After a very long night last night I'm not able to sleep tonight, so have finished watching Mike Flanagan's Midnight Mass on Netflix. I'm not sure whether it was the towering work of art its admirers have hailed, but I don't think it was the damp squib its detractors have pointed to either. I could sense that it was full of references to other ( Read more... )

Thoughts on two James Bond films seen in the last week:

( Spectre )

Yes, I should have gone to bed, but I caught up with Star Trek - Into Darkness instead. Several visually impressive moments, but the cast were underused and there isn't as much mileage in immature boy Kirk as they seem to think. I am not a Star Trek expert, but I had the feeling that it didn't mirror the beats of The Wrath of Khan as well as it ( Read more... )

Some months after seeing the 1939 Tower of London, I've this evening watched the 1962 version as directed by Roger Corman. It bears little relation to the 1939 version other than the setting, the name, and the presence of Vincent Price as Richard III, who played the duke of Clarence in the earlier film. The historical parallels with the ( Read more... )

( Caution for those who haven't seen it and who don't want to be spoiled - plot elements within! )

I've not yet rewatched The Blind Banker (interrupted as I was by a phone call on Sunday), which is to do...

...but if you've not seen this yet, here's University of Stirling media academic - and graduate of Doctor Who fanzinedom - Dave Rolinson on how much Sherlock owes to Doyle and how multi-faceted its status as adaptation is, with particular ( Read more... )

( Accident, directed by Joseph Losey )

There's not very much to say about this film, other than that it clearly takes place in a parallel universe; a 'progressive' pope called Pius XVI has just died, and the name Pius will probably be associated with reaction for some time, I fear... The film has more than its fair share of experts who keep having to ask basic questions, and one wonders ( Read more... )

( Now cut for spoilers )

Die Nibelungen - Siegfried was made in 1924, and is perhaps the most involving silent film I've seen. I don't know Wagner's Ring cycle so had no preconceptions about the story. Lang's film depicts a Siegfried who has a lot in common with the Perceval of mediaeval Arthurian legend, naively pursuing goals which he does not fully understand. Mime, his ( Read more... )