27/03/2025

Z Nation Season 3 (2016)

 

Catching up on the Zs - its wild peril in season three of this splatterific series, first shown in 2016  

Curiously the third season begins with an episode set sometime in the second. No Mercy is introduced as a flashback episode though it’s not clear when it is supposed to be set, especially if, like me, it’s two years since you watched season two. It’s a feature length premiere that re-introduces us to the attributes that make Z Nation a top-class adventure series with a creative edge when it comes to the Zs themselves. For example, we have zombies sporting metal helmets so that they can’t simply be despatched in the usual manner with a shot to the head.

They are part of the force used by an enigmatic character known as The Man who is searching for scientists whose name he has on a list. One of those names- Doctor Miles Teller -is holed up at a remote community built around a research lab. It just happens to be close to where our motely band of protagonists currently are. It’s a brisk episode with plenty of action yet not without a heart either. Teller’s wife for example was isolated years after she became infected from one of her experiments attempting to find a cure. Her glowing semi zombie appearance is alarming yet she is not a monster and the episode makes her sympathetic even though she can’t speak. 

Unfortunately, that doesn’t quite work as well with a sub plot about a feral boy, only able to make animal noises, who starts to copy 10K (they name him 5K!) though this puts him a risk.  Unlike Teller’s wife, the boy’s inability to speak and the fact that 10K isn’t the most loquacious character hampers this plot though there’s a terrific chase the two are involved in.  As ever the episode is presented for maximum impact, director Abram Cox enjoying the opportunities all the dust and sunlight offers to contrast the harsh outdoors with claustrophobic indoors. Why the community paint everything red when about to defend the place isn’t clear but it definitely makes for a great visual.




26/03/2025

Top of the Pops 15 March 1990

 

Words: Chris Arnsby
Simon Mayo: “Well, welcome to the pops. We've a rock and roll edition for you tonight with three debut performances before seven thirty. And now we start with a band who are appearing at Manchester Apollo tonight and then they're at Wembley next week. They're at number twenty seven doing Deliverance. Would you welcome please to Top of the Pops, The Mission.

 [27] THE MISSION: DELIVERENCE. Wow, somebody really loves The Mission. Listen to them shriek.

Belated noticing of Format Change: Paul Ciani's gone right off having the host introduce the show from the studio Crows Nest. It hasn't been used for that purpose since Anthea Turner was up there for the 15/02/1990 show.



25/03/2025

Snow White review

 

Disney’s venerable fairy tale deals in absolutes so may seem ill equipped for the modern age where everything is held to question and things are rarely clear or clean cut. Can a story with such simplistic figures survive? The answer, at least as far as the latest adaptation goes, remains in the air. Online generated controversies over casting and the rumoured political differences between the two leads that made them enemies in real life as well as on screen have already given the film a bad reputation. Judging from the rows of empty seat at the first week performance I attended this may have put some people off.  Yet those arguments, rather like the plot of Snow White, take a simplistic view of matters being either right or wrong and few things actually are. On an artistic level the film is also suffering due to its proximity to Wicked which has superior songs, stellar performances and a more involving plot. Nevertheless Snow White does what it is supposed to do and if the delighted reaction from kids at one particular development at the showing I went to is any indication it seems to hit the right notes for a younger audience.

 


22/03/2025

Top of the Pops 8 March 1990

 Words: Chris Arnsby
 Bruno Brookes: “Good evening. How are you? Welcome to your favourite fab pop show. This is Top of the Pops on a Thursday evening. Bros are in the studio a bit later on amongst Marc Almond live. First of all at number Five here is Guru Josh with a great song called Infinity 1990s Time For The Guru.”

 [5] GURU JOSH: INFINITY (1990's: TIME FOR THE GURU). Quantel transitions! Is anything more likely to get these reviews off to a worse start than me trying to describe via the medium of text why something has visual appeal? I might as well try to explain what a horse feels like to a man with no fingers.

Anyway. Something complicated has happened to the Quantel box. Previously the electronic effects have all been hard edged but here they've got a much softer appearance. Has someone invented the Blur filter? The result looks eerily liquid and makes the modified pictures almost flow across the screen.



19/03/2025

Mysterious Island (1961)

 

Mysterious Island was one of a slew of pictures produced by Charles Schneer that specialised in action adventure coupled with stop motion monsters courtesy of Ray Harryhausen. Yet it lacks the flair and invention of others and comes across, despite the presence of big monsters, as rather uneventful. It is an attempt at less outlandish rather than mythical creatures; all of the dangers on the island are simply overgrown species we recognise and unfortunately this robs the story of a lot of excitement. Well, would you rather see a cyclops come to life or a giant chicken trying to be menacing?

 


16/03/2025

The Electric State review

 

The Electric State is rumoured to be the most expensive streaming movie yet made though I really think it deserves a cinematic release to truly appreciate the retro futuristic designs on display. Its based on an illustrated novel originally called The Passage by Swedish artist Simon Stalnehag. He started out as a concept artist and illustrator for video games and created the drawings that formed the basis for his books in his spare time, inspired by a childhood love of science fiction films.



