What's on telly tonight ?

rolfw

They don't sound very Sci-Fi to me spiney.

Rolf If you enjoy our site, you can help support it by wearing our unique branded merchandise, you can do this by clicking on my baseball cap, making a direct donation with Paypal by clicking on the Donation button below, or using our site supporting advertisers, to do this, click on the central image below. Follow us on Twitter, click on the twitter image.

spiney

Well, I dunno, Bride, Spirit, Apoccy, all have "sci fi like" features!

But, yes, it has become a bit general!

Where do you think this would be better instead, critics' corner?

I've also noticed links sometimes get deactivated, a bit annoying! The whole point of hyperlinks is they're active, otherwise you're just typing in "command lines", rather pre-windows-ish!

(well, you're in charge, tell me what to do .....).

spiney

Tuesday (Aug 29)

True Lies, ITV2, 10.30pm.

Excellent enjoyable fantasy thriller. Totally preposterous plot, but that doesn't matter, because it's Arnie!

Mr Schwarzenegger (spelled right?) is really a secret agent, but his wife (Jamie Lee curtis) think's he's a bank clerk! We see Arnie doing secret agent type stuff, hi tech situations, explosions, etc. Then, the film has a "middle bit", invoving a con man, which is basically an excuse to have Curtis take (almost!) all her clothes off, move around a lot, and show us her amazing physique (nice stuff!). Then, finally, hubby and wife work together to escape from kidnappers, and in so doing re-kindle their mutual love, which was getting a bit strained (ie, happy ending!).

Arnie gets to fly a Harrier jump jet (all faked, of course!).

Action/sci fi film director James Cameron had previously made Terminator and Terminator2, Aliens, and (also excellent, but different!) The Abyss. Then, he made Titanic (ugh!).

_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Lies .
_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cameron .

spiney

Advance notice .... (in case I forget!).

Friday, 1st Sept, film4, 11.50pm.

Repo Man.

DO NOT MISS THIS AMAZING FILM !!!

This excellent bizarre hallucinatory cult film seemed to "come from nowhere", in 1984, and instantly made the reputation of director Alex Cox.

Emilio Estervez is a punk (in the Brit - not USA! - sense) who suddenly has to get a job, somehow, so becomes a repo(session) man, basically taking back people's cars when they've defaulted on hire purchase payments. Of course, they don't want to let him do this .......

He is apprenticed to an older experienced repo man (cult film actor Harry Dean Stanton), who shows him "tricks of the trade". Meanwhile, he finds himself entering an increasingly bizarre world, populated by strange people, conspiracy theorists, cults, UFOs ......

Meanwhile, just driving around randomly, is a very strange man with a "doomsday machine thing" in his car boot ......

("The Thing" is a reference back to Altman's film verison of Micky Spillane's "kiss me deadly", in which private detective Mike Hammer follows a trail to get back "the thing", a doomsday weapon that's just a small innocent looking box, until you open it .....).

The end of this film just has to be seen! Is it a techno version of the Christian Ascension? Or, maybe a parody of Close Encounters (or both, and more .....).

The film's main set is - a car park !

(This was a low budget film, from my memory without a Dolby soundtrack, so let's hope film4 remember to throw that damn switch!).

On the strength of this, Cox made some other - fairly poor - films, before returning to form with Highway Patrolman (but, nowhere near as good as Repo Man!).
(He also did a long stint introducing "strange films" on late night BBC2, and still does that, occasionally "popping up" on various tv channels ....).

-http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Repo_Man .
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repo_man .

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss_Me_Deadly .
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Cox .

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Dean_Stanton .

spiney

Wed 30 Aug.

True Lies, ITV2, 9.00pm . Arnie's secret Agent spoof. Repeat of last night. Worth catching.

Hound of the Baskervilles, ITV3, also 9pm. Alas, not the truly excellent 1958 Hammer version, but a "long episode" from the ITV series. However, any version of "Hound" is watchable (thanks to the excellent story), and Jeremy Brett was a good Holmes.

Stigmata, BBC3, 10.00pm. A Vatican Priest has to try and decide whether a woman's stigmata are "real".
I seem to remember this film as "so and so". However, the subject matter is fascinating, as Stigmata really do happen in real life (as do visions of the Virgin Mary, although, very interestingly, she seems to only actually appear in Catholic countries!).

Stardust, Men+Motors, 10pm. Interesting slice of 1970s Britpop nostalgia, starring David Essex, a "superstar" at the time (after doing Godspell).

