Back to the Future

Late for school, Marty is caught by the principal.

Principal: No McFly ever amounted to anything in the history of Hill Valley!

Marty: Yeah, well history is going to change.

This film is part 1980’s cultural landmark and a cinematic rite of passage, usually watched on television as a child. This film is so fondly remembered that if it failed to live up to my memories of it on the small screen I think my heart might have died.

It surpassed expectation. Back on the big screen for its 25^th anniversary, seeing Back to the Future in the cinema as an adult confirmed its brilliance.

Certified Copy

This film centres on one conversation between two characters as they wander around a beautiful setting. The closest film that springs to mind is Before Sunrise/Sunset, the only difference being that this film thrives on ambiguity.

Juliette Binoche and William Shimmell

An English author, James Miller, is in Tuscany to promote a book on authenticity. He joins an unnamed French antiques dealer for a journey through a small town whilst talking art, copies and relationships…

 …and the audience tries to figure out whether they are married or just copying being married.

This is Spinal Tap

Like some cultural behemoth throwing a shadow across the film landscape, 1984’s This is Spinal Tap, that landmark mockumentary, is one of those films imprinted in shared cultural memory and legend because parents deemed it good enough to let their kids watch it even though the kids were too young to fully appreciate it but at least get half the gags.

That was one long and confused sentence but sums up my experience. Finally viewing it on the big screen as an adult, I was able to recognise and appreciate the writing, the satire and the cinematic language used to make the comedy and the music.

Halloween Viewing

It’s the week of Halloween and to get in the spirit of things, I’m colour coding stuff, replaying Project Zero: Crimson Butterfly and there’s a new (somewhat messy) background for my blog which will be revealed on the day (no new header because I like this one). But what is there on television for the horror fan? A lot, thanks to the BBC.

The Walking Dead (UK Premiere Date)

It has been a while since I’ve posted anything and with Halloween approaching I suppose I should post up info on The Walking Dead.

The UK Premiere Date has been announced – 5th November on the FX channel, a week after the US. I suppose I’ll have to avoid the internet for that week, so you’re going to be free from my wittering. While the graphic novel didn’t set my world alight art-wise, as a long time zombie film fan I am quite excited by the trailer I have seen.

Directed, written and produced by Frank Darabont (The Mist, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) and featuring some great special effects and make-up work from Gregory Nicotero who has worked on so many films including the underrated Diary of the Dead and The Mist, these six episodes will be most horror fan’s Friday night staple. You can find out more from the website.

As a UK viewer, it’s funny seeing Andrew Lincoln (who I know from more light-hearted roles) take part in this gory horror television event. I can’t wait to see some zombie heads get the shotgun treatment.

Occult Academy

I have recently taken to one of TV Tokyo’s Anime no Chikara’s projects, Occult Academy. Anime no Chikara makes fresh anime. This means that it’s not based on pre-published material such as a manga to dictate direction. Well thanks to a way-ward plot that veers between cliché and great humour it certainly feels random.

The first episode opens with a chap being chased by a monster and pleading to be teleported out as people monitor him from some unknown facility. After his death and the opening credits we go back in time to Nagano circa 1999 and introduced to the female lead, a serious young woman on her way to her father’s funeral at the school for the occult he built.

Her name is Maya Kumashiro and she hates the occult. And she has to take charge of the academy.

Health and Sports Day

While the members of the Commonwealth are at the Games in Delhi what is Japan doing to keep fit?

The Secret in Their Eyes

El Secreto de sus Ojos

This is the film that beat A Prophet to the 2010 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar and only the second Argentine film to win that category. It was a result that left a lot of critics surprised due to the strength of the competition.

Buenos Aires, retired legal investigator Benjamin Esposito (Ricardo Darin) is writing a book about a troubling case from 20 years previous in 1974, the investigation of a brutal murder-rape of a young and beautiful school teacher named Liliana Coloto. Esposito interrogates his memory to order events which involved his superior, Irene Menendez Hastings (Soledad Villamil) and his drunken subordinate Pablo Sandoval (Guillermo Francella) battling institutional problems to establish the truth. As he writes the book he finds himself troubled even more the events and allows Hastings to read it to help solve the case and lay down memories and feelings.

Leaving – Partir

Directed and written by Catherine Corsini, Leaving is much like I Am Love. A strong central female giving a great emotional performance in a well made drama concerning a well-to-do-family and the fallout that ensues when she falls in love with a working-class type.

Suzanne (Kristin Scott Thomas) is a happily married mother of two in a successful household who falls in love with the handyman (Sergi Lopez) who is building her an office. She has everything she could possibly want but the closer she is with him, the closer she edges to falling in love.

High School of the Dead

I was hoping this would be the anime equivalent of Dawn of the Dead… It wasn’t.

We start off in high school following Takashi, a harem of busty girls’ and an otaku named Kouta when zombies attack. Over the course of the series so far, zombie related violence and panty-shots increase as social-order and the girl’s clothing vanish.

My summary of the plot is flippant because it’s a good-looking show with no interest in zombies. The following post constains images NSFW.