Review with extreme prejudice ... (2001/08/09)

Review with extreme prejudice ...

Posted by Simon Richardson on 2001/08/09 15:04

-----Original Message-----

From : Nick Waterman <nick-sony@>

To : chat@
Date : 09 August 2001 14:17:11
Subject : Re: To spoil or not to spoil.....
storyteller@ wrote:

You wouldn't want spoilers for, say, ?Quatermass and the Pit? or
?The Birds?, to pick two older films. You certainly wouldn't want
them for ?Ring?, a piece of Japanese horror that is slowly
but deservedly acquiring a cult following among the cognoscenti.
Or ?Brazil?, or ?Dark Star?, or ?Ghostbusters? or ?Terminator 2?

Sorry, spoil Dark Star, it's only fair. I don't know what I missed, it's
probably the most tedious film I've ever managed to stay awake through,
with the possible exception of ?The English Patient? which will luckily
never get an IFIS showing.

Was there even an actual STORY in Dark Star?

Go ahead, spoil it...

For some reason, it's achieved some kind of ?cult? status. Maybe people
enjoy watching it for the same reason they enjoy laughing at how utterly
dire ?attack of the killer tomatoes? is, or something... that said, I
love 2001 and a lot of other people seem to utterly fail to appreciate
THAT.

In Dark Star's credit, though... It was shown in an IFIS video evening
many years ago, and some girl called Estelle (who I vaguely knew) was so
utterly bored, she fell asleep partway through the film, on my shoulder,
and the rest is history but now she's obviously my wife and mother of my
daughter. I can't pretend Dark Star was the ONLY factor that brought us
together, or even the most significant, but it possibly helped a lot.

Is it even possible to ?spoil? dark star?

One thing that might be good is a "hate reviews" page, where people
utterly slate the SF film/book/whatever they hate most. It could
be amusing. I'll do Prat-chett if nobody else is interested.
And, of course, "The Phantom Menace".

The point I am trying to suggest is that actually not everyone
likes the same things. There will be someone in IFIS who likes
"Dark Star" - and there will be Amiga-users in next year's
crop, if you're really lucky.

It takes all sorts, you see.

20 email addresses from 15,000 domain names - free at http://www.another.com

Review with extreme prejudice ...

Posted by Asan Tu on 2001/08/09 15:06

Excellent. I'll do The Princess Bride if someone does IKWYDLS ;)

Review with extreme prejudice ...

Posted by Dominic T. on 2001/08/09 16:25

HIGHLANDER 2

What do you get if you take a swords-and-sorcery saga, and suddenly insert
aliens on flying skateboards?

A total shambles.

It's as though they found a director who wanted to make a sequel to Blade
Runner, and tortured him with hot irons until he agreed to make a sequel to
Highlander instead. Then they wrote a script based around a few scenes that
looked good on paper, and tried to join them together with a plot the
producer's six-year-old son dreamed up while watching Dr. Who.

This film has absolutely no redeeming qualities in it whatsoever.

Plot holes you could herd sheep through, half-hearted performances from
quality actors who really should have known better, mixed with ham-acting
from random nobodies who vanished again immediately afterwards.

Skip it, and go straight from Highlander 1 to the superb TV series instead.
Watch Highlander 3 if you really do have nothing better to do on a wet
Boxing Day afternoon, and your granny bought it for you as a present.

Dominic.

I could do a review of Baron Munchhousen as well, but I've almost entirely
purged it from my memory, and I don't think I could sit through it again to
remind myself.

Review with extreme prejudice ...

Posted by Lizz Jennings on 2001/08/09 15:08

Haha, that's a good idea :o) Bagsy "The X-files"....

The point I am trying to suggest is that actually not everyone
likes the same things. There will be someone in IFIS who likes
"Dark Star" - and there will be Amiga-users in next year's
crop, if you're really lucky.

Yeah, Dark Star is really funny - I liked it especially for its two layered
feel - on one plane it was hysterically funny, on the other it was
hopelessly depressing. To me, it was an example of very funny sci-fi, I
can't see what there is to dislike about it.

Love,
Lizz

***************************************************************************

This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.
If you have received this email in error please notify the sender.

Information about PKF

PKF United Kingdom - The principal place of business where the list of
partners is open to inspection is 78 Hatton Garden, London EC1N 8JA.
Authorised to carry on investment business by the Institute of Chartered
Accountants in England & Wales. Web site http://www.pkf.co.uk.
PKF Financial Planning Ltd - 78, Hatton Garden, London, EC1N 8JA.
Regulated by the Personal Investment Authority for investment business.
PKF Republic of Ireland - The principal place of business where the list
of partners is open to inspection is 17 Percy Place, Dublin 4, Ireland.
Authorised to carry on investment business by the Institute of Chartered
Accountants in Ireland. PKF (Isle of Man) Limited - Analyst House, 20-26 Peel
Road, Douglas, Isle of Man IM99 1AP Directors. J M Cryer FCA,
P E Dearden ACA, D A R Drewett ACA, J H Nugent, J Scott FCA (Chairman),
P A Seaward FCA (Managing). PKF (Guernsey) Ltd - The principal place
of business where the list of Directors is open to inspection is Sarnia
House, Le Truchot, St Peter Port, Guernsey GY1 4NA.

PKF International is an association of legally independent national firms.

***************************************************************************