Year: 2017 Director: Pennant Roberts

So the most reworked ‘lost’ Doctor Who story ever gets yet another release – since it was cancelled in 1979 due to industrial action it has seen a VHS release with Tom Baker narrating linking material, a flash animation BBC7 version, a novelization, a fan made animation, a Paul McGann fronted audio drama and now this assembly of the existing filmed material with impressive animation.

Most of what was filmed before the strike was on location in and around Cambridge, a location close to the heart of the story’s writer , Douglas Adams. As you’d expect the tale is full of great one liners, proper science and imagination that stretches the BBC budget to it’s limits. Ok he helps them out with having a 100 ft long spaceship that is invisible yet gets great material from it. Quantum theory, time displacement and molecular entropy all get a look in but not as bafflegab , as zinging ideas.

Tom Baker is on top form, delighted to play the silliness and laughs in Douglas’ work rather than dismissing the script as ‘whippet shit’ as he did so often. His assistant, Romana II, Lalla Ward is simply » Continue Reading.

Year: 2017 Director: Chris Rodley

Rover. Portmerion. Number 2. Unmutual. The Tally Ho.

If how these words connect is a puzzle to you then perhaps you’re not the target audience of this excellent documentary on 60’s mindfuck television masterwork, The Prisoner, but more pertinently the mighty drive and ambition of its star (and sometime, writer, director and producer) Patrick McGoohan. There are a couple of decent “making of” documentaries about the series which may give you more of an idea to the nuts n bolts of how it call came to be. However this is more an insight into the inception of the series and a tiny glimpse into “what it means” via rare interview footage with McGoohan.

In 1983, to coincide with Channel 4’s repeat showing of the series, Chris Rodley, was given the task of producing an introductory look at the show. As a devotee he went big and tried to get an interview with a man who believed the work should speak for itself and hated actors quacking on about their work. Via some suitably cagey and odd encounters he got the man to sit in front of a camera only for a day only for the » Continue Reading.

Year: 2017 Director: Chris Smith

I’m not a fan of Jim Carey. As a rule I don’t like wacky and his shtick in The Mask, Ace Ventura and Dumb & Dumber feels like 2nd rate Robin Williams. Regardless of that I thought he was pretty good in Man In The Moon, the biopic of US comic actor and performance artist Andy Kaufman. As a kid his character. Latka and Christopher Lloyd’s stoner,Jim were my favourite things about the sitcom, Taxi.

During the making of the biopic Jim Carey’s production company filmed hours of behind the scenes footage which makes up the bulk of this documentary alongside a contemporary interview with a bearded Carey. It shows that Jim went full method by becoming ‘Andy’ on and off camera.

One of Kaufman’s most infamous pranks was to petition the Taxi bosses to hire his friend Tony Clifton, a faded cabaret singer, to be a guest on the show. Clifton turned up drink, abusive and caused chaos and upset all day before being thrown out by security. It only occurred to everyone later that Clifton was Kaufman.

So Jim/Andy also appears as Clifton generally causing trouble on the set of » Continue Reading.

Year: 2017 Director: Paul King

The first Paddington film rather than trampling over a generation’s teatime TV memories was a terrific, warm, affectionate and funny celebration of Britain with anti Brexit & Daily Mail undertones. Was a little worried that the sequel wouldn’t recreate that warm fuzzy feeling inside this big kid.

I can imagine Paddington giving me one of his hard stares for such lack of faith as I happily report that it’s captured the same kindness, fun and flair for bringing some of those illustrations of the 70s TV series to life. There are clever little visual tricks and steps that other family film would not consider – almost a cartoonists eye for storytelling.

Ben Wishaw’s naive tones are perfect for the bear, the Browns suit the stereotypical image of British life as does the tourist view of London. Portobello Road hasn’t looked so clean and tidy since, well, Notting Hill.

Talking of which, Hugh Grant hams up a storm, channelling Patrick Barlow’s deluded thesp Desmond from National Theatre of Brent as the villain of the piece. There are cameos from British comedy talent throughout as well as a great turn by Brendan Gleeson and even David » Continue Reading.

Year: 2017 Director: Michael Cumming

Its pretty fair to say that Chris Morris’ ‘Brasseye’ series arrival in January 1997 was like a bomb going off in my head. I was at university and awaited the series starting the year before for it only to be pulled from the schedules at the last moment. I watched the first episode alone and thought I would die from laughing. After showing it to my housemates it became a weekly event as the series aired – I have never seen a room of people laugh so much – people were crying, exploding and convulsing – helpless. I am guessing this is how Python hit the student population in the 60s except we often rewatched the show immediately as we had missed lines drowned out by laughter. In the final year of my degree I used Brasseye as the subject of my dissertation. Yes – that’s how I spent your tax dollars, mercifully without tuition fees.

Oxide Ghosts is an hour of cream from series director Michael Cummings box of mouldy old VHS tapes featuring 70 hours of often timecoded, film and studio rushes. He has assembled a documentary that attempts to show a » Continue Reading.

Year: 1991 Director: Terry Gilliam

As a teenage Python obsessive at the turn of the Nineties I devoured anything related to them whether it be the genius of Ripping Yarns to tangential rubbish they had been involved in (take your pick) and I think I didn’t really get with The Fisher King in 1991. It had one of my childhood heroes Mork in it but it wasn’t a laugh riot from end to end.

Picked up the Criterion Blu Ray on TFK last week as it dipped in price in the sales and gave it another shot over the weekend as I know it’s good and I recall watching The South Bank Show at the time which gushed over that scene in Grand Central Station. I was a naïve young fool back then is my only conclusion who like Jeff Bridges’ Jack at the beginning of the film didn’t believe in magic. For a start – when it is funny, its really funny – not just Robin Williams’ portrayal of Parry the street person’s psychosis in full flight – a mix of Shakespearean verse, quips and close harmony singing but the extremely well drawn female characters have some of » Continue Reading.

Year: 2017 Director: Armando Iannucci

When Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was discovered face down, stinking of his own urine at his dacha in March 1953 his faithful friends and committee members didn’t immediately send for a doctor as all the prominent ones were in gulags or had been shot. He had lain undisturbed for some time as his guards were afraid that if they disturbed him after a bout of heavy drinking, he would have them killed. It is just this atmosphere of farce, fear and black comedy that drives the funniest film I have seen in years.

That’s not to say it’s a broad comic romp as that would be a far more lightweight affair – it’s the fact it touches on sadistic executions, torture, child rape, bloody violence and horror whilst still delivering brilliantly funny line after line that demonstrates what a masterful writer / director Armando Iannucci is. The source material of a French graphic novel demonstrates the paranoia and true life absurdity that was Russian society during the fag end of Stalin’s rule.

The cast I simply stunning that it’s hard not just to list their names but Simon Russell Beale pulls very few punches as Beria, » Continue Reading.