That's mainly sci fi, and no links, OK Rolf?

Thur 31st Aug.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, BBC4, 10.50pm. (episode 2).

(Not sci fi, however "very exceptional", and well deserves a mention).

I'm no fan of the late John Le Carre's turgid, unreadable books! However, this particular adaptation of them was riveting. In the 1970s, made after a spate of spy revelations, it had the entire nation "on the edge of its seat". One of the very best such things things the BBC has ever done (along with I Claudius, and Edge of Darkness).
(The story really starts in episode 2, so if you start watching now, you haven't missed too much!).

spiney

Also Thur 30th Aug. (not much sci fi, sorry Rolf!).

(Sorry, above episode of TInker Tailor was episode 2, tonight is episode 3. However, this is where the story "takes off", so you can still follow it! I can't stand the books, but this 70s tv version was brilliant, especially Alec Guiness).

6.40pm, film4, Chariots of Fire. This so and so "inspirational" biopic got several Oscars, inc for Vangelis' music, the memorable scenes being a run round Trinity College quad, and a slow motion run along a beach. Nicely shot (the settings made it look a bit like Brideshead Revisited, possibly accounting for some of the USA success!), and a "known faces" cast of good Brit actors.
It was heralded as the "renaissence" of British film making, we were going to compete with Hollywood again (how many times has that been claimed?)! Puttnam's Goldcrest Films carried on, a while, then had several huge box office flops (Puttnam then moved to the USA, where Columbia Pictures hoped he would replicate the British "success", but he fell out with them).

10.50pm, film4, Saturday Night Fever. This "landmark" film made unknown Travolta a star, is supposedly "based on" the famous Studio 54 disco, and started a disco craze. It also helped make the Bee Gees rich(er!), via the soundtrack.
To quote Shakespeare, this film is "more honoured in the breech than in the observance", having been very widely parodied, eg in the Airplane and Austin Powers films, etc.

spiney

Friday 1st Sept.

A good sci fi/horror feast tonight, on "free" British tv, but unfortunately all 3 films time-overlap! I strongly recommend Repo Man, as the most interesting and least shown.

Air Force One, BBC1, 10.35pm.

A good watchable high octane (as they say) thriller, where USA president Harrison Ford has his presidential plane hijacked, and fights back, constantly frustrating the criminals. The snag is, Ford shows "unrealistic" knowledge of modern aircraft, and otherwise behaves in a way hard to believe, a bit like a secret agent (USA presidents being mainly either politicians, businessmen, or lawyers!).

Don't Look Now, ITV4, 11.30pm.

Excellent! Nick Roeg's 3nd film, after Performance (remember Mick Jagger naked?) and Walkabout (remember Jenny Agutter naked?). And - some people would say - pretty much his last ever coherent film! Well, never mind.
Based on Daphne Du Maurier's (short, mini-novel) highly atmospheric ghost-horror story. Donald Sutherland is an architect, commissioned to restore a Venice church. His vulnerable wife Julie Christie - their baby girl has just drowned - with him. Scenes of Venice, mixed with religion, there's "premonitions", and they meet a very wierd couple of ladies, one a blind mystic, the other her helper (and maybe lesbian lover). Their son in an English boarding school falls ill (a "portent"), and it all races towards a tremendous very unexpected climax (which I'm not giving away).
The very unusual love scene in this film - between Sutherland and Christie - is widely regarded as the best ever filmed!

Repo Man, film4, 11.50pm.

Despite my just above remarks, this is tonight's film you shouldn't miss!

(see previous post above, for comments).

spiney

Saturday 2nd Sept.

The Goonies, 2.05pm BBC2

Sorta "Spielbergised" version of Dante's earlier Gremlins idea, so of course centered around children, and cloyingly sentimental. Undemanding fun for younger viewers.

The Mummy, film4, 3pm.

The original in the 1930s mummy series, one of the great Universal Studios horror films. Although, no doubt, too "talky" for modern tastes (which tend towards no dialogue, all action, a dreadful pity!). Boris Karloff plays the monster (of course!). Lacks "the edge" of the best horror films, form James Whale, but still good.
Re-made by Hammer in 1959 (1-off, they did'nt continue the series), then again more recently, as a "special effects-fest").

The Ipcress File, 8.45pm, BBC4.

Not brilliant, not a masterpiece, but perhaps the most “iconic” film of the mid 1960s.

There’s 3 great fictional British “spyworlds”; James Bond (glamour); George Smiley (“spycraft”); and Harry Palmer (beaurocracy). Of these, the last is the most realistic and interesting (although still fictional, of course).

