yourself, logistics becomes part of the creative process!).

So we had our concept. The two of us then spent a good amount of time fleshing out our core group of characters, going through their backgrounds both at and since university as well as mapping out the key events that would take place on the fateful night. Having detailed all of that, I went away and pulled together the first draft which was then sent to Rich for redrafting. We went back and forth like that (as well as doing a few read throughs with some other core members of the film-making team - my little brother and good friend Liz) until we were both satisfied we had something we could work with (as good as you’ll get with any script, that is - there’s always more revising that can be done).

Script finished, we canvassed some friends for options for the title of the film - after all, there’s only so long you can keep calling something Untitled Reunion Script. Some initial names included “Who Needs Enemies?” and “Present Tense” but, after some voting and feedback, “Incidental Weekend” emerged as the clear winner.

We had a script. We had a title. All we needed now were cast, crew, equipment and locations….

To Be Continued




* Makes it sound like we hadn’t seen each since university - we had, for the most part, seen each other loads over the years but it was a good excuse for a big booze up. And who doesn’t love a good excuse for a big booze up? Exactly.

An Incidental Week - Part The First

In The Beginning...
As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a filmmaker. Alright, that’s not strictly true. As far as I can remember, I always wanted to be a writer. OK, again, maybe that’s not completely right as, as far as back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a tyrannosaurus rex but let’s stick with the ones that are achievable and I’ve actually done something about* (and I think we’ve run the whole Goodfellas quote thing into the ground now so let’s move on from that).

It turns out that, in this here blog, I’ve never really told the story in any real detail of how my mate and I** went off and made a feature film. Sure, I posted some promotional blogs at the time but there were a number of items that were never revealed to the general public at the time. Now, at last, the full story can be told...

It was during my formative teenage years that the filmmaking bug really hit home. In the mid-90s, people like Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith and Robert Rodriguez were emerging - this new wave of filmmakers who had just gone out and done it all for themselves (Kevin Smith having famously made Clerks on his credit card while Robert Rodriguez volunteered for medical research to rasie the $7,000 for El Mariachi). For any of you on the younger side who may not really remember much before 2000 (or those of you who have gradually pickled themselves to the point where they live in a sort of endless now with the past forever locked away out of reach - either/or), the idea of going out and making your own films was still pretty out there. Actual film stock was (and still is) expensive and the advent of the digital camera was still many years away so the idea of getting the cash and people together to make your own film was pretty daunting.

My filmmaking buddy, Rich, and I thought, “If they can do it, why can’t we?” which is, let's face it, the thought process that should lead to all interesting endeavours. Over the coming post-university years, we spent a goodly amount of time with like-minded friends making short films (if you want to know more about that, you can go right back to the early days of this blog and read them there posts) but, as our twenties dwindled and the thirties approached, we felt that we had to make the leap and go for broke with a full-on, full length feature film.

It was a time of opportunity, of things coming together in a nicely synchronous fashion - I had been working for a company for a number of years and, whilst working as project support on a major programme of cutbacks which I was able to write myself into, was being offered a pretty good redundancy package. This, combined with another pot of cash put in by Rich as a result of his flat sale, was giving us the budget that we needed. Here was our chance - destiny was pushing us in the small of the back and it was time for us to leap. 

All we needed was a script, some actors, a small crew, equipment and locations. You know, all pretty simple stuff, really. How hard could that be?

To Be Continued


*Not including stomping around with my arms drawn up to my chest and my fingers poking out like tiny T-Rex arms. Because I definitely didn’t do that. Nope.

** And a substantial number of other people too, of course, all of whom will be sufficiently bogged up.

Forgotten Star Wars Of The Past - The Star Wars Holiday Special

Alright, people, there’s no turning back now. Those of you who are aware what this is will be gritting your teeth in anticipation. Those of you who don’t… well, you’re in for an education…

The Star Wars Holiday Special
Way back in 1978, riding off the success of the original film (then simply called “Star Wars” with no extra episode titling at all), two things collided to cause a televisual spectacle of extremely ill-advised proportions. The first thing was that CBS wanted to make a Star Wars themed TV special to captialise on the success of the film. The second was that george Lucas had been mulling the idea of making a Star Wars film that was just about Wookiees. That these two elements should collide would ultimately spell doom for a Star Wars hungry TV watching public.

