Walking the Walk

Hello Everyone :-)

I can’t remember if I’ve even mentioned it before but I’m a big wuss when it comes to Horror.
Have you ever seen the film ‘The Strangers’? It’s a 2008 film about 3 people in masks that terrorise a couple in a house out in the sticks in somewhere in America. I think it got mixed reviews, most people I’ve asked think it was a bit of a ‘meh’ film. Well I went to the pictures to see that film (against my better judgement) and no word of a lie I had to have someone come in the house with me, turn on all the lights, check all the cupboards and thing to make sure there was no one there and even then I couldn’t sleep for weeks, thus is the extent of my intolerance for any kind of horror.

So you may be surprised when I tell you that I’ve been really excited about the arrival of a show to channel 5 called ‘The Walking Dead’, a show all about Zombies!
Zombies are not given special dispensation due to the fact they’re not real and murders in masks unfortunately are, I’m s**t scared of both of them in equal measure but I was really really excited about this because I’d heard good things about it from people whose opinion I trust. Also it stars the velvet voiced Andrew Lincoln who I’ve loved since the days of ‘Teachers’ so I threw a cushion to the wind and decided to watch it.

The first episode was a little bit slow to begin with but I think that’s the case with a lot of programmes of this sort and more to the point it needs a bit of set up. I was a bit concerned about Andrew Lincoln’s accent, he plays Rick Grimes a Police Officer from Kentucky and I was a bit worried that Lincoln adopting a southern drawl might distract me from what was going on. Thankfully I think he pulled it off and it didn’t hamper my enjoyment of the show.

The story starts off not too dissimilar to that of ’28 Days Later’ to which this series is rather obviously compared (note the difference that the things in ‘28 Days later’ are rage infected people not actual Zombies who have died and come back as re-animated corpses… yes I’m aware that I’d a tad pedantic).
So Rick wakes up in hospital after being in a coma for an unspecified length of time to find the world has gone to hell in a handcart and Zombies are lurching around all over the shop with no sign of any other life. The Hospital scenes where he’s walking around trying to find someone properly creeped me out, I don’t know what it was, maybe it’s because I work in a hospital, I don’t know, but I was on edge from that point on.

Rick heads out of the hospital, grabs a bike and goes home to find his wife and child have seemingly up and left. Rick then meets some fellow survivors who explain the unfortunate events that have been happening and the following day they head off to the Police station, tool up, go their separate ways and head out to kick some re-animated ass.

I won’t explain anymore of the plot because you may not have seen it and it wouldn’t be fair. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed what I saw on Sunday night.  

One negative is something a friend of mine picked up on and wrote on Facebook. It’s not until you’re watching something as good as ‘The Walking Dead’ that you realise how intrusive and irritating adverts are.
Ordinarily if you’re watching something that’s a bit of fluff, like ‘The Only way is Essex’ (aka TOWIE), adverts aren’t an issue, in fact they act as a handy break in which you can get yourself another Tea/Coffee/Lambrini (the latter is the tipple of choice for the average star of TOWIE) and as there isn’t any suspense, breaks in the action (I use that word in the loosest sense when referring to TOWIE) are more tolerable, TOWIE doesn’t have anyone stuck to their seats in anticipation as to whether Arg and Lydia will break up or not.
Things like ‘The Walking Dead’ however, rely on a continuing sense of tension that builds throughout the episode, this kind of tension was used to brilliant effect in last years ‘Sherlock’. Thankfully ‘The Walking Dead’ is so good it managed to keep my attention despite the interruptions but I can’t help but think if it’d been shown on the BBC how much scarier it might have been.

Also running time is seriously altered with these adverts. I mean the first episode is an hour and a half with adverts (I’ve been told the subsequent episodes aren’t as long) and I really think it made the show seem a little bit slow. I’ve no doubt that if you took out the adverts you’d have an hour (seriously it must have been half an hours worth of adverts if not more) of excellent television that keeps you thoroughly engaged but the constant breaks made it drag.

All in all I think the first episode was great television hampered by advertisements. I’m thinking about series linking the whole thing and watching it the day after it airs just so I can whiz the adverts. Regardless of that I’m looking forward to seeing episode 2 on whatever day I choose to watch it.

‘The Walking Dead’ is on Sunday at 10.00 on Channel 5.

And now…

Reasons to be Cheerful
1. It’s almost the start of Festival season!!! YAY! My favourite time of year :-) I’m not lucky enough to be going to any festivals this year (save for the Godiva festival at the Coventry memorial park which is free) but the BBC usually have some good coverage of the main stages at Glastonbury, T in the Park and Reading & Leeds so I shall be erecting my tent in the front room and re-living my sunny (and not so sunny) festival days gone by.