Len Deighton’s 1st 1962 novel was great. It describes a world that would have been very familiar to most readers. A grimy sleazy London. Unpainted dingy offices. Living in a draughty Wimbledon flat, “south of the river” (taxis won’t go there). Constantly filling in silly forms, in triplicate. Not enough money to pay the bills. A boss you don’t get on with (“we’d decided to hate each other; being English, this manifested itself as oriental politeness”). Dire greasy food. And so on …..

Deighton’s Spy remains nameless. Except, in one of the books, he says “now, my name’s NOT Harry, but in this business you can never be sure ….”. However, it would have been impossible to have any film dialogue with a nameless person (!), so the name Harry was used.

The film’s opening is highly memorable. After a brief “teaser”, we get a huge eye, blurry vision, then Palmer’s glasses (how many spies wear glasses?), Harry makes himself breakfast (James Bond would never have done that), and then that wonderful sleazy music starts …. and you know it’s going to be a highly enjoyable ride!

Great moments: “do you ever take off your glasses?” “Only while I’m in bed” (so she takes them off for him). And that’s the sex scene! Highly effective, far more so than most others …

What’s it about? Oops, I almost Forgot! There’s a plot to brainwash the entire intelligesia (key politicians, scientists, businessmen ..) of Britain. Colonel Ross sends Harry to a different department, supposedly just a new job, but actually he’s “bait”, although he doesn’t realise it …….

The film follows the book closely, till about halfway through, then becomes very different (the book has a nuclear explosion, difficult to film!). The film’s version of the Ipcress brainwashing process is – unfortunately – a bit silly and unconvincing, oh well …..

The sets were by Ken Adams, who also did the James bond films, but … how very different!

(ps, I strongly recommend the book, a hugely enjoyable read! After which, you'll want to read the other 5 or 6 in the series. Alas, Deighton's later Bernard Samson books aren't half as enjoyable ....).

Boogie Nights, 11.20pm, Ch5.

Excellent, very entertaining, film about the 1970s porno film industry, and what happened as things changed during the 1980s, when video technology became more easily available.

Whalberg plays "Dirk Diggler" (!), a porno movie star supposedly based on real life John Holmes. But, the real star is Burt Reynolds, who here is brilliant, just this one film would be enough to show him as a serious actor (as opposed to his early comedy films, then the later self parodies of them!).

Nice Moments. In a 1970s hi fi shop, where they sell "decks, woofers, tweeters" as if they were 2nd hand cars .....

spiney

Monday 4th September.

The 39 Steps, Zone Horror, 6pm.
(CORRECTION, that's OPEN ACCESS 2 channel, sorry!).

Often shown, but still a masterpiece! Based on Buchan's spy adventure story. Hitchcock's next to last "big film" made in Britain - for almost 30 years! - before departing for the USA, and a "turbulent" relationship with producer Selznick.

Famous for introducing his "MacGuffin" idea, ie, a bizarre "plot twist" that merely advances the action, but is otherwise entirely irrelevant!

Also very famous for the bedroom scene, a prolonged "insider joke" about over-prurient film censorship! There were very strict rules about what you could show, for example the USA Hayes Code said a kissing actor and actress must - between them - have at least 1 foot on the floor (so they couldn't be seen kissing in bed!).
So, in the story, Hitchcock has Donat and Carroll handcuffed together. Then, they have to constantly touch each other, in ways "officially" not allowed. This ridiculing of censorship rules would have been well understood by contemporary audiences, and provoked huge laughter.

There's a brief appearence by Shakespearian actor John Laurie, who for many years kept "briefly popping up" in lots of films, although is now most famous - of course - as Private Fraser in Dad's Army ("we're doomed, I tell ye, we're all doomed ...).

The plot hinges on the fact that the "spymaster" has part of his little finger missing. In my personal opinion, Hitchcock has turned this into a joke about penis size! Am I wrong? Watch for yourself, and decide ...

La Belle et La Bete, film4, 1.10am (Tues morning).

A rare showing for Cocteau's surrealist masterpiece!

Not "entertainment" in the usual Hollywood sense, but far more an intellectual exercise, nevertheless very engrossing! So, try it, give it fair a chance, and you might find yourself being drawn into a "very different experience" (less special effects, more imagination) .....

