Saturday, September 01, 2007

Strawberry Flavoured Conversation Chewing Gum

Sorry, but it's time for my quarterly 'Buks what i have red,' dump

June
  1. The Seed of Earth - Robert Silverberg
  2. A Rose for Ecclestiastes - Roger Zelazny
  3. Decade of the 1960's - Ed. Aldiss & Harrison 'Classic' SF shorts.
  4. War Reporting for Cowards - Chris Ayres . Genuinely Laugh Out Loud "How I ended up as a war reporter" madness.
July
  1. Gentlemen of the West - Agnes Owen.
  2. The Valley of Statues - Robert Holdstock
  3. Kingdoms of Elfin - Sylvia Townsend Warner (This is turning into one of those read every couple of years books. It is delightful.)
  4. Tara - Terence De Vere White
August
  1. Moondust - Andrew Smith. Subtitled 'In Search Of The Men Who Fell To Earth' a fascinating read which recaptured my childhood sense of wonder at the whole Apollo program - despite a couple of obvious factual inaccuracies.
  2. Authentic Science Fiction - Not very good 1950s SF
  3. Say, Darling - Richard Bissell. Funny backstage novel. I now want to read The Pajama Game to find out what it was all about.
  4. Hieroglyphic Tales - Horace Walpole.
  5. Welcome To The Monkey House - Kurt Vonnegut.
I have only read 13 books in the last 3 months. This is pathetic.

And Movies:

June
  1. The Lost Continent - Cheap Lost World knock off containing footage lifted from (Dear god! Noooooo!) Rocketship X-M
  2. Lady Ice -Dull Thomas Crown wannabee that seemed to be have been made by filming Donald Sutherland on holiday.
  3. Counterblast - 1948 British 'thriller'.
  4. The Hound of The Baskervilles - Hammer films, l love 'em, total tosh but great total tosh.
  5. The Phantom Planet - dreadful early 60s 'SF'
  6. The Bride of the Monster - Ed Wood Jr's second greatest bad film with some truly inspired weird acting moments from Bela Lugosi.
  7. Rancho Notorious - Great title! Fritz Lang, Marline Deitrich. and Cowboys. Odd.
  8. Dark City - gorgous comic book nonsence. If you ever watch it keep the sound down until the watch shows 12, as it has one of those dreadful tacked on pre-credit narrations that fuck up the whole mystery before it starts.
  9. The Dresser - Tom Courtney. What a brilliant performance and this is one of the reasons I don't watch good films. I was was an emotional wreck at the end of this movie. I have to stop watching films about long unexpressed love. I've seen two recently, Cyrano and this, and I was snivelling wreck at the end of both of them. Hanky jobs both times. I'm going back to watching androids fighting; cheap 60s SF movies don't make me feel life an emotional dishrag at the end.
July
  1. The Dark Crystal - a cuddled up on the sofa (or in daughter number one's case behind the sofa. "It's a bit scary.") wet Sunday afternoon movie which was not as good as I remembered but it kept the kids hooked.
  2. A Scanner Darkly - weird and interesting (and funny) but how did they let continuity errors get through in an Animated movie?
  3. Prayer of the Rollerboys - in a future world, only one man stands in the way of formation rollerblading, drug dealing, fascist street gangs in white trenchcoats and Flock of Seagulls haircuts - and that man is... Corey Haim. As bad as it sounds.
  4. Withnail and I - I laughed
  5. Goodbye Lenin - I cried. The great thing about watching so many crap movies is that when I get to see a good one it really goes to work on me.
  6. Jimmy Neutron - Boy Genius - CGI animated kids nonsense, and like a lot of animated kids nonsense a lot funnier and better made than most movies for adults.
  7. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes - Stupid fun.
  8. Wild Women of Wongo - I had never actually seen this classic piece of drek before. If I have, I had forgotten every frame and after it was finished ...
  9. Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women - it was 'Women Night' on the Crapmoviethon sofa.
  10. Attack of the Monsters - Space Bimbos! Giant Space Turtles! What's not to like? Best Line of the movie: "You're right, we'll eat their brains after we've fixed the ship."
  11. I Was a Teenage Werewolf - (MST3K) This movie didn't have any best lines.
  12. Samson Vs The Vampire Women - (MST3K) My first encounter with a Mexican wrestling Horror movie - a strange genre, and an experience I shared with Phoebe in Portland as she took a break from painting her kitchen. I went to the movies with someone 8 thousand miles away via Skype and a bit of ad hoc synchronisation. I love the Web.
  13. Confidential Report - Orson Welles at his most baroque.
  14. His Girl Friday - Comfort movie.
  15. Steal This Movie - OK, but not great, Biopic of Abbie Hoffman only watched because I have a thing about the yummy Janeane Garofalo and it was only a quid in Tesco's.
  16. Mr. Robinson Crusoe - they don't make them like this any more. Thank god.
  17. The Man Who Knew Too Much - First time I had seen the original version. Some very nice moments but not my favourite (yet) early Hitchock
  18. Orlando - I love every frame of this movie (even those with Billy Zane in them). Every frame.
August
  1. Cabaret - Liza Minnelli - perfect! Joel Grey - brilliant! Oh but dear god why did they cast Michael York? Tomorrow Belongs To Me gives me the shivers.
  2. I Heart Huckabees - What a pretentious, self-indulgent pile of crap! I hope this lost whoever made it a LOT of money.
  3. Raising Arizona -
  4. Paycheck - total turd of a movie. Pointless, explosion-ridden expansion of an adequate, but not that good, Philip K Dick short story.
  5. The Return Of The Four Musketeers - almost good.
  6. Django Against Sartana - Tinned Spahetti Hoops western.
  7. Witchfinder General - A genuinely one-off piece of movie making. The nearest thing (that I know of) to an English Spaghetti Western. Great stuff.
  8. The Amazing Transparent Man - (Note to self: Avoid Science Fiction movies made in Texas in future - especially those shot in only one week flat.)
That's it. You can breath again now.


6 comments:

Phoebe said...

Books I've read: 2007

Ursula LeGuin - Wizard of Earthsea

The last Harry Potter Book

I'm currently reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Should get me trough the rest of the year.

"I Am A Bunny" - a golden book. I've read that one about 20 times this year.

That about covers it.

You're retarded friend in the states...

I use an X because I can't spell my name.

X

Phoebe said...

I *Heart* Huckabies - Lily Tomlin reveals the thing most wrong with the movie - the director:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F86s4Vq59Ks

Phoebe said...

After a day of shooting at a high level - the director asks the actors to take it down by half...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z-qOKF0jmg

Dustin Hoffman is awesome...

Anonymous said...

Thanks for that. If possible this has lowered my opinion of the director even more... I like I this remake of one of them too.

Anonymous said...

I haven't read 13 books in my ENTIRE LIFE!!! Does that make you feel any better or just realsie you have a very dull sis-in-law!?!?! x

Anonymous said...

Django Against Sartana is good. One likely for fans only. Don't expect a Leone.

Missing CD? Contact vendor

Free CD
Please take care
in removing from cover.

Copyright (c) 2004-2007 by me, Liam Baldwin. That's real copyright, not any 'creative commons' internet hippy type thing.

(this copyright notice stolen from http://jonnybillericay.blogspot.com/)

eXTReMe Tracker