Review: Walking With Dinosaurs

Walking With Dinosaurs comes roaring back on to our screens this Christmas, but Emma Sudderick thinks it should have stayed extinct.

This Christmas, the BBC did something it has needed to do for 10 years. It brought back the dinosaurs.

So what did I do? I forced my two younger cousins to come to the cinema and spend 2 hours watching animated dinosaurs migrating. My dignity was saved, until it became apparent that I enjoyed the film more than the children did.

This is probably very true for one very good reason, I still remember the thrill of seeing dinosaurs for the first time on my TV screen.  It didn’t matter to me that the storyline was limp at best or that the characters were completely stereotypical of a children’s narrative, I was just excited (to the point of nausea) that I was watching a film about dinosaurs for the first time in years.

Once I had got past this initial elation, I started to see its faults. The plot had very little substance and the characters had even less.

Image Credit: 20th Century Fox

The protagonist, a Pachyrhinosaurus (aptly named Pachy), is the runt of the litter, constantly being picked on by his elder brother. As every children’s protagonist should be, he is suitably erroneous in his and find himself in all kinds of mischief.

This mischief, by luck alone, leads him into a romantic affair with another dinosaur, Juniper. Gee, doesn’t this sound familiar? Then the great migration begins and along the way the herd are met with all kinds of difficulties, including CARNIVORES! Gah! The film has so much substance that you can almost sink your teeth into it! (Get it?)

What I hope to emphasise is that there is very little reason that you should go and see Walking with Dinosaurs. It is a relatively short film, made solely for children. Yet there is something charming about the production. Whilst looking at the elements of the film in isolation make it seem like a dire attempt at reigniting the dino-mania many experienced when the original documentary first hit our screens in 1999 (I know, I feel very old too. One could almost say, prehistoric…), the film left me with a feeling of immense fulfillment. It was comical, uplifting and educational all at once. What it lacked in eloquent script writing it made up for in nostalgia.

I ended up walking out of the cinema entirely satisfied and entirely in need of someone to remind me that I was an adult.

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Has Corrie Finally Reached its Sell By Date?

Is Coronation Street struggling to weather the storm? Conor Byrne investigates.

Carla the shrew
Image Credit: ITV

Coronation Street has been a regular fixture on our TV sets since it first aired in 1960. Apparently, it’s never done better; it remains, as of August 2013, the number one soap with viewing figures reaching well into the millions. Viewership peaked at 28.5 million on Christmas Day 1987. From the 1960s to the 1980s, most episodes rated over 20 million viewers, and although this has declined in the 2000s and 2010s, this can more broadly be seen as a result of decline in viewership in terrestrial TV in the UK as a whole.

But Kathy Sweeney’s article written for the Guardian in July 2011 questioned why Corrie viewers were ‘turning off’, and two years later, the show hasn’t improved. Sweeney is right to suggest that ‘some storylines… seem to have dragged on well past the point where anyone could be reasonably expected to care’, whether Kylie Platt’s fraught relationship with David, which began as long ago as Christmas 2012, or the totally unconvincing affair between Tina McIntyre and Peter Barlow which has, thankfully, just ended… we hope.

David the psychopath
Image Credit: ITV

Not only are the storylines unconvincing, but the acting at times leaves a lot to be desired. Helen Worth rules the roost as a hilarious Gail Platt, while ‘Mad Mary’ makes for regularly entertaining viewing, but thank goodness irritating Stella Price (played by Eastenders’ Michelle Collins) appears in the show a lot less regularly. And don’t even mention characters such as Sunita – all she appeared to do was shout up the stairs telling her kids to brush their teeth and/or get into their pyjamas. Really convincing…

The departure of the best characters means that the show is slowly slipping into tedium. Gone are the days when sharp-tongued Blanche Hunt made us laugh or gape, open-mouthed, at her never-ending rudeness; and while Becky Granger’s constant storylines involving alcohol, adultery and scandal may have been slightly overdone, her pluckiness brought something to the show. This just isn’t represented anymore in the show – instead, characters are reduced to pitiful caricatures: the shrew Carla, the homewrecker Tina, the psychopath David. There’s no depth, and we just can’t empathise with any of them.

More simply, as Sweeney contends, the show’s lost its sense of ordinariness which was a very real reason it was so successful for such a long time. Instead, it’s moved to killing off characters with alarming regularity – ‘Coronation Street in recent years has had an astonishing death count, given that there are only about 15 houses’. The storylines are wearying and depressing, regularly focusing on death, betrayal and adultery.