I’ll say now that I am sure that no set out to make something that was anything less than purely entertaining. On paper, it’s entirely possible that these elements could have succeeded. It’s pretty sad therefore that they don;t and they don’t really push it into “so bad, it’s good” territory. They do land it in “so bad, you almost have to watch at least some of it to believe that it’s actually true” but that’s a very different type of TV. In fact, this may be one of the only examples of that kind of television. George Lucas himself has completely washed his hands and says that he wishes that he could wash his hands of it but, thanks to the wonders of VHS recording technology which has now been combined with the splendour of the internet, a quick Google search will reveal it in all its…. let’s say “glory”.

Here are some of the elements which are genuinely contained within its 90 minute running time (two hours if you watch the versions which haven’t had the adverts edited out and feature a repeated tease from a newscaster promising an item on “fighting the frizzies at 11”):-

• After the opening scene, ten minutes where the only dialogue is Wookiees grunting
• Chewbacca’s family who are called Malla (his wife), Itchy (his father) and Lumpy (his son)
• A musical item from Jefferson Starship
• Harvey Korman playing a deeply unfunny aline chef in a comedy sketch
• Bea Arthur singing a song to the Mos Eisley Cantina Band music
• The first appearance of Boba Fett in a cartoon that Chewbacca’s son watches
• Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia singing a Life Day song to the tune of the main Star Wars theme tune

It’s a frankly bizarre piece of television and is, with maybe the exception of the Boba Fett cartoon, rather more of a chore than a pleasure to watch. It’s something of an endurance test rather than a viewing experience.  I mean, it spends ten minutes on Wookiees talking to each other with no subtitles. It’s very weird. 

Look, you could watch it if you want - I’ll link to it down there - but don’t say I haven’t sufficiently warned you. It’s not even one particularly for die-hard fans. Anyway, this concludes our little look at the lees well-regarded corners of the Star Wars universe. What other way could you end than with Bea Arthur singing a song to the Cantina Band music? Exactly. 

Forgotten Star Wars Of The Past - Droids & Ewoks

Animated Star Wars has been running mostly continuously in one form or another for around fifteen years now. The 2D and CGI Clone Wars cartoons, Rebels, Resistance, Forces Of Destiny, various Lego-themed specials and series - if you want animated Star Wars, the choice is yours. Not so in the post-Return Of The Jedi Star Wars hinterlands of the 1980s. If you wanted Star Wars cartoons, you had to choices - Droids and Ewoks.

Droids
Or to give it its full title:- Star Wars: Droids – The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO. Yep, the name says it all and that’s exactly what you’re getting. Set some time before A New Hope, this series follows the adventures of the two droids as they pass from owner to owner in the years before they ended up jumping into an escape pod headed for Tattooine. As he has done in pretty much anything Star Wars related that involves the character, Anthony Daniels once again reprised his role as C-3PO. The show only ran for thirteen episodes and a one-off special back in 1985.

Ewoks
Lasting slightly longer with two seasons clocking in at 26 episodes, the series follows the adventures of Wicket as played by Warwick Davies in Return Of The Jedi in the run up to that film. In fact, the series concludes with the Empire discovering Endor as a lead-in to them using it as their base of operations for the new Death Star. Unlike in the film, the Ewoks speak English for the most part with the occasional Ewokian outburst (“Beechawawa!”).

So why are these forgotten? They’ve been oddly brushed aside - a DVD release over ten years contained edited compilations of a selection of episodes but, in these days where you can find pretty everything released on DVD/BluRay, they’ve never been released in their entirety. They’re a bit of an oddity these days; something that doesn’t really fit in with the tone and style of any of the incarnations of current Star Wars (not jokey enough to match Lego Star Wars, not serious enough to match Clone Wars/Rebels/Resistance) .