Spoilers after the break

14/03/2025

Mickey 17 review

 

Bong Joon Ho’s successor to his Oscar winning Parasite proves a timely release with its depiction of technology getting ahead of ways to control it and also portraying a somewhat unhinged but powerful politician let loose. It’s a lively if overlong story originally intended for release a year ago and it seems to have already been written off as a box office failure. At times it feels like the script writers have made a simple idea complicated with too much extraneous material. Like last year’s Megalopolis though it is not short of ambition and something to say, it’s just that the delivery is not always as concise as it could be.

 


12/03/2025

Top of the Pops 1 March 1990

 Words: Chris Arnsby

Jakki Brambles: “Well hello. Good evening and welcome. It may well be a windswept Great Britain but we have got a sizzling show for you tonight and you can hear it loud and clear, crystal clear, on Radio 1FM in stereo. Starting tonight's show with a man who's had more hits than I've been on diets. We're into the thousands here. Welcome Shakin' Stevens.”

[29] SHAKIN' STEVENS: I MIGHT. The winter of 1990 was blustery with high winds (no more curried eggs for me, no wonder I can't go to parties any more, etc). I remember the Burns' Day Storm of 25th January but I don't recall what Wikipedia calls Storm Vivian, 25th -27th February, which is what Jakki Brambles is referring to here. The wind must have been howling outside as this edition was recorded on Tuesday.



09/03/2025

Fairies (1978)

 

BBC play that tells the story of the Cottingley Fairies photos- just five years before the truth emerged.

Can you imagine if someone took a photograph of a strange creature now and posted it on Instagram how much fuss there would be? It would be trending in minutes. In 1917 this was not the case. Photographs were almost exclusively for private use so it’s not unusual that after two girls had taken pictures of what appeared to be real fairies they lay untouched for three years until a chance sighting of the pictures led to what was a lot of excitement around the world. The sensation was heightened when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, by then a world famous author, believed that the pictures were real. It ignited a debate; a tabloid frenzy and differing opinions from the villagers whose quiet life was interrupted when word got out where these fairies apparently were. It’s a true story and BBC4 recently showed Fairies, a Play of the Week drama, first broadcast in 1978. It’s a pity it was made four years before he truth was finally uncovered…

 


07/03/2025

Logan's Run (1976)

 

Released in 1976, Logan’s Run is based on the 1967 novel by William F Nolan and George Clayton Johnson who curiously originally conceived the idea as a film script. The film was adapted by David Zelag Goodman and stars Michael York, Jenny Agutter, Richard Jordan and Peter Ustinov. Its narrative dips into ideas of a society devoted to pleasure, the value of youth versus old age, euthanasia and how people are controlled by invented myths. Just don’t expect these topics to be dealt with  in a lot of detail. While the movie strives to show what everyday life is like in this seemingly perfect future it falls short explaining how or why or indeed any background at all. Nevertheless, it is a sumptuous Seventies production with colour, some excellent direction and good performances making an easy watch. Just don’t ask any difficult questions...

 


04/03/2025

Top of the Pops 22 February 1990

 Words: Chris Arnsby

Bonus master tape bit: The picture stabilises on a long shot of the new Triangle Stage. Two members of the studio crew are working the crowd. The sound quality is a bit too muffled to accurately transcribe what they are saying, alas for the historical record, but it's basically a warning to the audience to avoid the people shepherding the cameras around: “...They go rushing at great speed. People are going to push you out of the way. Don't hit them. Don't touch them. Don't do anything to them. These guys are here to save your lives alright? Give them a round of applause. Right? They're over there [points]. They're over there [points]. They're over there [points]. They've got a Top of the Pops t-shirt.... quiet... now listen... I want a great big round of applause for the brilliant the wonderful the divine Liza Minnelli!”

Liza Minnelli enters. She waves shyly. And then starts to sing Love Pains. Her performance style is very similar to the one she used for Losing My Mind (10/08/1989) very mannered, very still, and a lot of direct eye contact with the camera; a very Princess Diana-ish Bambi-eyes gaze looking up at the camera through her fringe. The song comes to an end and the lens of the camera wanders away as if it is hunting for something new to look at.

The screen blanks out as the audio continues.
Voice 1: “Lovely.”
Voice 2: “Well done.”
Liza Minnelli: [Joke shouting] “Oh drat! We have to do it again you guys.

[Crowd cheers and applauds].

The picture snaps back on and focuses again on a long shot of the Triangle Stage. The long shot is held for around a minute, time enough to take in a strange object which hangs from the ceiling and gently rotates, to the left of the stage. Take two ends quickly, after about 25 seconds. There seems to be a problem with the crane shot, it's misaligned as it pans in and Liza Minnelli drifts out of the centre of frame. The screen blanks and the crowd groan as the music cuts out.

“Throughout the show we do get technical hitches. It's not always your fault.” Says one of the studio crew. To the crowd presumably. “Don't worry about it. Just bear with us. Bear with us as we try and record this show, yeah?” Take three is fine.

Love Pains will not feature on Top of the Pops.

The screen blanks again. When we return to the studio we are apparently looking at Mark Goodier down the Death Star Trench. This odd look comes courtesy of either Vision Mixer Hilary West or Ian Simpson in Video Effects. They are rehearsing the Quantel transition out of the Top of the Pops titles and because the countdown clock for the title sequence is currently held at 10 seconds, the effect is of two black walls sandwiching the host.