The Benjamin and Jake relationship has always been, by far, my favourite parent/child relationship in any Trek series. Or in any non-Trek series for that matter. And here it reaches its most heartbreakingly beautiful and devastatingly sad peak. Absolutely stellar and stunning performances from Tony Todd, Avery Brooks and Cirroc Lofton. The tenderness, the sadness, the love. The inability to ever let go and move on till grief consumes and destroys you. Wanting to hold onto something or someone that only wants to release you and set you free. There may be other Trek episodes this well-written & beautifully-acted, but it's hard to think of any that will make you weep as hard or as long as this one does.
Reviews
9 Reviews
Bleepin' Incredible
9 October 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Not just my favourite episode of The X-Files, but one of my favourite episodes of any TV show, ever. Just glorious in conception and execution. And, as with all of Darin Morgan's episodes, Gillian Anderson gets all the best scenes and moments. And gets to flex her considerable comedic chops brilliantly. Mulder as sexually ambiguous, weirdo loser? What's not to love! His...er, excitement at watching the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film, at end - topless, hand under the sheets - is one of the great laugh out loud moments the show ever gave us. Unreliable narrators. Stop motion, Shakespearean-speakin' aliens, Jesse Ventura. What more do ya want?
Ravenous
(1999)
A Meaty Horror Feast
9 February 2004
Having recently rewatched (and thoroughly enjoyed) Antonia Bird's 1999 shocker, I must say it surprises me how neglected and underrated this little gem is.
What raises it above the ordinary? Well for a start there's the nice touch of not only making the hero' (Capt. John Boyd) a coward, but in refusing to fully resolve the issue of his cowardice (or his fear of death).
Then, of course, there's Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn's delightfully playful/disturbing score. Music in horror is so often used to build tension and convey dread in such a cliched and overly familiar way that any twist on the formula is most welcome indeed. Some may have found the jolly' banjo music accompanying Ives's pursuit of Toffler somewhat silly and out of place', but it is this very incongruity which makes it so enjoyable for me. It throws the audience an unexpected musical cue and lends the scene an appropriate and delicious grotesqueness.
In addition, there are numerous interesting and provocative themes thrown up amidst the gore and despair. Man's never-ending search for different forms of escape; the analogy between Ives's cannibalistic fervour and the coming Western expansion that would consume and devour everything in its path; cannibalism/capitalism crossovers etc.
Finally, there's the sheer pleasure of watching black, black comedy horror of the highest order being performed by a cast of fine, able, intelligent actors. Horror these days can be so formulaic and can take itself so seriously, that one longs for a bit of gruesome, gleeful, twisted, inventive fun. Hats off to the filmmakers and actors for delivering the meaty goods to a starving horror audience.
What raises it above the ordinary? Well for a start there's the nice touch of not only making the hero' (Capt. John Boyd) a coward, but in refusing to fully resolve the issue of his cowardice (or his fear of death).
Then, of course, there's Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn's delightfully playful/disturbing score. Music in horror is so often used to build tension and convey dread in such a cliched and overly familiar way that any twist on the formula is most welcome indeed. Some may have found the jolly' banjo music accompanying Ives's pursuit of Toffler somewhat silly and out of place', but it is this very incongruity which makes it so enjoyable for me. It throws the audience an unexpected musical cue and lends the scene an appropriate and delicious grotesqueness.
In addition, there are numerous interesting and provocative themes thrown up amidst the gore and despair. Man's never-ending search for different forms of escape; the analogy between Ives's cannibalistic fervour and the coming Western expansion that would consume and devour everything in its path; cannibalism/capitalism crossovers etc.
Finally, there's the sheer pleasure of watching black, black comedy horror of the highest order being performed by a cast of fine, able, intelligent actors. Horror these days can be so formulaic and can take itself so seriously, that one longs for a bit of gruesome, gleeful, twisted, inventive fun. Hats off to the filmmakers and actors for delivering the meaty goods to a starving horror audience.
Miller's Crossing
(1990)
Witty, moving, devestating...
