By Roy Mathur, on 2023-01-30, at 2014-02-16 15:03:00--15:46:33 GMT, for Roy's Rocket Radio, Listen
Weird UK weather at the moment, which I ascribe to either global warming, the wrath of the gods, or that great weather machine out there in Rosswell.
Yes, the last two were jokes (though I wouldn't put it past Cthulhu), but the weather has been pretty intense these last few days, so I hope everyone out there is coping.
Well, this has got everyone, including myself, getting their underwear in a twist, and while I did my bit posting up a banner on the blog and website, it did feel as if the protests, especially in the UK, were rather low key, one could almost say apathetic.
Also, it's been reported that the big internet companies have been rather lax in combating this latest threat. However, I read on a russian news site that Google, Microsoft and Facebook now have a lobbyist in Washington, to "focus on government surveillance reform in an effort to maintain credibility following NSA spying disclosures that often implicated them as accomplices". CYOA, or are they actually trying to not be evil? Who knows.
Note, we have a few vanilla films mixed in with the usual genre material this week. All I can say is IDIC.
Matthew McConaughey stars as one of the few early HIV+ heterosexuals Ron Woodruf, an extremely sexually active and highly unpleasant homophobic cowboy.
I can see why this film was made as it shows Woodruf's resourcefulness and determination to survive in the midst of an utterly useless medical system. The truth may have been massaged a little, but a really good film with standout performances by McConaughey and also Jared Leto. Not my usual cup of tea, as I try to avoid emotionally wrought movies, but worth a watch.
Every now and then I'll spout off about development hell and bemoan some flick stuck and not made for one reason or the other. Last week we mentioned Warcraft that is now slated for a 2016 release.
But how about possibly one of the most epic space opera's of all time? I'm talking about something that actually breaks the mould of space opera proper and launches itself into what is arguably its very own niche; the cerebral grand space opera of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. A terribly brief summary would be that the story is about a scientist, predicting the collapse of the high-tech galactic empire, seeks to preserve knowledge by building the Foundation; a sort of library of everything ever learned.
By describing it that way, you can already see what the problems might be. But anyway, after a stroll down Internet Boulevard I found that Michael Bay (Transformers: bad, Black Sails: good) owns the film rights. Alarm bells anyone?
Given the sheer scale of such a vast and epic story, this is the one time when I think maybe the thing should remain unmade because I'm pretty sure that there is not one single filmmaker out there capable of doing this film justice.
Before David Lynch's embarrassing stab at Dune, Chilean multimedia god Alejandro Jodorowsky wanted to make the movie at least 10 years before. I know Alejandro Jodorowsky through comic books like The Incal, which he created with Jean Giraud (Moebius) and first seen in Heavy Metal.
Bearing in mind that Hallmark have made almost the definitive Dune, that easily destroys Lynch's flabby version, if you know what I'm talking about as relates to Jodorowsky's writing and Moebius's art, can you imagine how weird and alien the Jodorowsky vision of Dune might have been? In fact there is a documentary film out that that talks all about this sort of stuff called Jodorowsky's Dune (2013).
The film's already done the festival circuit and there was a limited release last year, but I have no idea when, if ever, this thing will be out on general distribution, let alone a DVD, but in the meantime, here's the trailer.
One final shout out to the filmmaker Frank Pavich: hurry up and release this thing on DVD, okay?!
Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange and Daniel Bruhl as his mate Daniel Domscheit-Berg.
Topical, unflattering of Assange, and a bit overdramatised in places. I'm not sure that the Guardian offices look so cool and rather empty, or that their journalists are such cardboard cutouts, especially Thewlis's character. Not bad, but not a keeper for the DVD collection.
Riveting, glossy, glamourous, but substantial Ron Howard movie about the rivalry between Niki Lauda and James Hunt in the 1976 Gran Prix circuit.
Stars Chris Hemsworth and absolutely brilliant acting by Daniel Bruhl, who plays Lauda.
Already shown the, not terrible, The Adjustment Bureau (2011) and the excellent and vastly underrated Cyhper (2002), starring Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu and that I first saw in cult Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle.
A series by David Moody: a very original and clever riff on the whole zombie thing; a genre that I thought was tired and played out, but apparently not!
Guillermo Del Toro has optioned Hater and there's a film in the works. Wow.
A timely and very cool hard scifi novel about a guy stranded on Mars. This is an excerpt from the back cover:
It started with the dust storm that holed his suit and nearly killed him, and that forced his crew to leave him behind, sure he was already dead. Now he's stranded millions of miles from the nearest human being, with no way to even signal Earth that he's alive--and even if he could get word out, his food would be gone years before a rescue mission could arrive. Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death.
More than a year ago I laughed when Samsung brought out the S3, choked on my cereal when I saw the Samsung Note, but now...? Absolutely ginormous smartphones! There are coming and expect to feel inadequate without one.
For example, yesterday I saw the Sony Xperia Z Ultra and it is a 6.4 inch monster. Very nice and all that, but this thing is never, ever, ever going to fit in your pocket.
Personally, I just don't care any more, I'm sticking with my iPhone 4S until it melts. (It literally did soon afterwards. Can you hear the laughter of the gods?---Roy Mathur, 2023-02-23 22:55:43).
Cardiff's Common Cold Centre at Cardiff University say that colds are not as contagious as you think, can kill you; chest infection in the very old or young, are unavoidable, and cold air can weaken your immune system to infection.
Your mum was right, so there!