Conan the Barbarian (1982)

Conan the Barbarian (1982)

The phenomenal soundtrack to 'Conan the Barbarian' by Basil Poledouris is indelibly lodged in my memory. It's simply iconic, and so too is the film, a fantasy epic directed by John Milius (co-creator of the brilliant HBO series Rome, which I am in the process of watching), co-written by Oliver Stone and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in his career launching role.

Young Conan the Cimmerian (adult form played by Schwarzenegger) watches his family and village wiped out by crazed serpentine cult leader Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones) and his private army. He is raised in servitude and grows into a muscular warrior who is co-opted into fighting as a gladiator, a career change that leads to training at the hands of the world's greatest warriors as well as acclaim and adoration. He eventually becomes free and goes forth in search of Doom. During his journey he befriends thief Subotai (Gerry Lopez) and warrior woman / thief Valeria (Sandahl Bergman), the latter quickly becoming Conan's lover. Together they form a thieving team, but Conan's thirst for vengeance remains and when King Osric (Max von Sydow) offers them a fortune to get his daughter (Valérie Quennessen) back from the clutches of Doom's cult, Conan leaps at the opportunity for payback.

The story is fairly basic but is quite well told. The first thing that struck me about this film is the economy of dialogue, probably because of the brutish and taciturn nature of the characters. It works out especially well given the unwieldy manner in which many of the actors speak their lines. Much of the storytelling is visual, and as a visual experience 'Conan' has aged fairly well. The cinematography is quite spectacular and the production vales that go with it are top notch - great locations, sets, and costumes - resulting in a very atmospheric and believable (if occasionally a little small scale) world that only betrays its fantasy trappings on a handful of occasions. The few effects sequences that crop up are also adequate. There's scant character development but the story builds up in a satisfyingly epic way, with the only let down being that the action scenes, which while suitably bloody and visceral are minimal and not as exciting as I had hoped. In general though I have to applaud Milius embracing of adult elements - there's plenty of violence, sex and nudity in this - that feel true to the nature of the story. Also true to the story is Poledouris' superb score that really elevates the film at every turn with bombastic and heroic flair, perfectly complementing the visuals.

The script and Milius' direction shy away from playing up emotion and drama, which is fortunate given how wooden most of the actors are. The emphasis on the characters physicality and movement is much greater, a stylistic choice that plays to the strengths of the cast. Physically, Schwarzenegger is perfect as the muscular and surprisingly lithe barbarian, though his oafishness is apparently at odds with the character from the Robert E. Howard books the film is loosely based on. Sandahl Bergman bears the brunt of the lines of the main trio, and she's not that great with the talking part either, but again physically she fits the bill, looking athletic and supple and far from fragile. Gerry Lopez is suitable weaselly as the thief Subotai. Kudos to James Earl Jones though, who really delivers with his sinister portrayal of Thulsa Doom - between this character and Darth Vader, the guy definitely had portraying evil down pat back in the day. Mako plays a wily wizard and also narrates the film, and his presence adds a bit of levity.

'Conan the Barbarian' is not a brilliantly made film, but it is, I think, quite good, and certainly one of the best of the crop of eighties 'sword and sorcery' offerings. There's no depth to it and not much resonates thematically, but as an epic fantasy adventure it delivers in spades and is a classic of the genre. One little caveat - it's probably not to a lot of people's taste; though, the same could be said for a lot of fantasy films, I suppose. It's certainly to my taste, and I enjoyed it immensely.

Why Intel are a bunch of dicks!

The BBC reports on how "Intel 'undermined' [the OLPC] laptop project". Intel, screw you. I have little doubt that Intel are the wrongdoers in this scenario. These are, after all, the same pricks who publicly badmouthed the very idea of such a laptop a couple of years ago before suddenly churning out one of their own.

Here's OLPC's press release regarding the matter (from http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Intel#INTEL_RESIGNS_FROM_OLPC):

January, 4 2008 - We at OLPC have been disappointed that Intel did not deliver on any of the promises they made when they joined OLPC; while we were hopeful for a positive, collaborative relationship, it never materialized.

