The Pocket Book of Boosh (2009)

The Pocket Book of Boosh (2009)

Author: Various (inc. Noel Fielding & Julian Barratt) | Page Count: 304

"…prose so taught you can feel the veins."

If you liked The Mighty Boosh TV Series, then you'll probably like The Pocket Book of Boosh. Provided you like tie-in books and can read English text.

If you can't read, don't fret, there are pictures. It even has a comic book featuring Rudy and Spider.

The content is exactly the same as The Mighty Book of Boosh, which came first, and was bigger. This one came second, and is smaller.

I shit you not.

That's as complicated as it gets.

NOTE: You don't actually need to have pockets.

Tactical Unit: The TV Movies (2008-09)

Tactical Unit: The TV Movies (2008-09)

Dirs. Various (see below)

Note: Five TV Movies that followed Johnnie To's PTU (2003). You don't need to have seen PTU in order to follow the story of each TU movie, but it might be helpful and it's such a good film that I feel compelled to encourage a viewing, anyhow.

Tactical Unit TV Movies in the order released:

01. In Tactical Unit: The Code (2008), directed by Wing-Cheong Law, three members of the PTU are captured on CCTV while beating up a civilian (i.e., crook), but the picture is grainy and their faces aren't clear. While an internal division that deals with corrupt cops tries to uncover the truth, the guilty trio hunt for the one man who can identify them: the man that they left bleeding in an alley. Ultimately, it's a race against time for both parties.

PTU: Police Tactical Unit (2003)

PTU: Police Tactical Unit (2003)

aka Tactical Unit: Into the Perilous Night

Dir. Johnnie To

A small team of Hong Kong Police Tactical Unit troopers search the streets for a comrade's missing gun over the course of one eventful night. They're the typical scumbag law enforcers that are common the world over, the kind that's ordinarily difficult to sympathise with, and yet somehow Dir. Johnnie To encourages viewers to do just that; and with each incremental, upwards notch of the danger level, one can stay fixedly right alongside them.

It didn't have a huge budget, but it evidently didn't need one. Instead, PTU has enough dramatic style and subtle humour to keep the meticulously paced slow burn of the story engaging until the various threads of the story meet and it becomes more than the sum of its parts; like the roads of a busy city, its avenues and pathways are interconnected.

There's music occasionally (by Chung Chi-wing) but mostly the sounds of the night-time streets are what's heard, functioning as another subtle but perfect connection to the environment.

Ju-On: Films (2000-15)

Ju-On: Films (2000-15)

Dirs. Various

Ju-On's debut on screen was in 1998 as two short films created, written, and directed by Takashi Shimizu. Together they made up one half of a TV Movie named Gakkō no kaidan G (1998), but I'll be skipping those and going direct to the feature-length movies that followed. (The shorts are titled Katasumi and 4444444444, if you wish to research further.)

It might seem like the wrong approach to take, but it's not necessary to have seen them to enjoy what came after. Furthermore, the order below isn't even the one that I experienced them on first viewing, thanks to how they were released in the UK at the time. [1]

01. Ju-On: The Curse (2000 / Dir. Takashi Shimizu) was the first feature-length entry in the series. A straight-to-video (V-Cinema) release that came out two years before the more successful cinema-released film (#3 below). In general, the setting is a haunted house that makes 112 Ocean Avenue (Amityville) seem about as scary as a Wendy house. [2]

Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation (2009)

Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation (2009)

Author: Ray Bradbury | Illustrator: Tim Hamilton | Page Count: 149

"Books, so the damned snobbish critics said, were dishwater. No wonder books stopped selling. The public, knowing what it wanted, let the comic books survive."

A comic book adaptation of Ray Bradbury's classic F451 story. I've reviewed the original novel already (see HERE), so I won't go over the plot again.

This particular transition from novel to comic is fully authorised by Bradbury, so you'd expect a faithful retelling. He didn't let just anyone have his works. (He once told his publisher to "go to hell" when they wanted to release F451 as an e-book. Sadly, he was forced to give in, once more proving that the book publishing world has caught up with the film world in not giving a damn about the author's intentions).

It uses Bradbury's dialogue but much of his descriptive language is lost, and it's that part of writing that he excels in, whereas his character dialogue can be simplistic and minimal.

