Scoville Units Unite » Angel http://agraham.org/blog reviews, rants and random chilli ratings Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:37:36 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc Andy Hallett dies! http://agraham.org/blog/2009/03/31/andy-hallett-dies/ http://agraham.org/blog/2009/03/31/andy-hallett-dies/#comments Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:23:42 +0000 Alan G http://agraham.org/blog/?p=332 Andy Hallett was the actor who played Lorne on Angel. I hadn’t realised he was only 33, only 25 when he started playing the character.

It was the only thing I saw him in (although he apparently was in an episode of Buffy too) but he was constantly superb as the campy living life to the fullest character. Even in the episodes where I disliked the characterisation it was the writing, not the acting which had been disappointing.

Not a happy bunny.

]]> http://agraham.org/blog/2009/03/31/andy-hallett-dies/feed/ 0 The Astronaut’s Wife http://agraham.org/blog/2009/01/15/the-astronauts-wife/ http://agraham.org/blog/2009/01/15/the-astronauts-wife/#comments Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:18:09 +0000 Alan G http://agraham.org/blog/?p=143 After checking imdb, I have watched twenty three movies with Johnny Depp in them. Some of them great (Donnie Brasco, Edward Scissorhands), some good, (Pirates of the Caribbean) some of them unwatchable dirge (Secret Window, The Brave, Dead Man, Pirates 2, Pirates 3 etc).

Having picked The Astronaughts Wife up for one and two thirds of a pound in Grouchos I wasn’t really expecting much. Checking imdb also shows an average rating on 4.9. It was actually surprisingly good and I would definitely watch again. The film was scary, intense and quite riveting. In places you grew annoyed as some of the characters but Charlize Theron totally pulled you in. Loads of wee subtle things (Depp feeling her temperature to see if she’s ovulating) and things I hadn’t quite worked out (the constant focus and emphasis on hands moving) mean I will watch again at some point to see what I can pick out.

If I haven’t mentioned before I always spot wee things in the background of movies and TV shows, some examples include:

  • Random extras and what other films they’ve been in.
  • David Boreanaz doing some amazingly silly things on Angel whilst someone else, Lorne or Wes mostly, is the focus of the camera.
  • Shaun in This Is England having me in stitches slyly letting someone sniff his fingers as he passes them on his way into the living room after being out the backs with a girl.
]]> http://agraham.org/blog/2009/01/15/the-astronauts-wife/feed/ 0 Zombie Cannibals Read the Guardian http://agraham.org/blog/2009/01/06/zombie-cannibals-read-the-guardian/ http://agraham.org/blog/2009/01/06/zombie-cannibals-read-the-guardian/#comments Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:40:18 +0000 Alan G http://agraham.org/blog/?p=124 Movies: First week of January 2009

Generally after making tea, doing dishes and catching up on random e-mails we settle down to a movie, anything from rom-com to horror to world cinema.

So far the ones which I haven’t blocked out this year have been:

Dead Creatures

Catacombs

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane

Crime and Punishment in Suburbia

Dead Creatures was quite a fun romp. This is described as similar to Trainspotting in style. A group of young women have been bitten and turned into people who crave human flesh and move from place to place drugging men in pubs, prostituting themselves or just attacking in dark alleys to find victims. Quite cheesy in places but enjoyable. The best scene is one of the girls leaving a newsagent with a copy of the Guardian when her arm starts to not function. The first sign that the zombieitis is starting to control her.

Catacombs was a horror set in France, bought on the cheap on the basis that it was by the people who produced Saw and also starred Pink. Her acting was actually alright until her final scenes in the movie at which point I was bursting out laughing at it, and at the plot spoilers etc. Meh, might watch again at some point.

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane was quite good and a bargain in Grouchos 3/£5 shite bin section (where a large amount of my movie collection comes from). Some decent acting from loads of people in their second or third films. Lots of the actions were incredulous due to shitty writing rather than poor acting. Ok subversion of slasher movie tropes.

Crime and Punishment in Suburbia was watched for the second time, and I had forgotten it starred Vincent Kartheiser (Connor in Angel). He is quite good as an obsessed stalker of the hot girl in school yadda yadda. Abusive parent played remarkably well by Michael Ironside who will forever be refereed to as Richter from Total Recall no matter what he does.

Looks like we will have to hit rom-com/comedy territory to balance out film intake.

]]> http://agraham.org/blog/2009/01/06/zombie-cannibals-read-the-guardian/feed/ 0 New magazine day! http://agraham.org/blog/2008/11/27/new-magazine-day/ http://agraham.org/blog/2008/11/27/new-magazine-day/#comments Thu, 27 Nov 2008 21:21:38 +0000 Alan G http://agraham.org/blog/?p=75 It’s that time of the month again: SciFi Now Thursday!

I started getting this about issue 6 (now 22) and it’s really good. The movie reviews are focused on SciFi/Fantasy/Horror/World Cinema type stuff so really covers most of my main movie interests. So far I haven’t noticed any signs of the reviews being biased by ads, they’ve been quite accurate for the most part. Quite the opposite of bought by adverts actually, they did a huge exclusive preview spread drooling over 30 Days of Night and then slated it in the review the next issue.

Today’s other new release is Viz. After really going down hill for about 8 months the last 4 or 5 issues have been superb. Last issues Profanisaurus was excellent.

The other release of this week which I won’t actually get for another fortnight is Buffy Season 8: Issue 19. The concluding part of the Fray arc of the Buffy comics looks to be good and after being hit by the curse of Fray and delayed so long it better bloody be.

I had never been a big comic fan (He-Man when I was young excluded) but Buffy Season 8 really sparked my interest. I have been getting Buffy, Angel, Spike, Serenity and a few other random TV related comics randomly. I obviously picked up the Watchmen and from one of the Angel staff got Everybody’s Dead which is a really silly/cool Zombie short series. I got Conan for a while then dropped but am enjoying Solomon Kane. Other random pick-ups have been X-Files and Lost Boys, I noticed there is an Underworld series coming out so I may pick that up to see what it’s like.

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