What's Up?
For the first time on a Saturday for what feels like forever, we went to the pub. In fact, we walked to the pub, had a few pints and a laugh, waxed lyrically about how we'd missed this so much and got home and fell asleep in front of the monitor because I'd drunk more than I intended. It was fantastic.
Rock 'n' Roll
In many ways I could dedicate an entire blog to the history I have with one of the greatest rock bands ever to have existed. The people I knew, the fact that my entire Led Zeppelin record collection was a gift from Jimmy Page and the links I've had with the band, via personal assistants, associates of staff and in one particular case, a man who thought he was going to get fired from his roadie gig and ended up being the guy who bought Robert Plant his weed during his solo tours in the 1980s. The thing is none of that was important when looking at the touching and, at times, utterly remarkable
Becoming Led Zeppelin documentary, about the earliest years of the band and their first two, groundbreaking, albums. This was essentially three old men reminiscing about the 1960s, when they all managed to find each other and become a phenomena. Probably the most heart-warming part of this two hour film was when Jimmy, Robert and John Paul Jones were listening to John Bonham's interview from the late 1970s. The drummer died 45 years ago now, but you can see his friends still hold him in high esteem and show their love for him touchingly.
This is a tough watch at times; unlike other music docs this allowed the music to have centre stage a lot of the time, so we saw rare footage of old classics from start to finish; if you're not a Zeppelin fan then you're not going to enjoy this as much as I did and even I thought two versions of both Communication Breakdown and Dazed and Confused were maybe overegging the pudding a little. You get the distinct impression that both Page and Jones are very erudite and well-educated men, while 'Percy' still sees himself as some nomadic, lower class wannabe who was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. I expect it was only really the opening two albums that could be focused on this way because the band became mired in scandals, drugs and excess as the 1970s matured. It was a fascinating film to watch as a fan of the band, but even then I can only really give it a 7/10.
Flight Risk
All the warning signs were there. The fact it was a Sky production and there was about a dozen different production companies involved. If that wasn't enough then the appearance of Katie Sackhoff should have - the last decent film she made was in the 00s and that required a gratuitous bare breast shot. This was fucking atrocious. A toilet bowl of donkey piss masquerading as a proper movie. Josh Hartnett seemed to be having a good time. The American actor played an ex-special ops agent tasked with retrieving a valuable asset on a continental flight and ensuring they stay alive given that the person he's trailing is the most wanted individual on the planet. I'm not sure if it was a badly made comedy, if it was supposed to sound like it has been scripted by an advertising copywriter or if it was serious(ly bad). There is lots of violence. The violence is almost comical and ridiculously far fetched. This is really awful. Do not be tempted especially as it has set itself up as the first part of more. It's excruciating and deeply offensive to functioning brains. Don't go there. 2/10
Southern Demonology
Kevin Bacon is having a bit of a renaissance and he's dealing with it very well. This new show, about a bounty hunter who comes back from the dead, is quick and relatively painful with a neat, overplayed premise and with a slightly skewed look. Hub Halloran is no saint, but when he dies tracking down a tricky bounty, the devil opts to give him another chance - become
The Bondsman for hell or simply go back to hell. Hub takes the chance, while seeing it as an ideal opportunity to finally out his ex-wife's new beau as the organised crime lord he is. Beth Grant plays Kitty, Hub's mother, who, in a change to other supernatural shows, is in on her son's situation and is quite happy to come along and help. Jennifer Nettles plays Maryanne, Hub's ex-wife who is a C&W singer and therein lies the show's biggest problem - the soundtrack and the fact that once upon a time Hub and Maryanne were an upcoming C&W duo. If you can see past the music, the show has some interesting and entertaining moments and it's only eight 30 minute episodes, however, I was not the only person we know who struggled to stay awake during episodes, so we're not going to be sticking with this.
The Spy Who Loved Himself
This us going to be a strange review because I fell asleep during a lot of this movie - it was
that good... It probably was very entertaining, but it just failed to grab my attention. I suppose what it was trying to achieve, making Michael Fassbender the new George Smiley, worked in spades. There's a bit of Harry Palmer here - the spy made famous by Michael Caine in the 1960s - as well as a bit of Alec Guinness thrown in for good measure. The idea is simple, Fassbender's George Woodhouse has a spy in his team of spies and one of them might be his wife - Cate Blanchett. He sets about an elaborate plan to wheedle out the bad guy by asking them all a set of questions, all interconnected, that will eventually reveal the spy. The problem was it was wordy, dull and couldn't grip my attention. I'm not even going to rank it because I remember far too little of it. The film was called
Black Bag and was directed by Steven Soderbergh, the guy who directed
Presence last week, so he's been busy.
Tactics
As Wilson Fisk uses his acquired 'knowledge' to get New York's money people on his side, he also makes his play to win his wife back. Meanwhile, Matt's obsession with his adversary is becoming, well, an obsession and people are noticing it. This was yet another episode setting things up for an inevitable confrontation, but I doubt it's going to be between Kingpin and Daredevil, more likely the former will use Bullseye's escape from prison as a way of disposing of two problems in one go, but doesn't plan for Poindexter's beliefs and Matt's act of stupid bravery. Next week's finale is going to do nothing but leave us on a cliffhanger craving the second half of this generally excellent series. It's just felt like it's been treading too much water to get where we are, which is so shrouded in fog, can we even be sure we're where we need to be?