In terms of desire for them to be forgotten, nothing will match our next choice. Something that George Lucas himself wishes that the entire world would forget. Unfortunately, because the internet, we just don’t wanna let them...

Forgotten Star Wars Of The Past - The Ewok Movies

Before we go any further down this particular rabbit hole, let’s do a little bit of clarifying for anyone predisposed towards a bit of pedantry (any of us geeky types, basically). Given its nature as an all-conquering film, TV, book, toy and soon-to-be theme park franchise, nothing in the world of Star Wars is ever truly forgotten. There are some corners of that galaxy far, far away that are not brought out for an airing very often. This little sequence of mind ramblings will lift the lid and blow off the cobwebs on a few of those areas. Let’s start with some films that seemed to be on heavy rotation when I was a child but have swiftly been brushed aside.

The Ewok Movies - Caravan Of Courage / Battle For Endor

When it got to the end of term at my primary school, we would be ushered into the assembly hall in order to experience a treat - said treat being that we all got to sit down and watch a film (and, quite frankly, being sat down to watch a film is still a treat in my book*). We watched a few films but the ones that stick in my memory the most were sitting down to watch Caravan Of Courage and Battle For Endor. There’s a lot of backlash these days (and presumably at the time) against the Ewoks. “Oh, right, so the saviours of the Rebellion and ones who help crush the Empire were a small collection of teddy bears.” Let me straight to the point here - I was seven years old when Return Of The Jedi came out and I absolutely loved the Ewoks. 

Not just that, I loved Star Wars so in 1984 with no new Star Wars on the horizon given that the storyline was over**, the prospect of anything Star Wars related making it to the big screen was immensely exciting. Hence Caravan Of Courage (the UK title for the limited cinema release of The Ewok Adventure) was right in my wheelhouse.

At the time, I liked it. Is it any good, though? They set out to achieve what they’re aiming for which are kid-friendly adventure films in the Star Wars universe. The acting is somewhat on the creaky side and the production values are TV rather than feature film but high end TV for the 80s. They’re unlikely to satisfy anyone looking for a fresh Star Wars fix nowadays but, to a pre-teen Star Wars fan in the mid-80s, they were all we going to get. Film-wise anyway, that is. The 80s would also provide more Star Wars action in TV form for its legions of child fans….



* Have I mentioned that I quite like films? No? Funny, I thought it might have come up by now…

** From the point of view of 1984 me anyway - his head would explode if he could see how many films there are now.

WatchSeeLookView - The Young Offenders

Netflix recommendations are sometimes a strange thing. At times, it’s pretty clear why the algorithm has suggested that you might like something based upon previous viewing. At other times, you inexplicably get suggested The Gilmore Girls*. Sometimes, though, it gets it just right. Case in point…

The Young Offenders (2016)
Dir. Peter Foott / Dur. 85 mins

I realise that I’m probably late to the party on this one given that it turns out that this was made into a BBC series last year (which is definitely on my “To Watch” list now) but this is the original Irish film that kicked it all off. The film follows the misadventures of teenage layabouts Conor and Jock who embark upon a get-rich-quick scheme on a pair of stolen bikes.

The Good:- It’s a film that’s based around the chemistry between its two main leads, played by Alex Murphy (Conor) and Chris Walley (Jock) - fortunately, the interplay between the pair of them is great. For me, the best scenes involved just the two of them having a conversation with each other which perfectly highlight the small scale dreams of small town teenagers. It’s a good combination of writing and directing alongside pitch perfect performances from Murphy and Walley. It’s got a few genuine laugh out loud moments too in amongst the general amusement. The supporting cast are good as well but the film is largely carried by the two main leads. There are some darker moments in amongst the comedy too, particularly around Jock’s relationship with his abusive father.

