Five years ago this was edgy - now it's just tragic

[alexsarll]

Finally saw Four Lions and...well, in terms of British comedy hitting the big screen, at least it's not Magicians, but it's not Chris Morris at his best, is it? It's not even Chris Morris doing his best War on Terror work. I noticed at the time that none of the reviewers seemed aware of Smokehammer (now, alas, hosting only a tedious cut-up Dubya speech) or the excellent newspaper pull-out 'Six Months That Changed A Year'; some even said explicitly that Morris was 'finally' making his 'first' comment on the terror &c situation. Lazy hacks. So yeah, it's...alright. Obviously I laughed, but I didn't find myself transfixed like I did by The Day Today, Brass Eye, Jam or Nathan Barley. And as so often, I watched the deleted scenes and wondered why they'd been left out. One explains why Waj is even part of the team in the first place, which given his consistent idiocy in the final cut had been puzzling me; another exposes the brilliantly self-contradictory apologist logic by which the Twin Towers attack was supposedly an inside job, but Osama is still a revolutionary hero.

That was definitely a full moon weekend just gone, one of the nasty, tetchy ones where nothing quite works out. Not even the music; Lily Rae fled the stage after a couple of songs because of some sound problem only she could hear, Jonny Cola & the A Grades seem to have dropped their two best songs permanently, and The Melting Ice Caps' band incarnation looks like it's also here to stay. And not that they're a bad band by any means, but there are plenty of good bands, whereas what David was doing at the solo shows was unique. Mr Solo was in band format too, and even the Indelicates' great-as-ever set was slightly marred when, doing the handclaps from 'ATF' with another member of the backing choir from the recording, we were getting evils from other audience members. They don't know. They weren't there.

If anyone is desperate to see my thoughts on the Doctor and Jo Grant's guest appearances in The Sarah Jane Adventures, I already did most of it in the comments over on Diggerdydum. But in summary, isn't it brilliant/mental/a comment on the DVD era that a show for the under 10s can make a big deal out of using a character not seen since 1973, and get how she would have ended up so very right? Typically for Russell T Davies, half the fanservice made no sense whatsoever and nor did the plot, but he got some great emotional moments in there. And because that just wasn't quite enough Doctor for one week, I also watched Tom Baker in Warriors' Gate, one of only two Doctor Who stories I have ever given up on*. But that was many years ago, before I'd seen enough European films to cope with what is essentially Last Year at Marienbad, except starring furries, who in one of the time-zones have been enslaved by Dad's Army. All executed, because this was 1981, with much the same visual effects you'd find on a TotP performance of the same vintage. Obviously.

*The other is The Chase, the sixties story where it first became apparent how lazily and boringly overused the Daleks were going to be. That one doesn't get a second chance, at least not without company and alcohol.

Comments

[puzzled-anwen.livejournal.com]

I liked Four Lions (though I still haven't seen the end) but if I hadn't known it was Chris Morris, I wouldn't have guessed.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the only bits which really demonstrate anything like his usual linguistic inventiveness are in Urdu and, I suspect, the work of someone else (much like The Thick of It has a Swearing Consultant).

[puzzled-anwen.livejournal.com]

Chica accidentally made Graham Linehan feel bad when she mentioned how awful that chap out of Hollyoaks/the Wide Open Space video's accent was in that episode of the IT Crowd where Jen pretends she can speak Italian - apparently they didn't think to e.g. ask the person who translated the Italian bit of the script to listen to him (presumably because he's got Italian family).

[keith-totp.livejournal.com]

I spent most of Four Lions wondering who the man who wasn't Alexi Sayle was. It says something that I've still not bothered to find out.

After the Oxford Dons I think a lot of people should be given leeway on italian accents.

Also. "They don't know. They weren't there." but they WILL know, and then they will realise how ahead of the curve we are, and regret those looks.

Not that I noticed any looks. I was quite drunk.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I thought they went with a sans handclap take in the end?

And your Italian accent was excellent. It's just the Italians who do theirs wrong.

[keith-totp.livejournal.com]

The version I've got has handclaps. Mind you, it's from july, so who knows.

They best leave them in if they know what's good for 'em!

Handclaps = HIT!

[puzzled-anwen.livejournal.com]

I assumed you were closely following the script - bad Italian was specified!

[keith-totp.livejournal.com]

good point. I'd forgotten I was closely following the script.

I definitely was though.

[puzzled-anwen.livejournal.com]

That's just how good you are at following direction!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, now that could work. But again, I'd still want the odd proper solo show. The vulnerability of it works really well with those songs.

[ohdearyme.livejournal.com]

In unrelated news! I asked Spurrier about the end of Contract last night so we finally have an answer. It was indeed all zeros, the implication being that he'd never really be able to escape. Or something.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I see! Did you get the impression he'd been asked that a lot?