Gee 20?
There is so much that is wrong with
G20 the new film starring Viola Davis as a controversial President of the USA. This is Die Hard with politicians. Prez Danielle Sutton is on her own against a bunch of crypto terrorists who have easily kidnapped 18 of the G20 and are getting them to read things into a camera to allow them to be manipulated by AI saying anything. It's far fetched nonsense, but not as far fetched as Davis as a hard ass ex-Marine with a devoted husband and two tech savvy children. There are more plot devices introduced in the opening ten minutes you could have made a checklist for them all (or even shaken a stick at). It's a silly idea, executed in a relatively competent way that makes little or no sense and proves the makers of the film had zero idea how this would have played out in the real world. I honestly thought it was going to be a comedy after the opening ten minutes, but it was actually quite a harsh film with Antony Starr playing a baddy who could easily have been Homelander without the super powers. Viola Davis isn't in the right shape to pass off a role like this and obviously had a body double for any scene where she isn't static. This was lower than bang average. 4/10
Obsession?
Is the world obsessed with
The White Lotus or is it just the Guardian blowing a trumpet for something that is a fringe hit at best? It's difficult to tell now, with streaming networks not releasing any details of viewings and the best chance we have of knowing if something has been a success is whether it gets renewed for another season. However, The Guardian's obsession with the series is as prolific as their adoration for
Mad Men in the noughties; almost every day we've had articles in the paper ranging from: Is it as popular as it was? Who are the top 30 characters to appear in the show? Does it tell us something about our obsession with rich people and their lifestyles? These and many more, while when they do allow comments, these are often polluted with negative ones about the paper's fascination/obsession with the show or simply how it isn't very good - which are often met by other people telling these people they don't belong there and shouldn't be commenting on something they don't understand/don't like/is obviously far above the mental pay grade, etc, ad nauseum.
The White Lotus was nothing to write home about; the entire three series have been populated with unpleasant rich people not enjoying their wealth or forgetting the benefits that being rich often affords. I just don't understand why it is adored by the paper, which does obsess over other things - Game of Thrones, Doctor Who and ignoring spoiler warnings with major movies - but not quite in such a fawning way. Maybe it's because, despite its roots, that the Guardian really is just a middle class neoliberal rag run by unhappy rich cunts?
Scam Alert
I don't understand why we, as a race, need to be told about scams so often as we do. Not only are there dedicated scam programmes, there's also Morning Live with it's scam of the day/week/month and the need to paint this picture that being scammed is a normal thing and not mainly contained to middle class wankers who see profit and get fleeced. Because that is what we have with most scams; some middle class person who has lost £10k because they were stupid enough to believe something they're being told. How ignorant/stupid must a person be to not have taken any notice to warnings that big companies and corporations will never ask you for money, especially not your bank details, under no circumstances at all. It won't happen. If 'a bank' is telling you you have to give them your account details to sort it out then you're being robbed and you're too stupid to know.
If something is in your spam folder, is too good to be true or requires you to spend money to accumulate lots of money, you're on the receiving end of people who know that humans are fucking stupid. Morning Live is scaremonger TV; BBC freelancers getting paid to scare the bejesus out of us by making us think that people with common sense are always being robbed. In many ways it's as bad as the scammers, despite purporting to be doing an important job.
Six Degrees of Incompetence
The sixth part of
Dope Thief was really all about Ving Rhames as Ray's father and how if it hadn't have been for him this story would have petered out and had an unspectacular ending. At the end of episode five, Ray - Brian Tyree Henry - had taken a bullet by one of the drug dealers outliers, because he still has a massive bounty on his head. So therefore this part of the story is all about being holed up in Theresa's house - Kate Mulgrew, who has taken some strange jobs since being in Star Trek - with Ray on the verge of death. Bart Driscoll - Rhames - is out of prison but he's got a wire in his ankle bracelet but the real DEA seem to be as stupid as the two idiots pretending to be them at the start of the series, only Mina - Marin Ireland - seems to have an idea what's happening but no one wants to take her seriously because she had been having an affair with her partner unawares he was the dirtiest of cops. This is an episode that is full on in your face from the opening scenes; it's intense, funny, violent and in the end quite touching and a little sad. I get it that this show has had to meander around a while, but maybe if it had focused on the 'law' side of the story a little when it seemed to be floundering then maybe this would have been a 9 rated show.
What's Up Next?
"Are we going to watch that?" and "Do we have to watch that?" are two of the sentences to emerge from the wife's dainty gob, this week, about the new series of Doctor Who which will spoil Saturday nights for the next eight weeks. The answer to the questions is, despite not wanting to, I feel compelled to tune in and see whether or not it has improved. You will be the first to know.
This week also sees the finale, or in reality, the mid season finale of Daredevil Born Again will arrive midweek, the penultimate part of Dope Thief and the return of another TV show the Guardian swoons over - The Last of Us, which was okay if really painstakingly slow. Having seen the second Maze Runner film recently, which is how this video game adaptation should have resembled, I'm hoping that this second season ramps up not just the action but gives us a reason to stick with it, because it was just okay, in my never humble opinion...
I'm sure there will be something else to help me pad out these slightly thin blogs at the moment. But whatever I see is what you get.
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