The most memorable scene is where "beauty" is eating dinner, and the "magic table" keeps handing her stuff. Surreal, indeed!
Many years later, Disney "borrowed" quite a lot of this, for its musical cartoon version. For example, the "living" candlestick and teapot!
In real life, the beast - Jean Marais - was Cocteau's homosexual lover (which makes the film "a bit more interesting"!).

(a brilliant short explanation, by Cocteau himself!
http://www.criterionco.com/asp/relea...&section=essay ).

spiney

APOLOGY!

Just above, I said 39 steps was on zone horror channel, in fact it's Open Access 2, I think only available on Sky. Sorry, if anyone's already set the recording timer, however it should get shown again in 4-6 weeks!

film4 are also showing "the 39 steps", but unfortunately that's the turgid 1959 Ronald Neame remake starring Kenneth Moore (who had his moments, but this wasn't one of them!).

Tuesday, 5th September.

Time Lock, Ch4, 2.10pm.

Good 1950s Brit made thriller, about a small boy accidentally locked inside a bank vault. He must be released - somehow - before the air supply runs out, which involves cutting through lots of administrative red tape (as well as metal!). Good story, well written. Also, a sorta side-swipe at the British class system, unusual for the period (as a general rule, such films had plummy Rank Charm School accents, with dire acting, and poked fun at trade unions!).

Sean Connery appears as a welder, apparently it was his first movie "speaking part"!

Repo Man, film4, 1.15 am (Tues morning).

Another chance to see this "don't miss" - if you missed it Friday - remember to set the video this time! (see an above post for comments).

spiney

Wednesday, 6th Sept.

Dr Cyclops, film4, 3pm.

I haven't seen this one, so can't give the usual "witty" (ahem!) comments. However, writeups say it has good special effects, and unusually - for horror films of that period - it's in colour.

Silver Dream Racer, Men+ Motors, 10pm.

A "poorly regarded" Brit flik from 1980, remarkable for getting made at all, in that year! However, it's about motorbikes, which I know will interest at least some members.

Famous for the song "silver dream machine", which went high in the charts, can't remember if it made no.1 .

Thursday 7th Sept.

The Wild Bunch, BBC4, 9.20pm.

This is without doubt "film of the day" (but not of the week, cos it's an amazing weekend on fta Brit tv!).

Sam Pekinpah's very famous "landmark" Western, notorious for for its violence (machine guns appearing in westerns), and - hence - a lament for the end of the "traditional" Western, as defined by John Ford.

The opening scene of Tarantino's Resevoir Dogs is (deliberately) pretty much a copy of Pekinpah's opening here.

Monty Python did a famous parody (of the violence), where they start chopping off their own limbs, and watch the blood spurting out!

Wrong Turn, Ch4, 10pm.

Alright, I suppose, if you like cannibal films, but George Romero did it first, much earlier and much better!

Dangerous Liasons, BBC1, 11.20pm.

(Not sci fi, but a famous play/film).

Saw the original play, didn't like it, then saw this film version, and didn't like that either. Alright if you want to watch people in wigs. Otherwise, the plot - about 2 bored aristocrats having a bet on seducing a young girl - fails to engage.
The acting - from Close and Malkovich - is top notch, but that's not the main problem here!

Saturlight

Cheers for that, Spiney.

I wish women would stop saying I'm very good looking. It's embarrassing...

spiney

Apology, this was a double post, more "public computer" trouble!

spiney

Friday,8th September.

The Sixth Sense, 9pm, ITV2.

Almost everyone thinks this Ghost story - from curiously named M NIght Shyamalan - is brilliant. Not me, I think it's complete and utter rubbish.

Psychologist Bruce Willis is called in to help a "disturbed" boy. As trust is slowly built up, the boy reveals that he can "see" dead people .....
At the very end, there's a sudden "plot twist", to which the rest of the film is entirely subordinated, thus explaining why it's so badly made! In my view, a very big mistake.

A Clockwork Orange, film4, 11.10pm.

This film is about the human (mostly male!) enjoyment and glorification of violence. School bullies, thugs, football yobs, street gangs, sadistic bosses, prisons, the military ...... in fact, all the different types of institutionalised violence.
Is this universal problem, in fact, something pathological, ie, an actual medical condition? (Arthur Koestler thought we should all be drugged, via the public water supply!). If so, then it might be "treatable", but - paradoxically - that would then become a new type of violence!

Notoriously, after some tabloid "newspapers" reported copycat attacks, Kubrick banned this film in the UK for almost 30 years (there was just one illegal showing, at London's Scala Cinema, which got it closed down!).

