Judge Dredd (1995)

Judge Dredd (1995)

Dir. Danny Cannon

Stallone appears with jutting chin and less than nine minutes later the helmet comes off. It ceases to be a Judge Dredd film and instead becomes a Sly film with a comedy sidekick. There's a decent amount of plot squeezed into the running time (96 mins), but it's full of inconsistencies and stupid one-liners.

To be fair, it's not all bad. Mega-City One was interesting, some of the Council of Chief Judges were good (especially McGruder) and the addition of Hershey was a nice touch, or it would've been if she'd not been there simply to hang some hurried plot advancements on.

If you somehow make it to the end of the movie you'll witness the worst part. Even Walter the Wobot would be appalled.

A Scene at the Sea (1991)

A Scene at the Sea (1991)

Dir. Takeshi Kitano

Garbage collector Shigeru finds a damaged surfboard by the side of the road. He takes it home and thereafter a story develops slowly over a short but magical summer in which simplicity is beauty and the mundane is remodelled as something deadpan hilarious.

Both Shigeru (Claude Maki) and his girlfriend Takako (Hiroko Ôshima) are deaf, so there's not much spoken dialogue in the film, but the silence in no way diminishes the relationship or our understanding of it because the 'voice' of the piece is very much Kitano's and he orchestrates it masterfully; the bond between the couple has a rhythm that can be heard over the sound of wind and waves.

It was the first of many times that the director had composer Joe Hisaishi provide the score. The music and image are so seamlessly matched emotionally that it's as if the pair had been working together for decades.

Stargate SG-1: Season 03 (1999-00)

SG-1: Season 03 (1999-00)

Dirs. Various | 22 episodes, approx 44 minutes each.

The Season 02 finale didn't have an actual 'To be Continued...' ending, but the first episode of Season 03 continues the story as if it had done, and it almost manages to make up for the first half being a disappointing clips-show.

Thereafter things progress steadily, with the search for new alliances and technology that can be used and/or adapted to combat the diabolical Goa'uld System Lords being the primary driving force for most of the Tau'ri (humans from Earth).

Well, that's true for the higher-ups. But for Egyptologist Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks), the non-military member of SG-1, the member that typically serves as conscience and compass in times of moral conflict, his primary goal is to find his wife Sha're (Vaitiare Bandera), who was taken by Apophis in the Season 01 Pilot episode.

Lucifer: Volume 02 (2001)

Children and Monsters (2001)

Author: Mike Carey | Illustrators: Peter Gross / Ryan Kelly / Dean Ormston | Page Count: 208

"You know how it is. You put things away for a rainy day [...] then you look up one day and it's raining Angels."

Volume 02 of 11 in the Lucifer series contains two distinct but interconnected parts.

Lucifer owns a Los Angeles piano bar named Lux; the irony of the location and naming amuses him because he's not without a Machiavellian sense of humour. 

In the four part The House of Windowless Rooms he leaves his precious bar behind for a time to pursue the next part in his great work, which requires him to speak with Izanami-no-Mikoto, the Japanese Goddess of creation and death. He'll be powerless in her realm, so must rely on his wits and his cunning to be his weapon and his armour. Shit hits the Japanese fan.

Boiling Point (1990)

Boiling Point (1990)

Dir. Takeshi Kitano

Baseball is a popular sport in Japan. Masaki (Yūrei Yanagi) is a batter, but he isn't any good and his level of enthusiasm for the role appears to match his level in almost all things, which is visibly nil. A chance encounter at his place of employment leads to him drifting into Yakuza company, specifically an impulsive man named Uehara (Takeshi Kitano) and his two companions.

Dir. Kitano's second film saw his style evolve: a method of humour that's deadpan funny without seeming to have any actual jokes - although the loose construction can feel a little like tactically placed skits, so may be off-putting to some folks. It's not an ideal first Kitano film, but if you've seen and enjoyed any of his later (middle period) works, it can be a rewarding experience. 

NOTE: the poster art used above has the film's original Japanese title, San tai Yon ekkusu Jugatsu (3-4x10月), which translates to 3 to 4x October (according to Wikipedia).

Let It Snow (2008)

Let It Snow (2008)

Authors: Maureen Johnson / John Green / Lauren Myracle  |  Page Count: 368

'It's such a disaster, whenever, in the course of human relationships, someone begins to chisel away at the wall of separation...'

A collection of three novellas, one from each of the authors mentioned above, with a different take on the theme of 'holiday romance'. The holiday, which you've likely already guessed, is Christmas. The individual stories are linked by location and certain events overlap more than once, so it's more like a novel with changing authors as opposed to a traditional anthology.

Appropriately, snow blanketed the ground on the three days that I'd set aside to read the book. My windows were closed tight and the curtains purposefully drawn to lessen the chill, but I knew it was there and I'd been caught in it a few times whilst out walking.

It may sound ridiculous, but I believe that being cold helped me better appreciate the situations that the characters found themselves in. I'd hoped for some emotional warmth from the text to counteract the chilly settings, and in all three cases it was delivered; although the levels at which it was apparent did vary from one to the next.

Stargate SG-1: Season 02 (1998-99)

SG-1: Season 02 (1998-99)

Dirs. Various | 22 episodes, approx 44 minutes each.

Season 02 continues the alien world-hopping adventures, but it also points its lens more at home soil than Season 01 did. We get to see the SG-1 team outside the base's walls. Whereas inside it receives a few unwelcome visitors.

The entire venture seems to have had a sizeable cash-injection, enabling a number of new sets and some slightly better FX than before. Of the new sets, the most visited makes much use of the 'corridor with corners' trick, but as a longtime Star Trek fan I'm well-used to that kind of thing.

There's a lot of new technology on display, too, some of which becomes a regular feature.

Now that the team is fully established, I can talk a little about their personalities, beginning with Colonel Jack O'Neil (Richard Dean Anderson).