Torchwood: TV Series (2006-11)

Torchwood (2006-11)

Dirs: various | 4 Seasons | 41 episodes, approx 44-57 mins each.

A Doctor Who offshoot that was targeted at a more mature audience than its parent series. In theory that's an interesting prospect, but in reality the definition of 'mature' seems to have been derived from a yobbish, vulgar, and sex-obsessed teenager's personal diary.

Season 01 is particularly bad in that regard, as if the show's writers believed that profanity and multiple references to casual sex were compensation for a well-written script. [1]

Consequently, most of its episodes are a dismal and joyless slog through predominantly bland storytelling, populated with unlikable characters whose traits are more often than not reprehensible and shameful.

I suspect it's more due to blind luck than any kind of skilful plan that it managed not to turn the group's leader, Doctor Who's Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), into the same. [2]

Rebuild of Evangelion: 2.22 (2009)

Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance (2009)

Dirs. Hideaki Anno / Masayuki / Kazuya Tsurumaki

I said previously that the film is faithful to Dir. Hideaki Anno's original vision 'at least for now'. To expand upon that, it's more than just a retelling, it's a 'rebuild' of the story - like its English language title states. The original series fell in on itself before its ultimate completion, so a redesign isn't necessarily a bad thing, if done correctly.

The foundation upon which the 'rebuild' is constructed is largely the same as before - but as more tiers are added, the resultant structure takes on a wholly different appearance. That change becomes more apparent in 2.22 than it was in 1.11. [1]

It covers episodes 7-19, which is quite a task in such a short amount of time.

The Legend of Zelda Manga: Legendary Ed. Vol. 04 (2017)

The Minish Cap (2006) / Phantom Hourglass (2009)

Author and Illustrator: Akira Himekawa | Page Count: 374

"The road you travel will be dangerous. Take this."

Series protagonist Link is always recognisable in his green duds and pointy hat, but he's not always the same Link. There are exceptions, of course, such as the one in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, but mostly the character is different in each game. It's not a drastic change; it's more of a variation on a theme.

Akira Himekawa applies the same principle to each of her Links in the mangas. In The Minish Cap's case the artwork is one-hundred percent chibi. It would've made sense to draw certain parts of it that way, but unfortunately it's used from beginning to end.

I'm not a fan of the exaggerated art style, but judging by the level of excellence shown in the previous books I'm guessing that it's at least good chibi?

The Sandman: The Dream Hunters (2009)

The Sandman: The Dream Hunters (2009)

Author: Neil Gaiman | Illustrator: P. Craig Russell | Page Count: 144

"In the flickering light ... the monk experienced a strange illusion – it occurred to him that a scrap of his shadow was missing, gone as if it had been torn away."

For the 20th anniversary of Sandman, Gaiman permitted an adaptation of his 1999 novella of the same name into a comic format. I didn't buy it at the time because it seemed unnecessary; the original was perfect, so why bother making it into something it wasn't meant to be? It smelt like an easy cash grab.

I relented (after three years!) and bought it because it was on sale. It turns out it's equally as good — and in places even better — than the novella and actually feels like it could be a part of the original comic book series.

It could easily be included in one of the stand-alone collections and it wouldn't feel out of place.

The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete Second Season (2009)

The Sarah Jane Adventures:
The Complete Second Season (2009)

Dirs: Various | Episodes: 12 episodes, approx 27 mins each.

I was surprised to see one of the regular cast members leave in the first two-parter of the second season. I won't say who, because of spoilers, but it's not Sarah Jane (Elisabeth Sladen), so the series survives the upheaval. But the relationships that were built up in season one had a lot more potential depth to them. I'd even begun to try and predict where things would go after the season finale.

Happily, the replacement character is a similar shaped peg that fits into the existing format well.

There's nothing herein that I'd call filler, but most of the stories are weaker than what came before. The exception, which was both the highlight and the one that quickly became my favourite episode of all so far, was The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith (Dir. Graeme Harper). It's a powerful story making use of a plot device that likely won't be new to fans of science fiction, but that doesn't lessen it. It packs a potent emotional punch that actually benefits from being simplified for a younger audience.