Intel came in late to the OLPC association: they joined an already strong and thriving OLPC Board of Directors made up of premier technology partners; these partners have been crucial in helping us fulfill our mission of getting laptops into the hands of children in the developing world. We have always embraced and welcomed other low-cost laptop providers to join us in this mission. But since joining the OLPC Board of Directors in July, Intel has violated its written agreement with OLPC on numerous occasions. Intel continued to disparage the XO laptop in nations that had already decided to partner with OLPC (Uruguay and Peru), with countries that were in the midst of choosing a laptop solution (Brazil and Nigeria), and other countries contemplating a laptop program (Mongolia).

Intel was unwilling to work cooperatively with OLPC on software development. Over the entire six months it was a member of the association, Intel contributed nothing of value to OLPC: Intel never contributed in any way to our engineering efforts and failed to provide even a single line of code to the XO software efforts – even though Intel marketed its products as being able to run the XO software. The best Intel could offer in regards to an "Intel inside" XO laptop was one that would be more expensive and consume more power – exactly the opposite direction of OLPC's stated mandate and vision.

Despite OLPC's best efforts to work things out with Intel and several warnings that their behavior was untenable, it is clear that Intel's heart has never been in working collaboratively as a part of OLPC. This is well illustrated by the way in which our separation was announced singlehandedly by Intel; Intel issued a statement to the press behind our backs while simultaneously asking us to work on a joint statement with them. Actions do speak louder than words in this case. As we said in the past, we view the children as a mission; Intel views them as a market.

The benefit to the departure of Intel from the OLPC board is a renewed clarity in purpose and the marketplace; we will continue to focus on our mission of providing every child with an opportunity for learning.

I Am Legend (1954) by Richard Matheson

I Am Legend (1954) by Richard Matheson

'I Am Legend' is a title that is in people's collective consciousness right now thanks to the new Will Smith film, which is actually the third cinematic adaptation of Richard Matheson's seminal classic. Having just finished reading the book, I'm not surprised there have been so many attempts - the source material is quite phenomenal.

Robert Neville is the novel's protagonist, seemingly the last survivor of a plague, the last man on Earth. This plague has caused the dead to come back from the grave (this book was, unsurprisingly, hugely influential on the zombie genre) as blood sucking vampires, and those infected who haven't died yet are similarly afflicted with a taste for blood. Neville lives alone in his fortified house that is boarded up and lined with garlic and equipped with a generator and a massive freezer full of food to sustain him. And yes, these vampires exhibit all of the legendary traits of vampirism - drinking blood, inability to come out in sunlight, fear of garlic, death from stakes through the heart, and fear of the cross are all present.

The story chronicles Neville's existence as the last bastion of civilization. By day the vampires enter a comatose state leaving him free to roam the town at will, and he uses this time to get whatever supplies he needs, to carefully maintain his house's defenses, and to hunt down and kill as many of the vampires as he can before sundown, which is when they awaken. Refusing to accept a supernatural explanation, he also dedicates himself to study and research to try and determine the nature of vampirism and how it wiped out mankind, and to possibly come up with a cure for the infected still left alive.

Matheson explores the way loneliness and hopelessness tear away at Neville's psyche, with the character swinging into bouts of drunken depression on many an occasion (I lost count of how many bottles and glasses he smashes). Neville isn't exactly a superman; while he is extremely resourceful he has had his fair share of luck (being immune to the infection, for one), and the situation and his own volatile nature take their toll, causing him to have near brushes with death due to the smallest of lapses in his careful routine. The character is written as multi-dimensional and believable, and Matheson allows us into his thoughts (there is obviously not much in the way of conversation in this book), which makes his experiences all the more sympathetic and emotional. The recounting of Neville's oppressive existence is broken up by poignant flashbacks into the early days of the plague, when his wife was still alive and society was still functioning.

Apart from Neville's personal struggle and his memories, the book goes into some detail on how he manages to survive through careful routine. It also goes to great lengths (via Neville's ruminations) theorizing about the biology of vampires and about their place in history. Neville's research into the plague and what causes the symptoms of vampirism are suitably well explained and seem logical, at least at a layman's level. And while for much of the time Neville seems reasonably safe and adept at surviving, there are a few moments in the book, particularly one in which he fails to get home before sunset, that are infused with sheer terror and are incredibly exciting. The book yanks you into the tale from the opening pages and never really lets go once you enter Neville's terrifying world. Its different story threads are balanced in a manner where they all build up and coalesce to make the surprising twist of the last few chapters fully earned and completely satisfying.