The Bad:- Not bad as such but it’s ultimately a feelgood comedy so you do know that everything will turn out alright for them in the end. Also, the relationship with the abusive father feels a little bit undercooked and the resolution in voiceover feels like a little bit of a brush off for it. These are minor complaints though.

The Verdict:- I went in with no real expectations and I thoroughly enjoyed this. I feel a little bit like there has somewhat of a dearth of decent comedy films in recent years so it’s good to find a thoroughly enjoyable gem of a film out there (especially in the hit-and-miss quality wilds of the streaming world). Plus any film that sets its climactic scene to Where’s Me Jumper? By The Sultans Of Ping has got to be worth a watch. Time to watch the series...



* Look, I’m not bashing. I’ve never seen it and I wouldn't imagine it’s my sort of thing. I just don’t get what I might have watched that says that’s the next thing on the list for me.

WatchSeeLookView - Captain Marvel

Disclaimer:- I’ll do my best not to be too spoilery but if you haven’t seen it and want your brain to remain unsullied by any potential spoilings then might be best to come back to this one when you have.

Alright then. I like comics. I like comic book films. This much we have established. Therefore it wasn’t much of a surprise that this one was going to get a review, was it? No, you’re right, it wasn’t. Let’s crack on then.

Captain Marvel (2019)
Dir. Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck / Dur. 124 min

Twenty films in and we get Marvel’s first film fronted by a female superhero. Naturally enough (and as Captain marvel is a character well known to comics fans but not so to the wider public), it’s an origin story but Marvel has cranked out enough origins now that they’re able to play around with the form a bit more here. Vers, a warrior for the Kree race, has no real memory of her life beyond the last six years but is getting flashes of a life lived on the planet Earth as a test pilot. What could it mean?

The Good:- Brie Larson has great screen presence as Captain Marvel and definitely has the chops to be one of the lead players in the Marvel Universe once we get past Endgame. The decision to have both her as the character and us as the audience discover her backstory as the film unfolds works well and stops the film from feeling like just another origin story. Ben Mendelsohn certainly seems to be enjoying his role (to say much more about it ventures into spoiler territory) and gets some of the best laughs in the film. The effects work done to de-age Samuel L Jackson (and Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson) is frankly incredible -  I could not stop staring at it (and I watched the film at the biggest screen in the country so it’s impressive that it stood up to that level of scrutiny). It’s also the most we’ve had of Samuel L Jackson in a Marvel film and he seems to be having the time of his life. For me personally, the 90s soundtrack was also a big nostalgia fest for me given that it was chock full of tracks that I was largely listening to on mixtapes on my Walkman as I went to and from university. Finally, it’s also about time that a Marvel film prominently featured a cat in a starring role.

The Bad:- For those not familiar with the comics, the opening may seem a little expositiony as it sets up who the Kree, the Skrulls and the Supreme Intelligence are but it does swiftly move on from there. Also, for all it’s playing around with form, it is yet another superhero origin story - on the plus side, it's an enjoyable one.

The Verdict:- Twenty one films in and Marvel really do know what they’re doing when it comes to crafting a high-quality crowd-pleasing blockbuster. This is an enjoyable sci-fi actioner with a few surprises for long-time comics fans. It also nicely ties into the beginnings of the Marvel Cinematic Universe while setting the stage for Endgame. It you like Marvel films then you’ll like this. (One last note - this is the first main Marvel film released since Stan Lee’s death and I got a little misty eyed at the logo composed of all of his cameo appearances and his cameo as himself*.)


* Alright, mild spoiler time - don’t read this bit if you don’t want to know about Stan’s cameo. If Stan Lee is reading the script to Mallrats in which he appears as himself and talks about the comic characters he created (and their secret identities), how does everyone in the Marvel Cinematic Universe not already know who all these heroes are? OK, fine, yes, I am over-thinking this. (And I still liked it and it still made me misty eyed when he and Captain Marvel share a smile.)

WatchSeeLookView - Documentaries 3

Let’s round off the factual film fun with a couple more examples today. Enough preamble, on with the fun.

