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[personal profile] alexsarll
The headlines of late may be a seemingly endless parade of semi-comprehensible financial doom, so I've been very glad of the Somali pirate debacle. Yes, I know that real modern pirates are not nice men (for that matter, nor were the old school, whatever the twinkle in Errol Flynn or Johnny Depp's eye might try to tell you otherwise). But it's still hard not to love a story in which pirates nick 33 tanks, and then manage to shoot three of their own number during a debate over tactics.
"He said radicals on board wanted to keep the shipment of 33 T-72 tanks and other weapons in Somalia while the moderates wanted "to back-pedal on the ransom issue"."
Moderate pirates!

Marie Antoinette is a spectacularly boring film. And I use those words precisely - it is at once spectacular, and boring. I've watched both of Sofia Coppola's previous films in a sort of doze, but this time I was watching with friends so that wouldn't fly. Nonetheless I was lulled into enough of a dream state that, as when you're in a cruise ship which is also your school, the distinction between Kirsten Dunst and Scarlett Johansson ceased to have any meaning to me and I started talking about the former's album of Tom Waits covers. The sets, the costumes are so lavish, made and dressed and shot with such obvious love...and yet the film conspires to make you stop looking at them, or at least half-close your eyes, with its majestic tedium.
The new series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, on the other hand, was clearly made for about thruppence and yet it's full of thrills. And that's not even as strained a link as you might think, because the astronomer in the first two episodes has previously played Robespierre opposite Richard E Grant's Scarlet Pimpernel, so there. But really, this was cheap; there's some model work with the radio telescope which would have been at home on Thunderbirds, and yet it's still a better Sontaran story than the last series of Doctor Who managed. The only problem being - they do rather let this show sneak out, don't they? I know it's on in the teatime slot for children, but they must know that a fair amount of adult Doctor Who fans want to watch it, so why is it not brought to our attention a little more?

Am increasingly losing patience with the mice. Given I have now learned that 'put a donk on it' is a viable solution to all problems, I am wondering how best to put a donk on a mouse, and even (though I hesitate to ask) how exactly that would help.

Date: 2008-10-01 06:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tintintin.livejournal.com
Well, you'd at least be able to hear the mice coming.

Date: 2008-10-01 12:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com
That's kind of the problem, though; if they were *totally* silent they wouldn't be keeping me awake at night, which bugs me far more than the odd sign that they've been at the pasta again or whatever.

iPlayer pimping

Date: 2008-10-01 12:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] diamond-geyser.livejournal.com
Sarah Jane available to view online till October 20th...

Re: iPlayer pimping

Date: 2008-10-01 12:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com
Well, I know, hence my being able to catch it - which is more than could be said at the time of the first series, the first episode of which I've still yet to see. But still, more notice would have been nice. A trailer or two, an ad, a spurious sidebar on the Entertainment page of their news site...
From: [identity profile] diamond-geyser.livejournal.com
This is the first one, isn't it?

And yes, I am mostly agreeing with you; I only know there are new episodes up there because you've just pointed me towards them. I now almost exclusively use iPlayer to watch CBBC, favouring both The Owl and Space Pirates, and still hadn't noticed SJA newness.
From: [identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com
That was the pilot/special, which I did see; it was the first episode of the series proper which snuck past me.

Re: ah, iPlayer pimping fails to be helpful

Date: 2008-10-01 01:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] diamond-geyser.livejournal.com
The DVD set is fast impending also, a purchase far more likely to be countenanced than a Torchwood boxset. (These may be written by monkeys, at times - "oh no, evil nuns possessed by a Gorgon! who can stop them? Emma Thompson's mum!" - but the cast are superb...)

Re: ah, iPlayer pimping fails to be helpful

Date: 2008-10-01 01:24 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com
I loved the gorgon episode - it was the Laserquest one which gave me pause.

Re: iPlayer pimping falls by the wayside

Date: 2008-10-01 02:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] diamond-geyser.livejournal.com
I really liked the ideas behind it. (But then I like anything that takes something we all think we know and twists it just a little.) It suffers for the constraints of the programme length it is afforded, so everything must be set up and resolves in 28 minutes, meaning players are moved like chess-pieces so this character has to be out of the house in order for this to happen which puts her there. I don't want to be smarter than a TV programme, even/espheshly a CTV one.

N.B. I would be happy with a Phyllida Law spin-off archaeologist season, with occasional Indy cross-overs (possibly justifying the aliens in film 4 which I haven't seen but understand is ghastly).

Oh, and I may have blocked the Laserquest episode. Lucky Mr Smith can isolate weather patterns though, eh?

Re: iPlayer pimping falls by the wayside

Date: 2008-10-01 05:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] barrysarll.livejournal.com
Although given they're all two-parters, each story works out at pretty much the same length as a nu-Who story, but with a cliffhanger.

People are way too harsh on Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Date: 2008-10-02 07:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] alexdecampi.livejournal.com
Haha, I love "Put a donk in it".

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