I really, really want to meet Simon Pegg. What he finds funny is what I find funny.. Spaced, Shaun of the Dead and now Hot Fuzz, we need more talent like this in the UK.
Although Hot Fuzz has the feeling of being “loads of the cool ideas that didn’t fit in Shaun of the dead” it’s still a cracking laugh, poking fun at the English in the way only an affectionate native could. It’s a slow starter but picks up pace after the first half an hour. Perhaps it’s 10 minutes overlong at just over 2 hours, but it doesn’t necessarily drag. My favourite bits include the way in the small village of Sandford, they constantly mispronounce “London”, the somerset PC whose mumblings have to be interpreted, and the mention of “brain freeze” over a Cornetto. Brilliant cast that we’ve seen in all the other Wright/Pegg outings, and it really looked like a load of fun to make. I was surprised at the inclusion of some hilarious death scenes too (now we know why villages always want to Save the Church roof). I also enjoyed the pacey editing style of Chris Dickens (same editor on SOTD and some Spaced) who IMDB tells me has just completed editing Ringam Ledwidge’s first feature Gone. Ringan incidentally was a half decent commercials director so that film is on my to see list.
Manly
Also watched the first 3 episodes of The Dresden Files showing on the Sci-Fi channel, from the books by Jim Butcher. Took all my will power to stomach the cheesy lines and the too-handsome-to-be-straight stubbled features of Harry Dresden himself, Paul Blackthorn who apparently is both English and was the grim reaper in a Virgin commercial. Bizarre. However - this genre bender is standard fare at the moment. It’s old fashioned Mike Hammer private investigations, including the required VO (“Sushi, that’s what my ex-wife called me. Raw fish”) mixed with the ever popular fantasy, magic, good versus evil world used in Buffy, Harry Potter or Charmed (lets hope less of the Charmed influence!). First couple of episodes were a bit awkward, but by the third you could see there would be some longer arcs that might get interesting, and Dresden had a heady encounter with an attractive lycanthrope, which managed to reel me in. It’s not as smart as Buffy, or as prettily vacuous as Charmed, but somewhere inbetween. I’m holding out on a judgement untill I’ve seen more.
Before I forget, and it was some time ago, I made a special effort to catch Children of Men, the pet project of director Alfonso Cuaron. SFX / Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB like this movie. My friends like this movie. This according to all I have heard should have been my film of last year, but it really didn’t work for me.. Clive Owen doesn’t do that much really.. struggles a bit, apologises to some fighting rebels, delivers some flat lines in his mystery accent.. the supporting cast fail to do just that, and I found no-one in the whole film that I related to or cared about. So, the somewhat bleak end was actually a huge relief for me. Oh, some kudos is due for the excellent scene with almost no cuts where Owen in a small car in a wooded lane gets ambushed. That was cool, and exciting. But that was it.
Last words: Someone stop Michael Caine (born Maurice Micklewhite, trivia fans) from overacting, please. He’s was bearable in The Prestige, and he always done a fine job of doing Michael Caine style characters, but in Children of Men, we are supposed to believe he’s some kind of eccentric aging hippie. No he isn’t - and he can’t do accents other than his own. After people have guested on the Muppet show, it’s hard to see them as anything other than caricatures of themselves. Mark Hamil, Dudley Moore, and Steve Martin are also victims of the Muppet Show curse.