Future Shock (2014)
Dir. Paul Goodwin / Dur. 110 min.

I’ve already established that I’m a lifelong 2000AD fan so it’ll come as no surprise that I was completely fascinated by this documentary on the history of the “Galaxy’s Greatest Comic”. It’s refreshingly candid with original editor and creator Pat Mills and former editor David Bishop in particular being unafraid to air their unexpurgated views (particularly on each other) and gives as fascinating insight into the trials and tribulations faced by the British comics industry (which is pretty much now just 2000AD) over the years. I also realised that I had no idea what most of the creators and artists I’d grown up reading looked/sounded like so it was a revelation to see them in person. If you’ve got any interest in comics then this is a documentary for you.

Andre The Giant (2018)
Dir. Jason Hehir / Dur. 85 min

The Brother was a big fan of wrestling back in the days when it was WWF and the World Wildlife Fund hadn’t sued them yet and I ended up watching and enjoying quite a bit of it too. Andre The Giant was no longer a part of the world by the time we were watching but his legacy was still part of that world although I mostly remember him as Fezzig in The Princess Bride (a part that William Goldman wrote with Andre The Giant in mind, according to Rob Reiner). This film served not only as overview of the somewhat tragic life of the 7’4” Andre Rousimoff but also as a chronicle of the early days of the WWE. It paints a portrait of a man who found a life he loved through a medical condition which would ultimately lead to his death. I think that thing that I noticed during the doc was the high mortality rate amongst a number of the early starts of the league (Rowdy Roddy Piper, Macho Man Randy Savage…) - it’s not a lifestyle that goes easy on the heart. 

There you go. That’ll do for some factual stuff for now. I reckon that little lot’ll keep you going. Off into the realms of fiction again next time...

WatchSeeLookView - Documentaries 2

Still keeping on with the documentary vibe today. Given that the last entry had  a number one in the title, that’s probably not too much of a giveaway. Just the one today so a slightly longer review on this one.

Free Solo (2018)
Dir. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin / Dur. 96 mins

One the Venn diagram of blog posts, this overlaps with my reviews of Oscar season films given that this was the winner of the Best Documentary Feature at this year’s ceremony. This is without a doubt one of the most stress-inducing documentaries I have ever watched. No, scratch that, it’s one of the most stress-inducing films in general that I’ve ever seen. I genuinely had sweaty palms towards the end of the film and there were moments were, much like one of the crew members shown in the film, I found it hard to watch.

The film follows free climber (i.e. without any safety ropes) Alex Honnold as he attempts the first free solo climb of the 3,000 foot high El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. Honnold has lead a relatively solitary life allowing for a laser-like focus on his climbing which has driven him to success. That focus is put in jeopardy by both the sheer act of filming the attempt and the fact that he has for the first time found love.

The meta element of the film makers commenting on the fact that just the act of them filming could be the thing that causes Alex to plunge to his death adds another layer of jeopardy to something that already looks freakishly dangerous (although as Alex himself explains, he only attempts free climbs when he feels prepared enough to know the terrain, often having tested out with ropes first). 

The complex relationship element is another interesting dynamic - Alex is by his own admission someone who struggles with emotional connections and Sanni, his partner, met him through him giving him a talk about his life but struggles with the life-or-death reality of it which, at times, doesn’t have room for her.

It’s a well-crafted tale with a ridiculously tense final segment as Alex makes his free solo attempt. I went in knowing nothing about Alex and whether he succeeded or not and I recommend doing the same (although if you are of a nervous disposition, the tension level could well push you over the edge*). A deserved Oscar win for this win - definitely a film worth catching.


* Hey, come on, I made it pretty much all the way to the end before breaking out a weak pun. I’m having that one and you can’t stop me.

WatchSeeLookView - Documentaries 1

When it comes to my viewing habits, I go through phases of watching certain types of film or TV before reaching my fill and switching it up again. I’ve been watching a few documentaries recently so I’m going to tell you about the documentaries that I’ve been watching as that’s pretty much how this blog thingummy works. It’s a relatively straightforward system.

Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018)
Dir. Morgan Neville / Dur. 93 mins

We didn't get Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood here in the UK but I’d been aware of it in a very dim sense due to the sheer volume of pop culture references to it that occur in other US TV shows and films. Having watched this documentary, it’s a real shame that we didn't as Fred Rogers put me in my mind of one of my idols, Jim Henson. They seemed to share a similar ethos - a drive to entertain but not in a way that pandered or was afraid to shy away from difficult questions, a way of looking at the world that was uniquely their own and a quiet resolve to get the job done that inspired a lot of loyalty in those they worked. It’s a fascinating portrait of a man who forged his own path and entertained millions in the process.

Three Identical Strangers (2018)
Dir. Tim Wardle / Dur. 96 mins

This is one of those films that it’s tricky to say too much about for fear of ruining the film - it really is best watched going in with as little information as possible to allow the story to unfold. In order to say something, though, I will say that the film builds a compelling story around three men, how their lives become interlinked and the reasons behind their situation. It’s absolutely worth watching and, if possible, go into it as cold as possible. 

Filmworker
Dir. Tony Zierra / Dur. 94 mins

The film follows Leon Vitali, an up-and-coming actor of the ‘60s and ‘70s who, after a starring role in Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, is asked by Kubrick to get involved behind the scenes. Vitali gives up his acting life to do so and ultimately becomes Kubrick’s right hand man for the remainder of Kubrick’s life and beyond. It’s manages to be both unusual and sad - unusual at how one man decides to give himself over to helping facilitate what he perceives as another man’s greatness and sad because he never really seems to get the recognition for the impact he had. If you’re interested in what went on behind the scenes in the world of a famously obsessive and controlling director then this is one to watch.

Alright then, that’ll do you for now. Off you pop, more guff next time.

Barely Remembered 80s Kids Shows

As I’ve already established that lazy nostalgia is both easy and appealing, let’s take another trip back to the 80s when things were bigger (recording devices, hair, etc.) and kids shows were surprisingly subversive. Maybe it was a result of comedy starting to branch out into newer areas as a result of the alternative comedy boom of the early 80s (as proved by the success of shows such as The Young Ones and The Comic Strip Presents..) but there were some shows broadcast in a kids slot that were effectively geared towards entertaining the adults too (in a similar vein to more recent shows like Horrible Histories). Let’s take a look at a few of these forgotten gems, shall we?

Gilbert’s Fridge
A green snotty nosed alien from the planet Drill, Gilbert first appeared on the Saturday morning kids TV show Get Fresh. Created by the Spitting Image team and voiced with complete carte blanche by impressionist and improviser Phil Cornwell, Gilbert was utterly unlike anything else on kids TV at the time and proved popular enough to be spun off into his own show. Gilbert’s Fridge had a theme tune by The Pogues and surreal running sketches including WW2 spoof How Far To Hitchin?. In a move that presaged Dennis Pennis and Ali G by some years, Gilbert would also conduct surreal interviews with celebrities, peppered with nonsensical non-sequiturs. Cornwell was pretty much left to do whatever he liked as long as didn't swear or say anything overtly rude; this was rare enough within a lot of TV comedy at the time, let alone a kids show. You can find episodes on YouTube so give it a look if you like your comedy weird.

Round The Bend
Effectively pitched as a live action comic book for kids, it was basically a TV version of the rude kids comic Oink! (itself largely a kid-friendly version of Viz)*. Hosted by puppets Doc Croc and his rat pals (once again created by the Spitting Image puppeteering team), it featured animated segments (provided in part by Aardman Animations) that parodied a lot of famous kids TV of the time with segments such as Thunderpants, Botman and Wee-man and the Masters of the Looniverse as well as stop-motion B-movie spoofs like Attack of the Atomic Banana and The Son of, The Return of, The Revenge of.... The False Teeth From Beyond The Stars (featuring Roger Prentice, the Apprentice Dentist). It was good silly fun and can also be found on the YouTubes if you fancy a watch.

