Haven’t had time for much entertainment this week... So I thought I’d do a quick post up with essentially the films and shows I’m trying to keep track of and remember to watch over the next year.

Tops in terms of anticipation for me right now is the second season of Legend of the Seeker. For myself and my fiancee it became a weekly ritual to sit down to this hour long fantasy romp. Sure it's a bit cheesy and fans of the books it's based off of seem to despise it but I can't deny that it's entertaining, with strong visuals and effects work, not to mention a quite passable story. The second season promises more magic and monsters along with plenty of action sequences that push TV limits. The second season kicks off on November 7th.
 
Another series from much of the New Zealand crew that works on Legend of the Seeker is Spartacus: Blood and Sand. This is a 300 style version of the classic story of the slave who led a revolt. While nobody in their right mind would try and claim the look and subject matter of the show hasn't been pretty heavily influenced by 300 it still looks to offer a nice dose of bloody violence and sex that wouldn't be possible except for that fact that it's showing on Starz (a US pay channel which allows for showing R rated content). It'll show up in the US in January.

And lest I forget... Merlin. A BBC show that's both held my attention while being unremittingly bad throughout the first season. It's supposed to be a modernish retelling of the Arthur legend featuring Merlin and Arthur growing up together in a castle throughout the late teens (and early twenties?). The downsides are bad effects work, poor fight sequences, horrific plotting in places not to mention some pretty blatant revisionism. Guinevere is black, not that I mine some cultural diversity but it's not explained at any point. It's an obvious "lets make it have multicultural appeal" move by the BBC. The series tries to have something of an overall story while maintaining stand alone episodes, sadly this consists very much of featuring a throwaway villain ever episode with some vague reference to the main story. The mythology is also pretty random with every creature under the sun being thrown into the mix while everyone runs around high medieval costumes and armor. It's more than a little strange. On top of that there's a bloody dragon that does nothing but reuse it's CGI shots inside a cave in almost every bloody episode. The plus side is that the series is entertaining, partly as a train wreck and partly because some of the acting is fairly decent. My interest in the upcoming second season is mainly to see if it gets worse or better. If the latter I may stick it out for another season. Fantasy shows are rare enough, I'll take what I can get I guess...

 
On the movie front three flicks are currently grabbing my interest (well discounting foreign stuff which I'll have to mention some other time). Clash of the Titans is a remake of an 80s film best know for being the last to feature Ray Harryhausen claymation effects. I've been digging the visual vibe in the stills released so far. Very fantasy and a bit gritty. The cast also features some decent names and I trust director Leterrier (Transporter 2 fame and the more recent Hulk re-imagining) to pull off some nicely styled ancient Greek ass whoopery.
 
The second project that's caught my attention is the Neil Marshall helmed Centurion, mostly because of the period it's set in. I have a 'thing' for Britain around the Roman occupation and closely following. I was probably one of the few that enjoyed the King Arthur effort from a few years ago. Marshall's film looks to be a bloody, action packed and highly atmospheric outing in the Scottish highlands. Sounds good to me.

Finally... and I'm slightly embarrassed to admit this... but I'm really looking forward to the Prince of Persian movie. Not because I'm a particular fan of the games or franchise but because it's such a big project I have a morbid fascination with seeing how bad it may turn out. These are, after all, some of the same people behind that last Pirates of the Caribbean film... Still, on the surface it's got a lot of things going for it. Money for one and I mean that in terms of big sets, wild locations and tons of extras. I'm fine with movies going for spectacle as long as there's a few other elements in the mix. 

Pitch Black

I was oddly surprised how much I liked this. I wasn't expecting a whole lot - like a bunch of other people I ended up seeing Chronicles of Riddick before I saw this. While I'll leave my thoughts on the later for a later date I'll just say it didn't prepare me for Pitch Black. 

This is a tight film. Yes I felt like I new where some of it was going but... and this is the important part... I felt like I knew because other movies I'd seen had either taken from Pitch Black or simply done the same story in much less effective fashion. The film is not all that impressive because of individual performances, or because of the CGI or the production design. In fact it's all rather generic. But what it did do was make me care about the people and believe in the setting and most importantly, in the danger it was selling me. I felt anxiety for the people involved.

 Yes there's more than a tip of the hat to everything from Alien to Blade Runner but I didn't particularly mind. The visuals are well done although the CGI at this point looks a bit dated. Maybe I'm just a sucker for this setting and these kind of characters but I enjoyed it enormously and feel no guilt about saying it.

The Fifth Element

I'll make this short - I love this film. The reason I threw it on this week was because a family member had never seen it and I rather feel everyone should. Under the deft direction of Besson you get a tightly plotted scifi action comedy something or other that's very bright, certainly not stupid and extremely self aware. I also like seeing mask and prosthetic work in places that I'm fairly sure now days would be CGI.

Get a copy, you won't be disappointed. Oh and it has Gary Oldman and Ian Holm, need I say more?

Fringe

Okay so I'm cheating this isn't a movie - I refer of course to the Fox TV series. I recently watched the first episode. I found it mildly interesting but will probably keep watching simply because of John Noble. It's a bit unfair to the others when he's on screen. I don't imagine he's trying to dominate the scenes but... well lets just say he's in a different class and I'm interested in where that will go over the arc of the first season. 

Almost a year old but I never got around to doing anything with these snaps.

This will probably become something I post fairly frequently, I like giving a few thoughts on films and as I try to watch at least a few per week I shouldn't have issues with coming up with content.

Forbidden Kingdom (2008) 

This English language martial arts pic combines the basics of the Journey to the West plot with a few twists and a kid transported from the present into ancient China. The real draw for a viewer is Jackie Chan and Jet Li onscreen together. Overall I enjoyed the film - choreography is sharp, lensing is extremely pretty and the acting is reasonable. I liked the references to the HK glory days when kids in N. America were used to seeing martial arts flicks on the shelves. In the end I can't call it a great film but a very solid effort that is in no way a bad choice for a Saturday night.

Wild Hogs (2007) 

A road trip buddy flick with John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy; Hogs offers few surprises but a reasonable turn from all involved. The real fault is the fact that a script with plenty of tension to offer about four normal guys facing down a biker gang turns into a procession of gay jokes (they are forced to share sleeping bags harhar), small town stereotypes and a copout ending. I have to admit I laughed but ideally I would have felt a few other emotions other than mild amusement - watch if bored.

Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang (2005) 

I'd seen this a few times before but my fiance hadn't so I threw it on again. Doesn't get old after a few rewatches, dialogs just as crisp and the hardboiled plot just as much fun.

I'll probably throw up these type of posts about once a week, so enjoy and until next time... happy viewing.