Monday, January 31, 2005

celebrity bowel sprayer

mood: Les paul
music: me playing a Les Paul really loud through an amplifier the size of a cigarette packet

Super fun link of the day: http://www.landoverbaptist.org/


Critical reappraisal time

I tell you what, right? Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns is an overrated crock of shit. If bad artwork, a dearth of sympathetic characters and an unconvincing script filled with irritating street-lingo makes a seminal work of comic art, constantly referred to in the same breath as Alan Moore's peerless Watchmen, then I'm Lionel fucking Ritchie.

I got his Ronin for Xmas (Miller's, not Richie's, though I suspect Richie's is the superior work). It had better be good.

My friend Andrew actually sat through the Punisher movie. Here is his review:

Punisher the movie. A review by Andrew Barkham.
"Beautifully paced by director Jon Hensleigh and his editing team, storylines from various Punisher incarnations are skilfully weaved into a comprehensive whole. The dialogue crackles with wit and intelligence and each revelatory plot twist draws you deeper into the action. Thomas Jane is Frank Castle incarnate and must surely be destined for greatness. Best of all, John Travolta displays his true professionalism by attacking his role with the same enthusiasm and intensity he brought to Pulp Fiction and Get Shorty. Marvel can rest assured that the integrity of one of its most popular characters has been upheld."


I'm sure you can detect the sarcasm.


Critical reappraisal time part II
I tell you what, right? Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America is an overrated crock of shit. The contrived plot revolves around an unlikeable group of mysoginist thugs, with the odd woman portrayed as a either a whore or a pricktease. The pace is Lucio Fulci porridge without the recurring scenes of ocular trauma to reward one's patience. In the bathroom I found an interesting stain on the wall and didn't come out for twenty minutes, by which time the film was over. Apparently James Woods throws himself into a furnace in the end, so it sounds like I missed the consolation prize.



5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, my nama is Mariana. Couldn't find an e-mail, so I post it here. Just had to check out the site of the band which made one of my favorite songs, Bluebeard. Just love it, love it, love it. Any gigs in Denmark?

Wish you the best, gotta run to listen to Bluebeard again. :-)

Mariana

http://www.mariana.dk
e-mail: mariana@mariana.dk

Tom P said...

I'm inclined to agree with your comments on the dark knight returns/strikes back stories in terms of plot and character but I really love the art work, particularly the coloured stuff in DK2. I've never been able to sit through once upon a time in america so I probably agree with you there too. Wow, twice in one day, this must be some kind of record!

Have you read any Grant Morrison stuff? I used to really like Zenith in 200AD and I've been toying with the idea of starting to read The Invisibles but I don't know whether I can justify it in the wake of my decision to buy the entire output of Alan Moores ABC line (current favourite is Tom Strong and the Terra Obscura stories by an astronomical unit), I mean I really should try reading more books that aren't full of pictures of men wearing spandex.

Tom

Nick Talbot said...

I find it hard to work out what's going on in Miller's stories because I find the artwork impenetrable.

Invisibles: I think it's a bit crap. The metaphysics is good; Morrison's idea are very grand and multidimnesional, but his characters are pretty weak and the scripts can be cheesy.

Yeah, if you want consistent quality, Moore is the man. As for his ABC line I'm a big fan of Promethea. Man, comics are an expensive habit...

Anonymous said...

i can't stand miller's artwork or scripting.

Sean

Nick Talbot said...

Mariana;

thanks for you support. Glad you like the music. We will probably play in Denmark this year as we are touring Europe in the summer.