2. Thor is out soon! The official release date is the 29^th April but I think there are some advanced screenings. I’m excited because I love superhero films and Chris Hemsworth who plays Thor is bang tidy…

3.  Friendly Fires’ new album is out soon!!!! The first single from the Album ‘Pala’ is ‘Live those days Tonight’ and it’s a 5 minute carnival. If that single is anything to go by their album is going to be the soundtrack to my summer!

And that’s it for today!

Goodbye till next time :-)
x x x x x x x x x x x

Rachel's Monday Cinema

Hello Everyone :-)

I know I said this was going to be Rachel’s Sunday Cinema but on Saturday when I said I was going to see ‘Source Code’ my Mum said she wanted to go and then my brother said he wanted to go and then my Dad said he wasn’t fussed but we weren’t leaving him in the house on his own. So yesterday we went to the pictures en famille.

I’ve been looking forward to this film for months, when I found out it was happening I was so excited. I’m a huge fan of Duncan Jones’s directorial debut ‘Moon’ which he co-wrote with Nathan Parker. I can’t tell you how much I love ‘Moon’. It’s simple and streamlined without being dumb, emotive without being sentimental and has the most wonderful aesthetic; it looks like it cost five times what it actually did. So you understand my excitement when I found out about ‘Source Code’.

‘Source Code’ follows Captain Colter Stevens, an army helicopter pilot who wakes up on a train headed for Chicago with no memory of how he got there. His reflection is of a different man and his wallet says his name is Sean Fentress. Sitting across from him is a woman called Christina who knows him as Fentress. Before he can understand what is happening, a bomb goes off and destroys the train.

Stevens then awakens inside a chamber, where he is greeted via a computer screen by Captain Colleen Goodwin, an Air Force officer who tells Stevens that he is inside the Source Code, a program that allows him to take over someone's body in the last eight minutes of their life. Stevens' mission is to locate the bomb on the train, discover who put it there and report back to Goodwin before the bomber can detonate a second bomb in downtown Chicago.

I loved it.

Some say Jake Gyllenhaal was an interesting bit of casting and some have said Sam Rockwell could have done a better job. I think that’s doing a disservice to Gyllenhaal’s performance. I think he was great, some of the scenes of him in the Source Code capsule I found made for uncomfortable viewing, I really felt for him and the relationships that develop between him and Christina and him and Goodwin are really nicely done.

Christina is played by Michelle Monaghan who I’ve only ever seen in one thing before (the utterly predictable ‘Eagle Eye’ with the no where near as attractive as Jake Gyllenhaal, charisma vacuum that is Shia LaBeouf) and she never really made a lasting impression on me in that. However in this she shines. She gives Christina real warmth and gets you on side straight away. It’s a weird role because Christina doesn’t really have a lot to say even though she’s pivotal to the story but I think what Monaghan’s been given she works with really well.

There’s also some good turns from Jeffery Wright (aka Peoples) and Vera Farmiga. I’d never seen Vera Farmiga in anything before but I really liked her in this. A vision of restraint struggling with the morals of the ‘Source Code’.

If you’re looking for scientific accuracy, don’t bother. ‘Source Code’ is terribly vague about the science behind the central idea because quite frankly it’s made up. I don't have an issue with that because there’s nothing wrong with making stuff up. That’s what a great deal of films are right? Making stuff up in order to entertain? I love science but I don’t let that interfere with my enjoyment of the film. In the words of good Doctor Kermode ‘It’s only a Movie’.

Considering every train scene starts in exactly the same way the film never feels like it’s repeating itself and the slow reveal is really nice. It’s nice to see something that gives you little titbits and lets you try and work out what’s going on instead of shoving it down your throat. There are some nice nods to ‘Moon’ and although thematically they’re different, both films create the same kind of atmosphere. Obviously ‘Source Code’ had more money to play with but Jones never over complicates the films visuals. It would be so easy to give this to some one like Michael ‘The Anti-Christ’ Bay who would just go crazy with explosions and miss the heart that Duncan Jones has given the film. It has a lovely balance between telling the story and engaging the audience in the action.

Like I said I loved it. I was also really pleased that my family liked it as they’ve never seen ‘Moon’ and I was a bit worried they wouldn;t be able to get their heads around it. There’s a certain amount of brainpower involved in watching this film but as ‘Inception’ proved that’s not a bad thing. Hopefully this foray into the mainstream will cement Duncan Jones as a great Director and not as 'Son of David Bowie'.

Go and see it and pick up a copy of 'Moon' if you haven't already seen it.

Goodbye till next time :-)

x x x x x x x x x