Star Trek: Countdown (2009)

Star Trek: Countdown (2009)

Authors: Mike Johnson / Tim Jones | Illustrator: David Messina | Page Count: 98

"It's worse than we thought."

A prequel comic to the 2009 reboot of the Star Trek franchise. I consider such tie-ins to be mostly easy milk from the cash-cow, but ST:C is mostly water.

Set post-Nemesis (2002) it attempts to link The Next Generation cast with events from the film, acting as yet another passing of the torch, but it's ham-fisted. In most cases cameos from TNG's crew exist for no reason other than to have cameos from TNG crew.

Their actions and dialogue aren't properly tailored to fit how their TV show counterparts would act or speak in the same situation; change the facial likeness and it'd be difficult to guess who it's meant to be. Speaking of which, the artwork is generally good, with characters looking like the actors they represent, and both light and shadow are handled well by the colourist(s).

The Prisoner (2009)

The Prisoner (2009)

Dir. Nick Hurran | 6 episodes, approx 45 minutes each.

The original The Prisoner (1967–68) is a classic example of British counterculture television. And even though it's a product of its time, its underlying commentaries and critiques of such things as politics and community are still arguably relevant. It didn't need a remake and it didn't need an update. But it got one. Mostly, it sucks.

For the benefit of anyone reading who didn't watch the original 1960s series, and therefore may not know what the title refers to, I'll give a brief synopsis of what you're in for with the 2009 version.

An unidentified man wakes in an unfamiliar location with no knowledge of how he got there. His travels take him to a nearby village that's filled with people, but none of the people have names. Instead, they have numbers. The new arrival is told that he's Number 6. Over the course of the miniseries Number 6 attempts to find out where The Village really is, why he was taken there and ultimately how he can escape from it.

V for Vendetta: New Edition (2009)

V for Vendetta: New Edition (2009)

Author: Alan Moore | Illustrator: David Lloyd | Page Count: 296

“Happiness is the most insidious prison of all.”

V for V is set in a post-war Britain. Whilst not directly involved in the nuclear bombardment, the country did suffer some socio-economic fallout after it was over. In response, it became a fascist state controlled by a select few, policed by the power-hungry and morally corrupt elite, and populated by the frightened.

One man, V, a self-elected revolutionary, attempts to pull away the apathy, to wound the totalitarian regime and incite a passion for change in the populace.

V orchestrates a violent and theatrical campaign against the oppressors. He's a personified wake-up call to the sleeping masses. Being rudely awakened is unpleasant, it's more comfortable to go on sleeping, but should we hate the alarm or the reason it was set?

We'll Always Have Paris (2009)

We'll Always Have Paris (2009)

Author: Ray Bradbury |  Page Count: 210

'There was a sense of loss, a vacuum, an emptiness, a vast silence. The walls ached.'

If you're new to Ray Bradbury's work, it'd be advisable to start with one of his more famous collections, such as the sublime Dandelion Wine (1957) or, if you prefer a novel, the darker in tone Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) because I'm confident that most folks will have a more rewarding time with either of those books than with We'll Always Have Paris, a collection of twenty-two previously unpublished works that showcase the author at his less than stellar best.

Culled from a lifetime of writing (he was aged 88 at time of publication) the included stories range from familiar to surprising, frustrating to satisfying, but there's nothing offered herein that equals his earlier successes. Some of the works are little more than vignettes, borderless musings that in their brevity remind us how brief and fleeting a life can be. Most noteworthy is a Green Town story and one about Mars that may please long-time fans.

Supernatural: Season 04 (2009)

Supernatural: Season 04 (2009)

22 episodes, approx 42 mins each

There's a four month gap between the end of Season 03 and the beginning of Season 04. What happened in the intervening months?

You won't get the answer straight away, but you will eventually, so stick with it. It's just one of the mysteries that get explored in more depth as the season progresses.

The covers of each Blu-ray box set up until now have been pretty standard and similar. There was the bag of salt on Season 01, but nothing much noteworthy beyond that. The cover of Season 04, however, whether by accident or design, is a lot more interesting.

The third figure, the one positioned between the two leads but set back, as if perched on their shoulders (the right of one and the left of the other, suggesting ambiguity or unclear alliance?), whose voice would be heard as a whisper... yeah, it's probably pure coincidence, but still a pretty cool thing to ponder.