'I Am Legend' is a gripping tale that is convincing in its depiction of one man's tragic struggle in a post apocalyptic world. It is a moving look into isolation and despair, while also a thought provoking commentary on history and legends, society, morality, and humanity in general, all wrapped together in a layer of science and logical thought and interspersed with helpings of excitement and terror. Matheson doesn't set a foot wrong and ends the book on a perfect note, one that explains the title of the book. I can't recommend this one enough, it's a genuine classic!

Water (2005)

Water (2005)

I saw 'Water' completely by accident, and had no real intention of ever watching it; I'm glad I did, however, as it is a very good if slightly flawed film. Water (presumably so called because of the dominant presence of a body of water in the film) tells of the fate of Hindu widows in India during the 1930s who are forced to live out their lives as outcasts in widow 'ashrams'. The tale begins with Chuiya (Sarala Kariyawasam), a 7 year old, becoming a widow when her 'husband' (she doesn't even have any recollection of the wedding) dies. She's sent to an ashram but is rebellious and refuses to accept her place there, convinced that her mother will return to take her home. She becomes popular with some of the ashram's other residents, including Shakuntala (Seema Biswas), a strong willed and devout woman, and Kalyani (Lisa Ray), a beautiful young woman used by the cruel head of the ashram as a prostitute. Through Chuiya, Kalyani meets and falls in love with a liberal, independent young man named Narayan (John Abraham); their affair shakes up the ashram and forces its residents to raise questions about the treatment of widows.

A large part of this film serves to highlight the unfair and cruel lives the widows are forced to accept and endure in the name of religious and societal norms. Chuiya acts as a window into their world, and these parts of the film are extremely effective in evoking sympathy while being informative at the same time. 'Water' examines the widows' situation by touching on the different perspectives of society - those of the liberals who are at the forefront of massive societal change spearheaded by Gandhi, and those of the traditional conservatives - in a fairly even handed manner, with thought given to why things are the way they are (though I think there's little question that the film ultimately sees the more progressive viewpoints as being the correct ones).

There are a couple of things that prevent the film from reaching its full potential. One is the lack of a cohesive narrative to tie all of the story elements together; the film sometimes tends to feel too much like a mere recounting of incidents that highlights the plight of widows. The other is that the one genuine narrative thread, the love story, is wholly unconvincing and superficial and is clearly there only as a plot device to explore social restrictions and to create a compelling reason for the status quo to be shaken up.

Given the quality of the film, these negatives don't detract too much however. It's visually stunning with excellent production values and cinematography; if there's a complaint here it's that the painterly look of the film sometimes feels too artificial and detracts from what should be a grittier, more down to earth aesthetic, but that's a minor quibble at best. Writer / director Deepa Mehta clearly had a vision for the film to be informative but not at the expense of dramatic weight and reasonably well rounded characters. Despite the overriding pathos there are also moments of joy and levity sprinkled throughout, though the musical montage and occasional music video like moments take it too far and are a tad jarring.

There are some fine performances in the film, particularly from the young Sarala Kariyawasam, who manages to give a convincing performance as Chuiya without giving off that creepy 'adult in a child's body' vibe that is so prevalent in child actors. I should also add that Lisa Ray is strikingly captivating and is perhaps too good looking for the role, but that's a flaw in the film I'm more than happy to accept!

Overall 'Water' is a film that deserves to be seen. The quality of filmmaking on offer is stellar and the subject matter is weighty and about as underrepresented as it gets in cinema. It may be a little too obvious in its didactic intentions and is a little lacking in terms of narrative, but what it does offer is almost always engaging.

The Man from Earth (2007)

The Man from Earth (2007)

'The Man from Earth' is an interesting little independent film. It's a low budget science fiction drama that is essentially 90 minutes of a group of people sitting in a room and talking. Doesn't sound particularly exciting, but the film is actually quite gripping. The premise is that youthful college professor John Oldman is a man who doesn't age - he's 14,000 years old and was born a cave man. He moves from place to place regularly to prevent his secret from being found out. The film begins with John about to leave his current home when his colleagues throw him an impromptu farewell party, where after much cajoling about why he's leaving he capitulates and tells them his secret. His colleagues are incredulous, of course, and worry about John's mental condition but play along with his story and interrogate him for details. They try and poke holes in the story, but John has a reasonable response to every question they throw at him.

