‘Ultraviolet’: Collector’s Edition DVD review
With sombre opening music and shots slowly panning over a body we are introduced to writer/director Joe Aherne’s rather serious take on vampires.
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With sombre opening music and shots slowly panning over a body we are introduced to writer/director Joe Aherne’s rather serious take on vampires.
2008’s Iron Man was the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be released, and it’s the film that set the template and paved the way for all those that followed.
“Dracarys”. And with that word, Game of Thrones fans around the world leap out of their seat and punch the air in solidarity with the queen of dragons.
Imagine Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Imagining it? Good. Brilliant, isn’t it? Now, imagine that said chocolate factory is about to explode – BOOM, wibbly-wobbly chocolatey-wocolateyness everywhere – and that a bewildered Charlie is trapped, wandering through rooms of marvellous impossible treats, while Willy Wonka is planning to rescue him. Now, replace ‘chocolate’ with ‘time’, switch a few names, and you’ve got ‘Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS’.
It seems every single classic (or not so classic) horror movie from the ‘70s and ‘80s is getting its own remake lately.
It’s a little surprising, then, that it’s taken so long for the profit-hungry executives to get round to milking the Evil Dead franchise for all its worth. By all accounts a lot more serious than Sam Raimi’s slapstick-gore original, it’s fitting that Evil Dead 2, the series’ high-point, gets a re-release on DVD and Blu-ray to coincide with the new movie’s arrival in UK cinemas.
‘This isn’t a ghost story,’ says the Doctor with one of those humany-wumany grins on his face. ‘It’s a love story.’ And he’s not wrong.
On paper, it’s red-hot. Capitalise on the Jubilee / Will & Kate / Royal Baby mania with a show starring Helen Mirren as Elizabeth Regina (again) backed by the writer and director of The Queen and a neat concept: a series of era-hopping sequences giving us a backstage pass to the Queen’s weekly audience with the Prime Minister.
What makes Spartacus so much more complex than many expect it to be is that when it presents us with an idea, it is never content to move on from it without exploring it in depth.
It may be something of a surprise to learn that the two men behind Game of Thrones have never actually stepped behind the camera to direct an episode themselves. That all changes with ‘Walk of Punishment’, as David Benioff takes control and directs an instalment brimming with confidence.
After the cacophony of criticisms brought upon ‘Rings of Akhaten’, Neil Cross’ name may ring a Cloister Bell in the head of many a Whovian. But you can’t judge one writer by one episode, and we’re certainly not going to compare efforts here. All we’ll say is that ‘Hide’ is as far away from ‘Rings’ as the Akhaten system is from 1970s England.