Do You See
11 February 2012
Last year only one fiction film really engaged with the issues around Occupy Wall Street. Set in New York, the 99%, the disenfranchised took on a fictional banker to strike a blow for the little man, the trodden on, the people who did follow the rules. And what a banker – an obscene penthouse occupying, master of the universe with an hugely bad taste swimming pool, Steve McQueen’s car from Bullitt in his apartment and has the leering air of Hawkeye from M*A*S*H. Cos its Alan Alda. This recession revenge film plays with the class struggle by subtly giving us flawed middle management heroes – those who organise the revolution here are the squeezed middle, not even those at the bottom of the ladder. Except, well, Eddie Murphy phones in a lousy eighties performance and did I mention the whole thing is directed by Brett Ratner.
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Pete Baran in Do You See • 2 Comments
9 February 2012
Batman. Bloke who dresses up as a bat. Mainly black and grey, occasional yellow accents on the suit. Superman, big bold blue red and yellow. Spider-Man, blue and red. Even Wonder Woman sticks with the red, white, blue and a bit of gold. I’m not sure if there is some sort of costume guidance when superheroes manifest their powers, but there is clearly some guidance that came out of last years crop of superhero films. Thor, whilst silly, stuck resolutely with the metallics and reds. Captain America, as you might imagine, rocked the red, white and blue. So what is it with Green? Why did the two green superheroes fail last year. more »
Pete Baran in Do You See • No Comments
1 February 2012
OK, this one is sort of a cheat, as with the exception of a festival screening, the following film was not released in UK cinemas in 2011. But it did go straight to DVD and waved at me on LoveFilm to be interested in it. I like Japanese films and have been disappointed in the decline in distribution of them of late, and whilst this was a remake, it was a remake of one of my favourite Japanese films, which was a really interesting anime. Not only that, it was a live action remake of a film which in animated form is funny, silly and really rather touching in places. Despite having a slightly mangled title, I saw this new version and thought, that’s a story which could actually work well in live action – why not give it a go. And then, when watching all two hours of the new version of it, I discovered why not. more »
Pete Baran in Do You See • No Comments
30 January 2012
I like Owen Wilson, I really do. Its probably out of deference to liking his general charm that How Do You Know was pushed down to eleven, so I could be sure that whilst Owen Wilson has already turned up on this list twice, he doesn’t make the top ten. As far as it goes I like Albert Brooks too – Lost In America is one of my favourite films, James L. Brooks is alright- Broadcast News still holds up today (edit due to abject idiocy, see comments for details). Add to that a real appreciation of Reese Witherspoon and this film should not be in this list. The main problem is that the film posits a question, and so to answer said question Reese Witherspoon does pretty much this face all the way through the film. Its her characters “not sure” face.
With this cast, and James L.Books directing, number eleven promises an intelligent, revisit of romcom staples with an attractive, likeable cast. Does this plot description (thanks IMDB) look interesting?
“After being cut from the USA softball team and feeling a bit past her prime, Lisa finds herself evaluating her life and in the middle of a love triangle, as a corporate guy in crisis competes with her current, baseball-playing beau.” more »
Pete Baran in Do You See • 10 Comments
29 January 2012
So negativity is the new black, and as ever it is easier to cream the crap from the good, than list the best of the year. I saw 120 films in the cinema last year and 154 on DVD, of which it turns out about 131 were officially released last year. But I was a little more discerning, if such figures allow one to be discerning. Previously I was desperate to see the good in everything, and so would even subject myself to a Jennifer Aniston romcom to see if something decent came out of it. It rarely did. This is a disclaimer to say that it is quite possible that the films I am about to list are actually not the worst of 2011 at all, rather the worst of those I saw. So do not quake in your boots Paranormal Activity 3, The Smurfs or even the Horrid Henry movie. Russell Brand I am sure will be pleased to hear I missed Arthur, and whilst Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds have no reason to rest on their laurels – I didn’t see the piss-in-a-fountain body swap comedy the Change Up. Despite LOVING body-swap comedies.
So why thirteen? Well thematically there are a few films which crop up together, which means there will be ten entries – with some nice joint entries to try to decide exactly why the colour Green is so bad for films. more »
Pete Baran in Do You See • 2 Comments
7 December 2011
When I was little, what I really liked about Christmas was being able to stay up late, and sometimes, if I was lucky catch an episode of Tales Of The Unexpected or one of those weird portmanteau horror movies. I caught Dr Terror’s House Of Horrors as a ten year old and loved its creaky short story nastiness. So much like MR James’s Christmas tales have a strange link with Christmas, so do portmanteau horrors, and it happens to be the form today’s Christmas Special takes.
Which village has a graveyard like this?
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Pete Baran in Do You See • No Comments
6 December 2011
The best bit about Christmas specials is the sugar-coated MORAL at the end of the story where the authority figures remind the children that the holidays are about Giving and Sharing and Not Hitting Your Brother.
But what if your brother was a superhero from another dimension? And he had to fight this?
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katstevens in Do You See • 2 Comments
Christmas specials aren’t just the province of television. Every year all sorts of media throw Santa coated tat at us left, right and centre. All it takes is to go back to the Victorian age and there is Dickens knocking out a Christmas Carol, and other Christmas stories that no-one ever uses to theme their popular sketch show into some sort of loose limbed narrative arc.
Sketch shows are tough for Christmas specials because, well, there is nothing special about a set of sketches. You could do it so that all of the characters are doing something Christmassy, but that is still a bit scattershot. Luckily all sketch shows have at least one Scroogelike character for us to laugh at, and have other characters take them through their life in a Ghost of past, present and future way.
So who had a Ghost Of Christmas Past like this?
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Pete Baran in Do You See • No Comments
4 December 2011
Here on FT we love puns. We don’t mean to but we do. And behind today’s hastily arranged advent calendar window is probably the greatest pun to grace a TV Christmas Special ever. Even better than One Foot In The Algarve. Not necessarily that Christmassy, it blew away almost everything at Christmas on TV in 1985. I certainly remember the whole family huddled around the TV for this one, and it being really rather good, Indeed better than the standard episodes of the show.
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Pete Baran in Do You See • 3 Comments
1 December 2011
We love the 1st of December, when we get to go to FT to open the little Windows* that mark down the passage of time towards Christmas with a little nugget of something special. Something very special this year, namely an advent calendar of TV Christmas specials. TV Specials are, as if you didn’t know, often extended one off episodes of popular television shows which either take place at Christmas, have a Christmassy theme or – well don’t. Our rules are simple:
- Must be Christmassy
- Must not be part of regular series/season
This latter one is important as the BBC in particular have a habit of rolling the Christmas Special as the sixth episode of six if they are scheduling before Christmas. Many US sitcoms will have Christmas (and Thanksgiving, and Halloween) episodes, but just as part of the regular run.
Will we stick to these rules religiously. Maybe. While you ponder that, this is screenshot from today’s special, which despite what it looks like, really is a Christmas special. What’s that you say?
“I DON’T BELIEVE YOU?” more »
Pete Baran in Do You See • 1 Comment
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