The film is hardly cinematic, and in many ways could just as easily have been written as a short story; there's nothing compelling about it visually, atmospherically, or in terms of performances. It is reasonably well acted though, to be fair, and much better than I expected it would be given the low budget feel it exudes. As far as storytelling goes there is no real narrative, with the whole film being one long discussion. I sound somewhat negative thus far, so let me cut to the chase. 'The Man from Earth' is a fascinating and thought provoking piece of writing that, through the device of the 14,000 year old man raises myriad interesting questions about science, history, sociology, geography, anthropology, and of course... religion. By having established a scenario where there is a room full of academics, the screenplay allows itself to easily raise intelligent questions and discussions.

John's answers relating to the past are often ones that could easily have been derived from modern science and he often deals in generalizations because 14,000 years of memory can become a blur, in the same way that even 10 or 20 years can be a blur for the average human. Thus in one sense the film is just a hook to discuss various topics and have characters present different points of view based on mankind's prevailing body of knowledge (as opposed to introducing lots of fictional 'surprises' from history that only John is privy to, though a few of those are also in there), which makes for fascinating viewing even if the discussions never get particularly deep.

From a storytelling perspective the more interesting aspects come from the different characters, each of whom has his or her own beliefs and reacts differently to John and what he tells them. Things get particularly heated at times, especially when the topic of religion crops up, and especially when John makes startling revelations about history that are not corroborated by anything in contemporary knowledge. One of the problems I had with the film were with some of these heated moments, particularly when John's friends became agitated by what he was telling them. These scenes usually felt genuine but on several occasions came across as extremely forced (like the moment where one guy pulls out a gun).

The big mystery in the film, the question of whether John is telling the truth or not, is up in the air for much of the runtime but is fortunately resolved definitively by the end in one of the film's very few emotional scenes. The answer was what I was expecting.

'The Man from Earth' is certainly an interesting minimalist film that is more thought provoking than most films blessed with budgets orders of magnitude greater. For that alone I'd say it's worth seeing. It definitely hews closer to the scientific and rational view of the world, and some of what it says will probably irritate and anger those who are strongly inclined towards opposing beliefs. That would be their loss, as this film makes for an intriguing experience.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)

Looking back over my review of the first two 'Pirates' movies, I'm struck by how positively I viewed 'Dead Man's Chest' (henceforth DMC). Having seen it several times, I'm fairly confident in saying that the first one, 'Curse of the Black Pearl', will hold up for years to come. DMC on the other hand, contrary to my prognostication - "I suspect that repeat viewings will be more rewarding" - does not hold up that well at all, particularly in the context of 'At World's End' (AWE), which makes many of the events in DMC redundant; for most of its running time DMC failed to develop its plot or characters in a manner that had an impact on the denouement of the third film. Watching it again I realized that it was hollow, overblown spectacle saved by some good performances, effects, and action sequences. AWE, sadly, is more of the same, but is less satisfying.

AWE begins well enough. Following an escapade in Singapore, the gang embarks on a daring rescue attempt to bring back Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) from the oceanic purgatory that is 'Davey Jones' Locker'. It's a bizarre journey, but one that is straightforward and fun and in tune with what made the first movie so entertaining. After Jack is rescued (spoiler! as if you couldn't guess!), everyone sets off to a secret location for a big 'pirate meeting' where the Pirate Lords will gather to discuss the problem of the East India Trading Company's war against piracy. The company has been using Davy Jones (Bill Nighy and CGI), who is under the control of Lord Beckett (Tom Hollander) by virtue of the fact that Beckett has his heart, and his ship the Flying Dutchman to decimate piracy on the high seas (I'll bet Hollywood wishes it had a Flying Dutchman of its own to tackle so called movie 'piracy'). Of course the journey to the meeting is by no means straightforward, with myriad events and double and even triple crosses, and that's before the shit really hits the fan at the Pirate Meeting itself!

