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Dog Soldiers, a review by Jon

Dog Soldiers
4 out of 5



Soldiers on an exercise in Scotland come up against werewolves...

This is a great debut from director Neil Marshall, working from his own superb screenplay that turns unavoidable weaknesses (namely the budget) into strengths. He knows exactly what he can get away with and brings the audience in on the joke. We're scared when we should be scared and laugh when we should too.

The story takes its lead from Predator, with soldiers banter giving way to a mad dash for safety when they're attacked by werewolves, and it becomes more akin to Night of the Living Dead once the survivors are in a deserted farmhouse, complete with suicide missions and the wounded turning into the creatures. The script balances the jokes, the gore and the scares without any awkwardness. Not long into the film there's a Predator camp-fire moment that easily qualifies for all three! A fine cast led by Sean Pertwee and Kevin McKidd find their jobs all the easier for the solid writing. The film relies on McKidd as Cooper, but most of the best lines go to Pertwee's memorable Sergeant. Everyone finds just the right tone, even for some corny jokes ("there is no spoon!").

But good writing and acting aren't enough in a horror film; we need action and gore as well! Marshall does well to disguise his men-in-suit effects, using editing and shadows to create old fashioned scares and proving that CGI is often a crutch for lazy film-makers. There's only a couple of cheap moments and they are normally supported by a well placed scare, like the unfortunate soldier who becomes a kebab or Pertwee's hilarious gut-problems! Within the farmhouse, the creatures stand a few close-ups and some of the imagery is fantastic, especially the moment in a garage.

It really only stumbles in the final act. There's an obvious twist, but in a film like this, second-guessing doesn't matter, but it unexpectedly undoes the good work of a previous scene and it leaves the film feeling laboured for a short-while. However, the final scenes are fantastic building up to a nicely done end. All-in-all, one of the best horrors of recent years and the budget probably couldn't have paid for the catering on disappointments like I Am Legend.  

(From Jon's Marathon of Horror! 2009 on October 18th, 2009)

Passport to Pimlico, a review by Jon

Passport to Pimlico
4 out of 5


An archaic document found in a bombsite reveals that the London district of Pimlico has for centuries technically been part of France. The local residents embrace their new found continental status, seeing it as a way to avoid the drabness, austerity and rationing of post-war England. The authorities do not, however, share their enthusiasm...

Passport to Pimlico is the epitome of charm. A brilliant conceit delivered with gentle optimism and good natured satire by a cast of well-known British actors, or at least to be well known. Ealing was always smarter than the Carry On series and if you look carefully you may spot a few Carry On faces before they stereotyped themselves. In this one we have Charles Hawtrey for instance and in later films, Sid James was a regular. By the way, I do enjoy Carry On, but Ealing managed to be just as funny and allowed the cast to keep enough dignity to pursue careers elsewhere!

Like Hue and Cry, it's a light film, yet smartly written to lampoon British bureacracy so sharply, you may not even notice. You can learn a lot about England from this film, or at least the England we'd still like to be. Despite its age, I like to think there will always be a lot of proud Burgundian's amongst us! Although both films were written by T.E.B. Clarke, Henry Cornelius' direction isn't as ambitious as Hue and Cry, more content to let the simple story unfold without effort, but that's important, because audiences of the time would have been able to identify very easily with the people of Pimlico. Heck, I know one or two people like that now, I'm happy to say. It's still the sort of fantasy that dreams are made of; finding a treasure trove under your house. But the daily lives they lead are like anybody. The Mouse That Roared has a similar idea, but goes for a much quirkier execution.

The dependable Stanley Holloway leads the cast and the town into their small rebellion and you'll have a big grin on your face throughout. The ubiquitous Margaret Rutherford pops up as the professor. She's hilarious, but I'm glad it's a reduced role because she could be overpowering, bless her! On the other side at the Government, we have the wonderful Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford essentially reprising their double-act from The Lady Vanishes! Remember that one for your pub quizzes.