Come back again next time when I might be highlighting some other obscure things that only me and about four other people liked back in the 80s (or not)...

* Oink! was another comic that I obsessively collected at the time. Characters included Burp the Smelly Alien, Ugly Face, Harry The Head, Billy’s Brain, Pete And His Pimple and Rubbish Man featuring work by artists like Tony Husband and Lew Stringer and containing some early written submissions by Charlie Brooker of Black Mirror fame. The first issue came with a free flexi-disc single called “Poo Poo Tinkle Tinkle Parp Parp Oink Tiddly Widdly Widdly Widdly Plop”. Well, it made me chuckle at any rate.

In Which I Save Horror Film Making

Hollywood certainly loves to try and turn a recognisable brand or fad into what it hopes will be the next big film franchise. They tried it with board games of all things (you all remember Battleship, right? Right? Ahem…) and the most recent one to get the big screen treatment was the inevitable horror film Escape Room (tagline - “You’re invited to play for your life”; effort level feels a little low on that one, to be honest). I’d quite like a slice of that easy Hollywood franchise pie so here are my pitches for current city fads that could be nicely converted into horror films.*

Speakeasy
Tagline:- “Come inside… if you can.”
The Pitch:- A malevolent entity chases a group of photogenic twenty-somethings as they desperately try to follow knowingly oblique instructions to get into London’s newest and most secretive hot bar (which is located inside in a former sewage treatment plant).
The Twist:- Escaping the entity’s fiendish clutches, the surviving bloodied but still photogenic couple finally make it to the speakeasy only to discover that they’ve been dead the whole time.

Board Game Cafe
Tagline:- “Suitable for two to four victims.”
The Pitch:- A group of surprisingly photogenic nerdy twenty-somethings find themselves trapped in a board game cafe, forced to play games to survive. The losers are bumped off in hilariously game themed ways.
The Twist:- The surviving bloodied but still photogenic couple pick a co-operative board game and beat the system only to discover that they’ve been dead the whole time.

Bottomless Brunch
Tagline:- “It. Never. Ends.”
The Pitch:- A group of photogenic twenty-somethings gradually succumb to alcohol poisoning in a bleak and brutal indictment of Britain’s drinking culture.
The Twist:- Auden, the surviving photogenic twenty-something, checks himself into rehab only to discover that he’s always been there, the whole thing was a dream and his friends have been dead the whole time.

There you go, Hollywood. Please make out my massive development cheque to “That Baldy Fella” and send any further royalties to my offshore Cayman Islands account. Next time, I’ll solve science fiction film making for you (wait til you see the twist endings I’ve got planned…)

* No, I haven’t actually seen Escape Room but being sneerily dismissive of things you haven’t seen is the third most popular thing about the internet; the other two being funny cat videos and porn, of course.

Everyone’s Favourite Fascist Bully Boy

In terms of long-running comic book characters, he’s probably unique. I certainly can't think of any openly fascistic characters that have survived and continued to thrive after four decades in the spotlight. He has though and Judge Joseph Dredd continues to maintain a level of popularity which seems counter-intuitive given his political outlook.