None of this is particularly engaging, it has to be said. There's virtually nothing in the way of character development, and the plot just twists and turns randomly. The lean storytelling of the original film is replaced with labyrinthine, nonsensical attempts at mythologizing. And the humour is absolutely zilch, with most of it coming in the form of recycled jokes from the earlier movies, a trend that was annoying enough in the first sequel and is downright intolerable in the second. The story in DMC didn't really merit its two and a half hour runtime; neither does this film's story merit its even more bloated, near three hour runtime. It is excess to the point of excess. With the second sequel the series completes a massive turn from where it began, taking itself way too seriously and trying with a straight face to pass off an inane theme about how vicious pirates represent that last bastion of 'freedom'. That's right, pirates represent freedom from the tyranny of the evil Empire that, as far as we can tell, is only attempting to keep the seas safe from cutthroats (albeit through unscrupulous means, but still)! To compound matters, this time around there's little in the way of action until the climactic battle, which overcompensates by outstaying its welcome and dragging on for over 30 minutes.

Having said all of that, it's a fairly decent, if hollow, slice of entertainment. Visually it's spectacular, and the effects work is stellar even if it does take the action from fantastical to ludicrous (like the scene where two ships fight each other while slowly swirling down a whirlpool). The action scenes, as with part two, are well put together and mix together pure action with gags and dialogue quite deftly, though there's nothing quite as awesome as the mill-wheel fight sequence from DMC. Depp's Jack Sparrow is still occasionally fun, but the routine is starting to wear thin and the character is just too one dimensional to be interesting in the long run. Geoffrey Rush makes a fun return as Captain Barbossa, and Keira Knightley's Elizabeth is sprightly, but the rest of the cast are merely adequate. Even Bill Nighy as Davey Jones, so memorable in DMC, has a subdued presence.

'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End' is disappointing end to a franchise that started off so well. To compare franchises, I find the similarities between the trajectory of the Pirates sequels and that of the Matrix sequels to be frighteningly similar - it's a shame Gore Verbinski, Ted Elliott, and Terry Rosso didn't learn anything from the Wachowski Brothers' efforts (though I think I'll take the Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions over DMC and AWE any day of the week). As entertaining spectacle the Pirates films all deliver, but for me there's only one worthwhile entry in this franchise and it ain't 'Dead Man's Chest' or 'At World's End'. You work out which one I'm talking about! Still, the box office and reception for these films seems to suggest that the majority are of a different opinion, with both making in the region of $1 billion worldwide, so what the hell do I know?

Battlestar Galactica: Razor (2007)

Battlestar Galactica: Razor (2007)

I'm a huge fan of Battlestar Galactica, which I reckon is one of the best shows on television by far. 'Razor' is a feature length special episode* released in between season 3 and the (hopefully still) forthcoming fourth and final season. It's been ages since there's been any new Galactica, so this is like manna from heaven for fans.

Chronologically 'Razor' takes place at some point in season two, shortly after Lee 'Appollo' Adama (Jamie Bamber) is given command of the Battlestar Pegasus. He assigns Kendra Shaw (Stephanie Jacobsen), a former command staff officer who was demoted to working in the galley, as his new Executive Officer. Lee's first mission as commander of the Pegasus is to investigate the disappearance of a survey ship. While it tells the story of the Pegasus' search and rescue mission in the 'present', the narrative is non-linear - it flashes back to the story of Pegasus during and after the initial Cylon attacks on the Twelve Colonies, when she was commanded by Admiral Helena Cane (Michelle Forbes). Kendra Shaw is the link between these two timelines as she is a witness to major events in both of them and is in a position of trust with both Cane and Lee. There are also a couple of other flashback sequences that go further back in time to the first Cylon War and depict events with a direct connection to proceedings in the present.

I found 'Razor' to be a fine piece of storytelling despite the contrivance of having Kendra Shaw as an audience surrogate, probably because the contrivance was fairly well written and seemed only marginally out of place (though one wonders where Shaw was when Galactica first encountered Pegasus during season 2). It serves to juxtapose the fate of Pegasus with that of Galactica and explains the motivation behind some of the monstrous acts carried out at the behest of Cain that we learned about during the earlier Pegasus episodes. Cain starts off as a stern but likable commander; events and circumstances lead her down the path to becoming uncompromising and unflinchingly brutal (Commander Adama (Edward James Olmos) himself notes that had he been in her place he may have acted in a similar manner). The Cain storyline also explicitly depicts events that were alluded to in the series, and also explains the presence and capture of Gina (Tricia Helfer), the Cylon agent on board Pegasus.

