A prequel of diminished returns, Monsters University is a good but not great film that packs plenty of laughs into a familiar narrative. It’s a strong enough film of its kind, but there’s still a nagging feeling that it should be something more imaginative, something where you can’t sit back and say with certainty ‘It’s like these films.’
Written and read by voice of the Daleks and Big Finish exec Nicholas Briggs, ‘The Dalek Generation’ features the Doctor travelling solo, presumably post-Ponds and prior to ‘The Snowmen’.
Last week The Returned felt like a police procedural with a David Lynch haircut. This week it has the aura of a soap opera wrapped about it. A weird soap opera but a good one, similar in result to if Rod Serling wrote an entire week’s worth of Neighbours. ‘So Paul Robinson’s cursed false leg was an allegory for America’s relationship with Communist Cuba? Wow…’.
Movie novelizations are strange beasts. On one hand, if you’ve seen the film, what would compel you to then read it? And on the other, if you haven’t seen a film yet, why would you want to buy several hundred pages of entertainingly presented spoilers?
Man of Steel: Inside the Legendary World of Superman is the kind of sturdy coffee table book that looks best when casually left open, brazenly revealing one of its many glorious double-page spreads of the film’s pre-production artwork. Or the big photo of Henry Cavill’s bare glistening torso. Hey, it’s all part of the film’s aesthetic appeal.
Sofia Coppola nailed the “People in Brown Rooms, Mumbling” sub-genre on her first go with Lost in Translation. Here she nails the precedented mash-up of My Super Sweet Sixteen and Grand Theft Auto.
Over the years, Doctor Who has handled the physical transition of its lead actor in a variety of ways. Peter Davison bowed out in technicolour nightmare of floating faces while Patrick Troughton exited into a visual effect, with his successor not actually glimpsed onscreen until the following story. In fact, only recently has the process become a standardised, upright affair with the Time Lord suffering a volcanic eruption of golden light.
The name Michael Madsen these days sadly conjures up horrible images of Celebrity Big Brother rather than Reservoir Dogs. Film-wise, the erstwhile Mr Blonde starred in last year’s SyFy monster-fest Piranhaconda and now tops the bill in iffy zombie pic Infection Z.
Here at CultBox we’re hoping that “Dwarf Zombie” got trending during the latest instalment of the Sky1 drama starring John Simm (Doctor Who), Philip Glenister (Ashes To Ashes), Max Beesley (Survivors) and Marc Warren (Hustle).
Just two episodes in and we already love The Returned.
Like a master vintner blending the best grape varieties to make a great bottle of Bordeaux, so The Returned mixes the ripe genres of Scandinavian crime, American mystery, and French drama, into a multinational melange that appeals to the taste buds of those of us who like to get telly drunk on a Sunday night.