But the biggest problem is that the majority of the characters just aren’t likeable. Something needs to change… before Corrie really does slide beyond the point of no return.

What do you think of the ailing soap? let us know on  Facebook, Twitter or by commenting below.

Headshot: Quentin Tarantino

Jarrett Banks thinks the director of Django is better than a Big Kahuna Burger, and here’s why…

Image Credit: The Telegraph

When sitting down to watch a Tarantino film I am always engulfed by the sharp colors that take me back to a childhood of comic books. This blurred line between reality and fiction is then further extenuated by a collection of cool, strange and wonderful characters that are always involved in some haphazard yet complex web of storylines.  Awkward camera angles are all part of the experience as you wait for a Tarantino-esque blood fest packed full of violence, blood, martial arts and badass one-liners that leave you wishing you were involved. 

Yet more impressive is his personal story. A man without a college degree, a man whose only insight into filmmaking was through working at a local video store, where any spare money was used to fund his own projects. This he attributes as his film school.

In 1992 he had his first flavour of success with the feature film, Reservoir Dogs. After being screened at the Sundance Festival, it paved the way for a fruitful and credible career as he created one highly acclaimed film after another. He won a Palme d’Or for Pulp Fiction shortly after, a film that continued to rack up awards with BAFTA’s, Academy Awards and Golden Globes, often for best original screenplay.  

I believe further credit is due for the fact he has been able to carve his name firmly on the furniture within every Westerner’s home, despite being a strong advocate of independent film. Refusing to sell out and conform to the monopoly of Hollywood, he has withheld his integrity by offering his own alternative spins on classic genres. Which I believe is a spur of hope in a fight against the dull, recycled cinema that is omniscient within the film industry of today. 

His alternative approach to cinema is never without its critics and his use of violence and racial epithets are continually scrutinized. But who cares? You know what your getting when you sign up for a Tarantino movie, I will nail bitingly wait for his next movie and continue to be enthralled by the spectacle he provides.

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Review: The Wolf of Wall Street

Rosy Blake finds an unsettling moral message at the heart of Oscar-tipped The Wolf of Wall Street.

After seeing the ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ I was disappointed at the frustration I felt, but I’m now beginning to wonder whether that was the reaction Scorsese was trying to get from me all along.

Image credit: Hollywood Reporter

Based on his own memoir, the film follows the rise and fall of Jordan Belford (Leonardo di Caprio), a charismatic stock broker who founds his own brokerage firm, which, to put it mildly, does not operate entirely within the law.

The film depicts Belford’s ridiculously lavish and hedonistic lifestyle… excessively.  Most of the three hours is spent watching di Caprio snorting lines of cocaine, driving private helicopters, hosting office parties full of hookers, consuming numerous bottles of Quaaludes and generally indulging in every material extravagance money can buy. It could probably have been cut short by an hour and told the same story, although even the most ridiculous parts of the film are taken from his memoir; he did actually have to be rescued by the Italian navy after his multi-million dollar boat got caught in a storm.

Yet, with the recent financial crisis still fresh in the minds of many, the fact that the film seems to celebrate rather than condemn Belford’s actions is frustrating. Anyone would believe that if you’re clever enough, you can live such a lifestyle at the expense of society and essentially get away with it (spending a mere 22 months in prison) simply by betraying your friends.

Perhaps the unsavoury taste left in my mouth as the credits rolled in was exactly the message I was supposed to take away – that these things happen in the world of finance and that, in some cases, it is all too easy to get away with it.

Rosy Blake

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Peter O'Toole: Obituary

At the age of 81, Peter O’Toole died on the 14^th December 2013. Here Flora Carr reflects on the great stage and screen actor    

Image Credit: The Guardian

The first time I saw Peter O’Toole on screen it was in How to Steal a Million (1966). I had been going through my Audrey Hepburn phase and when the film came on the television I demanded that the whole family watch it. As in most Hepburn films, the iconic actress’ lines were snappy, her clothes inspiring and she had the whole ingénue thing down to a ‘T’. But throughout the film, it wasn’t Hepburn I was mesmerised by; it was O’Toole.

It’s not by any means O’Toole’s meatiest role. For that, you could point to his role as Kind Henry II in The Lion in Winter (1998) or perhaps his role as an elderly, dying actor in Venus (2006). Nor is it his most famous role; there you’re far more likely to think of his break-out performance in Lawrence of Arabia (1962).  