While the Cain stuff is terrific, the goings on in the 'present' are also compelling. This storyline continues the development of Kendra Shaw's character as she comes to terms with Cain's legacy and the part she played in it. Shaw is a hardened veteran and her abrasive manner causes a few problems, particularly with Starbuck (Katie Sackhoff), but her efficacy is never in any doubt. This storyline also provides the opportunity to depict Lee's transition into the position of a Battlestar commander. And in terms of the overall BSG mythology, we are provided an insight into the development of the humanoid Cylons, and are introduced to a godlike figure from their history. And finally, there is a pretty neat twist that puts the end of season 3 into a new perspective and should make things interesting in season 4.

'Razor' features the same mix of gritty, intense drama and action that the series is renowned for, and deals with the same themes relating to war, politics, morality, and hard choices. It manages to create ambivalence with regard to its characters' behaviour and avoids presenting choices as being easy 'right or wrong' ones, with the consequences of those choices weighing heavily on those making them and defining who they are. If there are any serious flaws with the writing, it's the repeated heavy handed use of the 'razor' metaphor and the rather predictable path taken by a character towards the end (one that perhaps couldn't be avoided given the 'prequel' nature of the episode). I also think the way the multiple timelines were edited together was sometimes wayward, with the whole thing not really coming together as well as it ought to have.

Jamie Bamber, Edward James Olmos, Katie Sackhoff, and Tricia Helfer are the series regulars with a major presence here, and they do solid work, particularly Sackhoff and Helfer. Some of the remaining regular cast make brief appearances, while the rest are absent altogether. The stars therefore are really Michelle Forbes and Stephanie Jacobsen, and fortunately both women do stellar work. Forbes reprises the role of Admiral Cain and continues from her excellent performance in the second season, but this time is given the opportunity to infuse some humanity into the character. Jacobsen is the focal point and she successfully plays Shaw as a tough as nails officer haunted by what she has seen and been through. Her performance is strong enough, and sympathetic enough, to carry the episode.

Overall, while it doesn't quite hit the highs of the series, BSG 'Razor' is on par with a very good episode, and has the same excellent production values. It reintroduces elements from one of the best storylines of the second season while also delving into elements from the First Cylon War. While there are shaky elements in the writing, the final product is a gripping and entertaining addition to the Battlestar Galactica canon.

* I'm reviewing the Extended DVD version, which has around 15 minutes of additional material (and is apparently better than the original televised version).

Futurama: Bender's Big Score (2007)

Futurama: Bender's Big Score (2007)

'Futurama', surely one of the funniest comedies ever to grace the idiot box, was unjustly brought to an end back in 2003. Now, due to enduring interest in the series, it has been resurrected as four straight to DVD movies (which will also be broadcast episodically with additional scenes), the first of which, 'Bender's Big Score', was just recently released.

The show is set in the 31st Century and revolves around the bizarre exploits of the 'Planet Express' delivery company, which is composed of a wacky bunch of characters like Fry the pizza delivery boy from the 20th Century, Bender 'Bending' Rodriguez, a lewd robot, Leela, a tough cyclops woman, and Dr Zoidberg, a giant crab-like physician, among others. The plot of this new release is quite convoluted but it basically revolves around Internet scammers taking over the world and getting rich, and also using an equation that allows one way time travel to the past in order to plunder treasures from Earth's history. The time travel elements - they are actually handled quite well - will make your head spin towards the end, but the plot is effective in reintroducing a lot of the world and characters of Futurama. There are are several subplots, like the one involving Hermes the accountant being decapitated and having his head in a jar, and the more significant one about Fry's love for Leela (a weird continuity non sequitur given how the series ended).