The Comic Book
Like many comic book characters, Dredd’s origins are a group effort combining inputs from original 2000AD editor Pat Mills, longtime Dredd scribe John Wagner and artists Carlos Ezquerra (sadly no longer with us) and Mick McMahon. He’s got a textbook set of elements designed to appeal to the young comic reader - he’s an uncompromising and unstoppable action hero living in a futuristic setting (the mammoth Mega City One) populated by threats both alien and supernatural. The main difference here? Dredd is a street judge in a society that shuns democracy and enforces an authoritarian rule of law allowing him to be on the spot judge, jury and executioner. While the strip itself is clearly satirical (in many different ways - it’s often a commentary on the current times we live in), his popularity is somehow divorced from that. As a reader, you root for Dredd to win even though his methods and judgements are extreme. In theory, he should be the villain, the representative of a tyrannical regime that a plucky hero should be struggling against, but over 2100 appearances in 2000AD and more than 400 in his own comic would seem to indicate otherwise.
An aspect of Dredd’s world that is uncommon in serialised comics is that very year that passes in our world represents a year in Dredd’s too. Given that 2000AD has been running since 1977, this makes the character nearly 70! 
Another unusual aspect is that, other than his chin, his full face has never been revealed. In his first appearance, a panel containing a reveal of his face has a big “CENSORED” sticker plastered over it and that is something that has been maintained for the last 42 years. 

The Films
Unsurprisingly, a popular character like this has been snapped up for the big screen more than once. The first attempt was a misstep in very many ways but is understandable when you consider the sort of character that Hollywood was trying to fit into the more traditional action hero mould. Hence you had a hideously miscast Sylvester Stallone taking of his helmet to proclaim “I am der luh”* in a plot about a family power struggle which is not what Judge Dredd is all about (on the plus side, the realisation of Dredd villains The Angel Gang was absolutely spot on).
Second time around and with a much smaller budget, they got it right (as far as I’m concerned). The small scale Die-Hard-in-the-future plot worked for introducing the character and his world and Karl Urban seemed to have a real handle on what made the character tick, being confident enough in his performance to ensure that he remained hidden beneath a helmet for the entire film. Of course, nobody really watched it so the franchise was once again stalled.

The Future
Dredd continues to judge his way through Mega City One in both 2000AD and Judge Dredd The Megazine while a new proposed TV series (possibly starring Karl Urban again if all pans out) is currently in the works. Looks like the adventures of everyone’s favourite grim-faced, stony-chinned authoritarian are set to continue for some time to come.

(Yes, largely this whole article was an excuse to post my favourite Dredd panel above. Good, though, isn't it?)

* Translation for those who don't speak Stallone:- "I am the law."

Hidden Treasures - Soap

In honour of the late Katherine Helmond, whose death was announced last week and is primarily being linked with her role on Who’s The Boss, let’s take a look at her finest hour (in my opinion, of course).

Soap (1977-1981)
Now given that I was a small person when this was first one, I didn't watch it at the time. I watched it when ITV repeated it late at night in the early 90s (meaning that I had to set the video for it and that, due to its shifting nature in the schedules, I often ended up missing the occasional episode). Some 14 years later, I was still drawn in by its mixture of comedy and soap opera so it had obviously stood the test of time.

Why Is It Any Good? A traditional (on the surface) American sitcom that serves as a spoof of the ludicrousness of soap opera storylines while still managing to create compelling enough characters to keep you invested in said characters. It’s also fairly subversive for mainstream US TV of the late 70s featuring an openly gay character prominently from the opening episode and dealing with issues of class, religion and race. 
It’s the cast however that really elevate this with particular mentions going to Katherine Helmond as Jessica Tate (who often seems to be living in her own slightly divergent reality from everyone else), Richard Mulligan as Burt Campbell (whose uniquely twitchy acting style I find endlessly fascinating) and Robert Guillaume as Benson DuBois (so good they span him off into his own series which lasted for three more seasons than Soap did!). Storylines also weren’t afraid to diverge into the absurd including alien abduction and demonic possession, one of which would turn up as a genuine plotline in Dynasty almost a decade later… 
Sadly, conservative pressure on the network ultimately proved too great and it was cancelled after four seasons, leaving the fate of several characters hanging in the balance with a cliffhanger ending. Creator Susan Harris (who wrote or co-wrote the majority of episodes) would later go on to find success again with The Golden Girls.

Where Can I Find It? You can still get the complete set on DVD but only the first season seems to be able to buy through Prime (in the UK at least). Yes, it ends on a cliffhanger but you’ll be denying yourself some quality comedy entertainment if you let that be a reason to put you off viewing.