How to Steal a Million is a comedy, full of mistaken identity, love triangles, confusion and flirtatious banter. Hepburn plays Nicole, the daughter of an art forger. O’Toole plays Simon, a man discovered by Nicole examining one of her father’s pieces in the dead of night and whom she assumes to be a burglar. She then enlists his help to steal back one of her father’s pieces before he is exposed as a forger. It’s playful, fun and silly. And yet O’Toole still manages to dazzle. Through the merest twitch of a smile, he’s more expressive than the rest of the flamboyant cast put together.

In 1966, he was also at the peak of his attractiveness; just four years earlier O’Toole’s performance in Lawrence of Arabia prompted Noël Coward to famously quip “If you had been any prettier, the film would have been called Florence of Arabia”. He’s also unequivocally funny. His glass-cut British accent, combined with his dry sarcasm, results in even making even small exchanges like this memorable.

NICOLE: I didn’t want to keep you waiting, so I got engaged to him. Is it alright? Am I on time?

SIMON: Perfectly. In fact, we have ten more minutes, so if you want to go back and marry him…?

Image Credit: The Guardian

In real life O’Toole was equally full of wit and charm. As a man who received seven Academy Award nominations without winning a single one, when the Academy first offered him an Honoury Academy Award he told them “I’m still in the game, and can win the lovely bugger on my own”. However, when he did accept it in 2003, he jokingly stated “Always a bridesmaid never a bride my foot”.

In other eulogies people may focus on O’Toole’s drinking problems, his failed marriage or even just Lawrence of Arabia, a film that continued to define him even in later years. But instead I’ll continue to think of him as the rakish, gentlemanly, quick-witted and handsome private investigator-come-burglar. In my mind, it was a type-casted role- and a fantastic one too.

Do you have a favorite Peter O’Toole moment? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter or by commenting below.

 

Review: Anchorman 2 – The Legend Continues

Hannah Butler gets a second helping of Anchorman.

Ron Burgundy and his imbecilic and mildly offensive news team return triumphantly onto our screens after an almost decade-long hiatus, in this sequel to 2004’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.

Image credit: CNN

Happily married to former rival Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), Ron (Will Ferrell) faces the tough choice between love and ambition when Veronica is promoted just as he is fired. Unable to cope with Veronica’s success, Ron leaves the family home and winds up back in San Diego, where the opportunity arises to join the Global News Network, the world’s first 24-hour news channel.

Enter Ron’s loyal news team: Brian Fantana, Champ Kind, and of course, the wonderfully irritating yet endearing Brick Tamland, who join Ron in this challenge of making the graveyard shift their route back into the big time.

Of course, the danger of leaving such a vast length of time before introducing a sequel is that if, like my friends and I, you’ve been spouting Anchorman quotes since Year 8 and consider the film to be something of a classic, it’s going to take something pretty spectacular to make you forget that you “love lamp”, and forcibly remove you from the “glass case of emotion” you’ve been trapped in since film one.

However, if a spectacle is what you’re after, a spectacle is certainly what you’ll get in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.

We’re talking shark attacks, rolling RVs, and Will Ferrell playing jazz flute whilst figure skating. Chuck in some surprising guest cameos towards the end, and Anchorman 2 ends up just as far-fetched, daft yet hilarious as we’d expect from the original.

Basically, if you’re after sophisticated, politically correct entertainment, it’s probably best to give this a miss. However, if you enjoyed roaring and cringing along with the first Anchorman, chances are this won’t disappoint.

Hannah Butler

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Review: Death Comes to Pemberley

Emma Sudderick is underwhelmed by the latest Austen incarnation.

Image credit: BBC

Death Comes to Pemberley had all the elements to make it an ideal Christmas holiday addiction; the desire which overcomes us all to be Inspector Barnaby when watching crime mysteries, the eloquence of Elizabethan England which makes you want speak as though you inhaled the dictionary as a young child, and of course, Mr Darcy.

Based on P. D. James best-seller, it follows the lives of Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy six years after their marriage which concluded Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Everything seems dandy in their lives until Elizabeth’s younger sister, Lydia, and her contemptuous husband, Mr. Wickham, return.

From then on it is a spiral of deceit, murder and a lot of pre-Victorian lawyering which I didn’t really understand.

Yet with all its costumes, its familiar characters and its slightly hued cinematography which every recent period drama appears to fantasize about, the three part crime-thriller-come-love-story appeared to kill Pemberley in more ways than one.