It's a stirring film and uplifting when we see Londoner's banding together to help the little "nation". And great, good hearted fun as they fight back to get water or impose customs checks on the underground. And of course, no-one gets really upset. In fact the final scene features a typical British rainstorm, while at the start it is very untypically hot, almost suggesting the whole thing was caused by a heatwave sending people a bit silly. "Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun" perhaps?

We do seem to like bureacracy in this country and I can't think of another film that has so effectively laughed at us and with us at the same time. Still, it's the sort of story that could easily run out of steam and require awkward contrivances to drag it to a conclusion, so it's commendable that it never feels like it's overstretching and in fact, the conclusion is rather clever. Oh, I'm sure you could be picky and find some sort of issue with it, but that would be very British and as the film is all about looking past our pedantic nature, it's far more fun to enter completely and willingly into the spirit of the thing.

Perhaps this was a film to remind the British people who they really were while things like the ration were still going on ("I never thought I'd be glad to see these again", says Philip Stainton's kindly copper of the dreaded ration books). It still has that power to do so, if modern audiences could allow themselves to watch such old fashioned whimsy. I think they need to watch it really and get some perspective about what's really important.

(From A Feeling for Ealing... on March 4th, 2010)

"Stargate SG-1" Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

I have bought the first nine seasons of Stargate SG-1And it does look nice. I will chip the first nine seasons on eBay.



Synopsis: The defence of the Supergate ended in a slaughter of the defenders. The four Ori ships had no problems with breaking through. Aboard one of these ships Vala has just given birth to her daughter. But she is growing very fast and she is supposed to become the leader of all Ori troops in this galaxy.

My Opinion: The more often I encounter the story it the less interesting it gets: chosen childs. Offhand I can recall: Gabrielle's daughter Hope (Xena: Warrior Princess), Xena's daughter Eve/Livia (Xena: Warrior Princess) and of course Angel's son Connor (Angel). If we add movies, we can also add Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (Star Wars).
I was also a bit disappointed that Bra'tac has learned very few since he first encountered G_1 over eight years ago. Back then he also wanted to prepare for death after they had successfully sabotaged Apophis's ship.

Synopsis: SG-1 visits one of the planets where they hope to find Merlin's weapon. But there isn't a single living being, not even animals. But the inhabitants of the village seem to have died peacefully in their beds.
In the meantime Vala has to undergo a psychiatric examination before she can join the Stargate program.

My Opinion: This episode was literally soporific.

Synopsis: Daniel hopes to find more information about the location of the weapon in Atlantis. And Carter has developed a plan to render the Supergate useless with the help of a black hole in the Pegasus galaxy.

My Opinion: This episode I liked again. McKay was great and the way Daniel and Vala blew the cover of the Ancient "Morgan le Fay" was also good. While there are significant difference the Ancients and the Ori strongly reminded me of the Vorlons and the Shadows (Babylon 5) in this episode. All four are far superior to the normal Humans and within their universe they have a mutual exclusive point of view on how to interact with the Humans. Although the Ancients are the only ones of the four that don't intervene at all (with the usual exceptions to that rule).
The "phone bill" of this episode could be interesting. Atlantis in the Pegasus galaxy calls the SGC who in turn call Teal'c at the Supergate and he relays the message through the open wormhole to the Odyssey in the Pegasus galaxy.

Synopsis: The allegedly real Ba'al comes to Earth and offers his help to find the weapon. But for this, SG-1 would have to kill all his clones who have uprisen against him. But every clone insits on being the real Ba'al and soon the SGC is swarmed with Ba'als.

My Opinion: Oh Sam, come on! Have you learned nothing from the RepliCarter disaster? I am annoyed that this highly intelligent woman falls for such plans. Yes, granted, she was in a hostage situation but how many lives will it cost when Ba'al is successful?

(From "Stargate SG-1" Marathon on May 2nd, 2008)