Star Trek: Fan Collectives (2006-09)

Star Trek: Fan Collective: Borg (2006)

Dirs. Various  |  Number of episodes: 12 + 2 feature-length (FL) movies

The Fan Collective box sets are a collection of various themed episodes culled from each of the live action Star Trek TV series and packaged together in shiny new boxes. The cynic in me thinks it's nothing more than a lazy cash-grab from Paramount, once again exploiting fans who'll buy anything with a Trek logo on it. The optimist in me is forced to agree.

So, with Paramount's shameless tactics established, what do we actually get in each Collective box?

First up, the Borg ("Sounds Swedish") collection contains every episode from both TNG and ENT in which the semi-mechanical, drone-like menaces appeared, which amounts to six TNG and one ENT.

The remainder of the four-disc box is VOY episodes. The Borg played a major role in the VOY series, but it was too much of a good thing. The overuse turned them from a mysterious threat into a collective of chumps. Although it did give us Seven of Nine, who turned out to be one of the best characters in the entire VOY series, in my opinion.

Jonathan Creek: The Grinning Man (2009)

Jonathan Creek: The Grinning Man (2009)

Dir. David Renwick | Approx 118 minutes

A feature-length adventure (of two whole hours!) that saw the wooly-haired sleuth return to our TV screens after a lengthy five-year absence.

It's written and directed by series creator David Renwick, so the quality is high. The only dip is with the inclusion of an entirely superfluous subplot featuring magician Adam Klaus. I mean no disrespect to actor Stuart Milligan, but it goes nowhere interesting and serves no purpose other than to give the character something to do; its removal would've strengthened the pace of the main plot considerably.

When last we saw JC he was being tormented by Carla Borrego (Julia Sawalha), but she's moved on to graze in pastures new. What is it with the women of the series? They never stick around for long enough.

Prevent This Tragedy (2010)

Converse Presents: Prevent This Tragedy (2010)

Dirs. Various

It was only a matter of time before I made a post about my love of skating. After some consideration I chose Prevent This Tragedy because, while not the best disc on the market, it's easily available, it's short, it was free (as a cover-mount DVD with Thrasher magazine, also available for a while from their own website) and is currently on YouTube for all to see. Overall, it's a decent and undemanding dip of the toe for anyone new to the activity.

The main skaters are listed in the orange box on the picture on the right, so I won't list them again. Each one gets a segment in which they're the star, often accompanied by a Sabbath-esque tune or two. There's a nice mix of street, small ramp and pool action, sometimes in dedicated skate parks and sometimes not.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008-09)

The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Season 1 (2008)

9 episodes, approx 44 minutes each.

I'm not a Terminator fanatic. I enjoyed the first film, thought the second was okay, and turned off the third halfway through the first time I tried to watch it. I did eventually make it to the end of T3 (on a second pained attempt), but I didn't bother with the fourth film at all. So it's fair to say that I wasn't expecting much from The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

It takes place after events in Terminator 2 (1991), so it's essential to have watched it. It also follows a similar template: the machines are hunting the teenage John Connor, so a modified one is sent back from the future to protect him. The biggest difference is in the perspective. In the films the protagonists were mostly on the run. In the series they're no longer running. They're taking the fight to Skynet. That new dynamic makes it a million times more interesting to me than the films ever were.

3D Dot Game Heroes (2009)

3D Dot Game Heroes (2009)

Genre: Action / Adventure / RPG  |  Players: One  |  Developer: Silicon Studio

If you read the words sword, shield, life meter (red), magic meter (green), bomb bag, bottles, boomerang, magic boots, maze-like puzzles, side quests, and fairy companion, then there's a high probability that you're going to think The Legend of Zelda, right? 

I would too, but now you can add Silicon Studio's 3D Dot Game Heroes to the list. 

It has a stupid title, I know, and it would be natural to assume before playing it that the blatant theft makes it deserving of derision, but the opposite is true, it deserves much praise. It takes the classic, honed to perfection, 8-bit LoZ 2D aesthetic and translates it into a homage-filled 3D adventure for PlayStation 3 owners.