Most importantly, it introduced yet another Mr Darcy into our fantasies. Whilst the debate of ‘Colin Firth Vs. Matthew Macfadyen’ has been frustrating Jane Austen lovers since 2005 when Joe Wright’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice was released, it has been somewhat engrossing trying to decide which has captivated our hearts most:  the water-logged white shirt of Firth or the rain-sodden peacoat of Macfadyen.

Matthew Rhys as yet another Darcy. Image credit: The Telegraph

Suddenly, we have a third party who is neither the family favourite actor nor the morose introvert which we best associate with the name Mr Darcy. That isn’t to say that Matthew Rhys’ portrayal is unsavoury, but rather that it lacks…gumption.

Indeed, even Elizabeth lacked much of her mettle which makes her so lovable as a protagonist. In fact, rather than transform Pride and Prejudice, what Death Comes to Pemberley has done is fantasised about it. The series is less of an adaptation than a day dream complete with the sly tell-tale humour of a 21^st Century production.

From this perspective it is very easy to see why Death Comes to Pemberley is a feat of genius. After all, the BBC merely did what every reader does to their favourite books and say “what if?”.

Despite its disheartening attempts at reigniting Austen’s literature, Death Comes to Pemberley managed to captivate a massive audience (at least for three evenings anyway) with its panache and excitement. Still, it will probably be forgotten within a few months and exiled to the television graveyard that is BBC Three.

Emma Sudderick

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Review: The Bridge Series 2, Episodes 1 & 2

The new pick of the Scandi-noirs has Callum Burroughs intrigued.

Image credit: BBC

At a depressing time where various high level security organisations are able to monitor your every move, where the weather appears to have been designed by mocking, sadistic children and where, for many the grey month of January is synonymous with grey days and exams, it is important to think of positives.

Evidently this scenario is perfect for the latest instalment of every young, liberal, euro-loving tv hipster’s favourite genre. Scandinavian drama.

Yes, since the arrival of The Killing and Borgen to our screens from our former Viking cousins, we have become accustomed to dark and often chilling scenes of Nordic crime and death live in our homes. It is not however all doom and gloom, as The Bridge returns for a second series on BBC 4.

The Bridge’s first series was met with interest, the next in the stellar line of Norse television and it didn’t disappoint. Despite the arguments that these excellent TV dramas should be scheduled at better times on BBC 1 or 2 to gain new audiences, the show continues on BBC 4.

The Danish/Swedish production was smooth and compelling, combining two different natural psyches in our two protagonists Martin Rhode (Kim Bodnia) and Saga Noren (Sofia Helin), the Danish and Swedish (respectively) police officers charged with investigating the confounding case of one body, with one person’s torso and another’s legs found on the Oresund bridge which connects Copenhagen and Malmo.

Striking attention to detail, inherent political symbolism and intent as well as various degrees of social commentary, The Bridge was seen as an adaptation of the apparently decided differences between Danes and Swedes. This has recently been replicated plot and all for British audiences with Sky’s The Tunnel, which features Britain and France as the key countries involved.

Troubled teens – Julia Ragnarsson as Laura. Image credit: BBC

This second series starts, rather surprisingly with a boat, or as Saga is at pains to point out a ship due to its size and length etc, thank you Saga. As many people’s hearts were palpitating, the director thought it wise to have the ship begin to sail toward the bridge, despite calls from the harbour master to avert its course. Why didn’t it change course?! Ah: there’s no crew, cue intense music and the beginnings of another series full of mystery.

This second offering was as expected full of the same intrigue as the first episode, though we feel much stronger interest in some of the new characters, whilst sympathising with the plight of the old.

The exposition of some of the key emotional issues in daily life, love and loss are keenly explored throughout the relationships on screen and as the plot remains as gripping as ever, while the idea of having what appears to be a cell of domestically based and driven murderers is chilling, and their cause is of course one of interest, knowingly or not to everyone on the planet.

The Bridge is at pains not to take strong sides over the environmental issue, especially as Scandinavia is one of the few places with a strong ecological record over the last few decades and are constantly moving to improve their emissions and pollution statistics.

Having said this, the view given of the environmental movement and especially of activists is relatively bleak and if anything a bit dismissive.

Evidently some of the more startling aspects will begin to take shape as part of an overarching investigation that crime dramas tend to specialise in. As the series begins to flower, we’ll no doubt be treated to some of the best that Scandinavia has to offer.

Callum Burroughs, Online Music Editor

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Review: Frozen

Adam Smith finds plenty to warm his heart in Frozen.