Futurama is a bit like the Simpsons, only more visually inventive and over the top, and I think considerably funnier. The gags fly at the screen non-stop, both visual and verbal, and while some of them in this DVD movie are more miss than hit the overall impact is overwhelmingly positive. The show is still as smart, inventive, and witty as it ever was. There are also plenty of nods to the series throughout that are fun to spot for fans. The length of the episode seems to be a bit detrimental to its quality however; I think this sort of show works best in small chunks. The writers are also guilty of being a little slow paced at times, like with Fry's journey into the Arctic. The cast, however, have no problems and seem to have slipped back into their characters with ease and don't miss a beat - they're as funny as ever. And visually, the animation is about on par with the series, nothing more and nothing less (as far as I can tell).

While it doesn't quite reach the heights of the best of 'Futurama', 'Bender's Big Score' is still pretty darned good and golden for any fan of the series. Hopefully some of the flaws in this initial foray will be ironed out in future releases; whatever happens, I'm keenly anticipating them.

The Death of High Fidelity

Rolling Stone has an interesting article on the phenomenon called the 'loudness war', where music released in recent times is being made louder by limiting its dynamic range so that all of it sounds as loud as possible, instead of having a wide range of loudness. The result is music that is more attention grabbing, but is devoid of the nuance and variation of the original. Music basically ends up more one dimensional and gimmicky, made only to hook you in and not meant to be really listened to and enjoyed. I've heard about this phenomenon many times and this article seems to put across what it's about fairly well, and is worth a read.

Bad Santa (2003)

Bad Santa (2003)

'Bad Santa' is one of those films I'd heard mentioned on many an occasion but which I had very little knowledge of. I thought it'd be decent enough, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it is in fact a terrific black comedy!

Billy Bob Thornton stars as Willie, a washed up, drunk, miserable, cantankerous middle-aged man who, every year together with his dwarf friend Marcus (Tony Cox), works as a department store Santa in preparation for robbing the store. Willie's expertise lies in safe cracking, while Marcus is the brains of the outfit. After an opening heist, Willie resolves to quit and straighten out his life, only to find himself back with Marcus the following Christmas at a new store in Arizona where the manager (John Ritter) and head of security (Bernie Mac) watch over them with a wary eye. Naturally, this year is a bit different - Willie encounters a young woman with a Santa fetish, Sue (Lauren Graham), and starts a relationship with her. He also encounters a fat young loner kid (Brett Kelly) who grows attached to him and sees him as the 'real' Santa, much to his annoyance. Circumstances lead to Willie moving into the kid's house (where he lives with his grandmother); the kid's naive and innocent belief in Christmas despite Willie's uncaring behaviour persists, and Willie finds himself unwittingly drawn to the boy.

It may sound like a feel good film, and in a sense it is. It has, at some level, a sentimental heart and embraces the usual Christmas spirit of caring, love, and friendship, and it is in many ways a story of redemption. But that's all under the surface. Taken at face value, it's a mean spirited, foul mouthed, salacious, irreverent, violent, and altogether hilarious little film. It's got weird, messed up characters who are trying to get by in an unforgiving and uncaring world. Much of the humour derives from their anger and their oddball relationships with one another, though there is some terrific physical comedy as well. It's fast paced and runs at a lean 90-odd minutes and there isn't a dull moment in there. The production design and photography also make this a very colourful and visually arresting film. And apart from one sickeningly violent moment (hint: rib cage cracking), writer-director Zwigoff manages to prevent the mean spiritedness from overwhelming the film.

Billy Bob Thornton is perfectly cast as Willie, and he carries the insouciant world weariness of the character while maintaining a very subtle streak of humanity that bubbles just under the surface. Brett Kelly as 'the kid' is also excellent in a very atypical child performance - this isn't one of those precocious movie kid characters. He actually comes across as quite dim witted and innocent but at the same time under no illusion about the realities of the world around him. Tony Cox's exasperated Marcus is hilarious throughout, as are Ritter and Mac, particularly in their scenes together where Mac's security chief toys with Ritter's hapless manager. And finally there's the adorable Lauren Graham who doesn't have that big a role but exudes the right amount of weirdness to convince us that she would hang out with a person like Willie.

'Bad Santa' is a surprise package that a lot of people apparently weren't able to stomach because of its ostentatious crudity; their loss, because this is a superb film that has a lot of heart and is, in a twisted way, ultimately truthful to the spirit of Christmas. It's a Christmas film for adults that is crude, rude, and funny.