9 January 2004
`Friendship, Character. Ethics'. Where to start? We're talking favourite movies here folks so only superlatives will do. On the surface, this is the usual Cohen fare: rapid-fire dialogue, camera swoops and twirls, invention and subversion. What separates this wheat from the
em
other wheat of the brothers' output is the potent love-triangle (a much-abused phrase I admit) that glues the explosive theatrics together. Tom and Verna, Verna and Leo, Tom and Leo? There's love here pilgrims, real love, though the principals can't bring themselves to utter the word.
What of the performances? Well, Mr. Byrne ambles his way through one of the most wonderfully laconic performances since Jimmy Stewart kissed goodbye to the silver screen. Attention, breast-beating METHOD actors this is cinema, deliciously underplayed. Marcia Gay Harden matches Tom/Gabriel step for jaded step, and Albert Finney shines as the (dangerous) boob in the middle.
And hats off to Carter Burwell for his delightful appropriation of Lament for Limerick'.
Recommended in case you haven't guessed..
What of the performances? Well, Mr. Byrne ambles his way through one of the most wonderfully laconic performances since Jimmy Stewart kissed goodbye to the silver screen. Attention, breast-beating METHOD actors this is cinema, deliciously underplayed. Marcia Gay Harden matches Tom/Gabriel step for jaded step, and Albert Finney shines as the (dangerous) boob in the middle.
And hats off to Carter Burwell for his delightful appropriation of Lament for Limerick'.
Recommended in case you haven't guessed..
Moulin Rouge!
(2001)
As Uninvolving as it gets...
27 March 2002
Although the visual panache and punchy editing may entertain or amaze/amuse for the first 20 minutes, the extended music video that is 'Moulin Rouge!' quickly becomes tiresome and wearying. How anybody could muster even the slightest interest in the ultimate fate of the two principals is beyond me as Luhrmann's preferred style (dazzling though it may be) has the disadvantage of driving us away rather than pulling us in. Big, Brash, Amazing, perhaps, but ultimately (I fear) cold, dumb and futile.
The Roller Blade Seven
(1991)
A Godzilla sized turkey
15 March 2002
It was (foolishly) with some degree of relish that I sat down to watch what a friend had promised would be the worst/best movie experience of my life, the mighty 'Roller blade 7'. 2 years on and I'm still in therapy. Oh yes my dear friends it REALLY IS THAT BAD. They obviously got about 40 minutes of footage in the can and then decided to use said footage endlessly and repeatedly to brain-numbing effect. My only fear of the kind of post-apocalyptic world featured in this turkey is that somehow, some way, a print of this abomination would survive. Truly the living would envy the dead.
Planet of the Apes
(2001)
An absolute Shambles
2 February 2002
After walking out of 'Batman and Robin' a broken man, I consoled myself with this one nugget of comfort: "Blockbusters cannot sink any lower". How wrong I was. With 'Planet of the Apes' Mr T. Burton has produced a movie which is absolutely devoid of characterisation and totally lacking in wit or imagination. The plot holes are so gargantuan that one fears the bored looking cast members may tumble into them never to return. Even Burton's visual panache, the saving grace in such uninvolving one joke efforts as 'Mars attacks', is utterly absent here. This looks exactly like what it is: slapdash, cynical filmmaking of the highest (or lowest) order.
Do yourself a favour and go back and revel in the wonderfully unnerving atmosphere of the original. Or better yet watch 'Beetlejuice' and marvel at a talent gone badly, badly awry.
Do yourself a favour and go back and revel in the wonderfully unnerving atmosphere of the original. Or better yet watch 'Beetlejuice' and marvel at a talent gone badly, badly awry.
Apollo 13
(I) (1995)
Yawn!
24 January 2002
Trust old baby-face Ron Howard to turn such a potentially interesting narrative into one of the most leaden, dreary pieces of celluloid in many a long day. Cliches pile happily on cliches as Howard manages to drain the life from every bland minute of this tiresome yarn. Avoid.
Gladiator
(2000)
Vastly Overrated
5 December 2001
This is possibly one of the most over-rated releases in recent years (although given the media's penchant for hyperbole this is by no means sure). The characterisation is wooden and dull while the celebrated computer effects look like poor copies of the intro sequence to strategy computer games (Age Of Empires etc). Joaquin Phoenix's performance reeks of bad high camp and is spectacularly misjudged. Is anyone else sick of buff, manly heroes battling gaunt, 'effeminate' villains? Do NOT believe the hype.
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