Two films about female liberation came out this week. One was Blue Is The Warmest Colour, which will be critically acclaimed because it’s about the plight of a teenage French bisexual girl with tasteful nudity. The other is Frozen, which will be critically acclaimed for being wonderful.

A film with plenty to offer for adults as well as kids
Image Credit: Disney

Loosely based on Hans-Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, Frozen is a love story between two sisters (not like that) who become separated after the future ice-empress Elsa (played by Idina Menzel) hurts her sister Anna (Kristen Bell), and the only way to save her has the byproduct of erasing all memories of Elsa’s icy powers.

Elsa is then put under house arrest to stop her powers from hurting anyone else, leaving Anna confused about why her sister is suddenly giving her the cold shoulder.

To really double up this emotional torment, the sisters’ parents are killed in a storm, leaving Elsa to grow up into a sort-of perpetual puberty – confused and repressing all emotion (replace ‘emotion’ with ‘ice powers’) – and Anna to become an 18-year-old woman with all the innocence and naivety of a seven year old.

 Eventually Elsa’s powers are revealed to the public, and anyone who is even remotely familiar with Frankenstein or X-Men or super-people films in general can see how this pans out.

Elsa escapes to the icy mountains and sings one of the best Disney songs ever written, unfortunately putting the kingdom in a state of perpetual winter as she, metaphorically, breaks through puberty and ‘snowgasms’ (the imagery is really strong, and Elsa becomes much more feminine and adult as a result of this outburst) an entire ice castle.

 Most of the problems of this film come from the advertising.

What was shown in posters to be some missable Dreamworks clone is all wrong, but because of some real left turns the film takes at the end the film can’t give you anything in its trailers, relying instead (I imagine) on the word of mouth from the first few parents whose are humouring the children, and reviews.

A Snowman?! Sunbathing?! Classic!
Image Credit: Disney

As advertised, there is a romance between Anna and Hans, the prince of a nearby kingdom, but when you are watching it and feel that it might be tacked on, I’d keep hold of that.

This is as much of a breakthrough of the Disney formula as it is a traditional Disney film, and damned hard to classify. This is the sort of pastiche we haven’t seen since Shrek, with the bonus that it’s unlikely to descent into terrible sequels (Shrek 3 and 4, I mean. Shrek 2 was great). Even Olaf (Josh Gad), the snowman in love with the idea of summer, is charming in every scene he’s in.

It’s not a perfect film; the pacing at the beginning is a bit off as it’s never explained how the city is running if its leading royalty are locked in their castle. Also, Elsa and Anna losing their parents feels a bit like overkill, especially so early into the film. But these are minor complaints that I had completely forgotten by the last quarter of the film, which blows Tangled out of the water and nearly hits Pixar level brilliance. It’s a parabolic graph of Disney magic. This is one you don’t want to miss.

Have you seen Frozen? Let us know your thoughts on Let us know on Facebook, Twitter or by commenting below.

A Holiday from Christmas Films

Katherine Watson recommends unseasonal films this Christmas. 

The experience of flicking through the TV channels and finding nothing but the same five Christmas films being shown for the tenth time in two days is one that is all too familiar in the final few days before Christmas.

Image credit: Collider

Now I’m a huge fan of Christmas films, and completely understand how they are a necessary part of Christmas, but in the moments when I would rather be back in a lecture theatre than have to sit through Elf again, I turn to the channels bucking the trend and showing – horror of horrors! – unseasonal films.

These channels don’t choose the festive favourites to fill their airtime during the long lazy days of the Christmas break, but to classic movie marathons; and for me, these films are as essential to the traditional picture of Christmas as films like The Grinch and The Muppets Christmas Carol.

A day filled with the epic scale of Lord of the Rings or the general hilarity of Come Dine With Me (who can beat Dave Lamb as narrator?) is never a day wasted.

My favourite series however has to be The Chronicles of Narnia; granted, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe has a certain Christmas feel to it with the snow and the appearance of Father Christmas, but the sheer magic and adventure in these films (only the first two though; we don’t speak about The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) is enough to excite my inner child in the run up to Christmas.

Christmas has truly arrived when I’m sitting in my tinsel-adorned living room, snuggled under an entire bed’s worth of blankets with my sister, eating endless quantities of Quality Streets, ice-cream and Terry’s chocolate orange (which my dad has bought two weeks early in an attempt to be organized, naively assuming they will still be there on Christmas Day) watching all six Star Wars films…and then telling people what a productive day we’ve had.

After all, it is Christmas; how much more productive does a day need to be?

Katherine Watson

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