Of the great film makers, Kubrick was "the master technician", usually achieving his desired effects by very clever use of the camera. However, this was already by far the wierdest of his films (!), so a "straightforward" style was used. Which - paraoxically - instead of playing down the wierdness, actually emphasised it!

The central characters wear diapers, emphasising their regressed infantile state. Also bowler hats, apparently from the Ulster "marches" (themselves, a form of institutional violence). Main character Alex is subject to a pederast school teacher (also a type of violence), and lives in what's obviously a run down council estate (further violence), some time in the mythical - obviously increasingly violent - future .......

Institutionalised violence degrades, taking us below animal level, to something sub-human. So, sexual activity is here rightly shown as something farcical, basically just as choreographed rape ....

The synthesised classical music soundtrack was by Walter Carlos - then already famous for "Switched-on Bach" - who later had a sex change, and is now Wendy Carlos.

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Carlos

The original book, by Anthony Burgess, is largely written in an invented language (apparently based on Russian), which makes it almost unreadable! A pity, because Burgess was one of the last century's great English writers, a man who liked life, so none of his work is dry or academic!
Excellent are his early Malay Trilogy, and his superb comic creation the continually farting poet Enderby (who writes his award winning poetry while sitting for hours on the toilet). The later novels are just as good, but tend to be huge!
If anyone wants to "try out" Burgess, then I can highly recommend "Honey for the Bears", and "The Doctor is Sick". Both are standard length paperback novels, an easy read and hugely enjoyable, with sci fi like features (a bit like Philip Dick, only much better written). Also - perhaps - "The Wanting Seed", but that's very macabre, so be warned!

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadsat

USE YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY ...... OR LOSE IT !

spiney

Saturday 9th Sept.

Barry Lyndon, BBC2, 2.30pm.

Yet another Kubrick film, after last night's "Orange"; copletely different, interesting to comparare and contrast!

This is a film version of Thackery's book The Luck of Barry Lyndon (well, parts of, Victorian novels being huge!). As suggested, it's partly about how pure luck can affect life, whatever our best intentions!
(Hence, the references to gambling - including cheating - which take up a large part of the film. The Chevalier character is a reference to the founding of probability theory by French mystic and mathematician Blaise Pascal).

Famous for the photography (actually by John Alcott, though at Kubrick's instigation). To film the 18th century, the "most real" way would be using natural daylight, and not modern lighting techniques with huge lamp arrays, reflectors, etc! So, they got hold of some extra special f 0.7 lenses made by Zeiss for the moon landings (as there were no actual moon landings, NASA didn't need them, ha ha!). The interior scenes at night are filmed entirely by the light from the candles! The effect is interesting, being rather like old master paintings - which normally assumed a single light source - instead of the multi light sources we're more used to.

As for the story treatment, it's deeply cynical! Kubrick was always highly sceptical about human nature, that's very clear in all his films. Here, he ridicules the contemporary way of fighting war battles, between advancing lines of soldiers with limited firepower, since they have muzzle loading muskets. As presented, the battle scene seems laughably ridiculous, but probably isn't very far off what actually happened, in all battles in those days!

Nice music, (which got an award), both from The Chieftans, and classical pieces. Kubrick's use of music is alwyas thoughtful and excellent, which is often forgotten, since he's much more famous for various cinematography innovations.

Great acting - in 1st part - from Leonard Rossiter (who was a top stage actor, he didn't just appear on tv!). Also from Roy Kinnear. Ryan O'Neal was a megastar, at the time, from being in Love Story and Paper Moon.

As with all Kubrick, this was admitted as excellent - from The Master (film) Technician, but criticised as putting style before content, with acting taking 2nd place to various cinematic innovations. But, that's exactly what film is! (a very different thing from live drama). And - like all Kubrick - it's a masterpiece.

It Came From Outer Space, 4.50pm, film4.

(A few days ago, Saturlight asked about sci fi films with happy endings, I mentioned this, and here it is, as if on cue!).

A very famous 1950s sci fi "B movie", from equally famous director Jack Arnold (Creature from Black Lagoon, Incredible Shrinking Man).

"Something Happens" in an isolated USA town, after a meteor falls to the ground, and then some citizens start acting strangely...... Great period sense of 1950s Cold War paranoia, helped by very eerie Theremin music, and wonderful b/w photography.
(Not only would this have been worse if in colour, it was made in 3D, for the anaglyptic progess, so originally was watched in cinemas using those red/green glasses! I've seen such a showing, and at start of film the meteor comes hurtling in over your head, great! "Creature" was also made in 3D, and occasionally "arthouse" cinemas show these 2 films together, in a 3D double bill).

Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 6.25pm, film4.

Speilberg's "UFO Epic" gets regularly shown on tv, these days. Nevertheless, it's a good film, certainly worth seeing if you haven't.

The strange title comes from the Hynek Report, on which this film is based. After the USAF project blue book, and other reports, the American public still wasn't happy, and this was the definitive final report, in which UFO sightings are classified under a new system. Initially, astromomer Hynek was sceptical, but ended up believing UFOs were real.
Hynek's French counterpart was astronomer Jaques Vallee, who at first took UFOs at apparent face value, but then started believing they were malevolent, and wrote "Messengers of Deception", and similar books ..... (nowadays, UFOs seem to have got combined with "channelling" and other similar vaguely occult activities!).

In the film, Lacombe - played by Truffaut, as Spileberg's personal tribute to that great film maker - is loosely based on Vallee.

Dreyfuss is here again, after Jaws, and fine often seen actress Teri Garr plays his suffering wife

At the time, Spielberg was "riding high" - after the mega success of jaws - and had lots of money to play with, so the special effects are marvellous (there's nothing better, even with newer computer techniques!). However, the film suffers from Spileberg's cloying sentimentality, and the re-released "special edition" version is far worse in that respect, whereas the 1977 print from the original distributors is "about right".

(At a "tryout" screening, the end of the film included "when you wish upon a star" on the soundtrack, other references to Disney's Pinnoccio also being quite clear, but film critics - rightly! - fell over laughing, so that was hurridly removed. However, the "gooey" quality remains, to the film's detriment).

Silent Movie, ITV4, 10pm.

That rare thing, a Mel Brooks film that's actually funny! (Spiney, you'll be shot on sight for that remark!).

A tribute to slapstick film comedy of the silent era. No dialogue, except for a line spoken by (normally completely silent!) mime artist Marcel Marceau.

Rocky Horror Show, ITV3, 10.10pm.

Can't be many people that haven't seen Richard O Brien's marvellous musical tribute to fantasy cinema, and then there's Rockies ....

Come on everybody, sing along ... "science fiction, double feature" ... great fun!

spiney

Sunday 10th Sept.

War of the Worlds, 3.40pm, Ch5.

George Pal's famous 1950s version, with special effects good for the time. Just like the interocitor, on This Island Earth, the strange Martian eyes seem to owe something to the CBS spinning wheel colour tv system, although this wasa never used, commerically, the RCA subcarrier system being far superior.

Also, like the famous Orson Welles radio version, this was more of a "monsterfest", whereas H G Wells' original novel is more philosophical, discussing alien biology (Wells was a pupil of T H Huxley, the evolutionary biologist, nicknamed "Darwin's Bulldog").

Short Circuit, 5.15pm. Ch5.

An advanced robot, being tested by USA military, gets an electric shock and suddenly becomes conscious, then has to try and avoid being dismantled ...... !
Sounds extremly silly, but in fact quite good fun, being done entirely for laughs. There's a catchphrase, "five is alive", which the robot keeps saying!

Evolution, film4, 7.05pm.

Reasonably entertaining - buy very daft - horror film. A crashed meteorite contains extraterrestrial microbes, and when released, they suddenly start turning into advanced animals, in a matter of hours!

The last Picture Show, 10pm, ITV3.

Not sci fi, in any way, but a superb masterpiece, so worth mentioning. A small Texas town is dying, and in it a group of bored young adolescents are broadening their horizons, growing up. The title refers to the last ever film show at a local cinema, before it closes down, because of tv, a sign of a changing world ..... "small town USA" is fast disappearing, multinational corporations are taking over!
Great director, great cast, wonderful music soundtrack, fine humour .... pretty much a perfect film!
Around the middle, there's a brief nude scene - for artistic reasons, you understand - hopefully left in by ITV, but blink and you'll miss it.

This is Spinal Tap, ITV4, 11.30pm.

Very famous "mockumentary" film, following a fictitious rock group on tour. Much fun poked at various rock music myths, also this type of film. For example, the drummers keep dying ..... and the music, well ...... and get those incredible sets!

This was very popular, and quickly became a cult film, and the fictional rock group in it re-formed, and actually went on tour!

The director, Bob Reiner, has a "sure touch", having made a long string of cult and light comedy highly successful films.

spiney

Monday 11th sept.

Explorers, 6.55pm, film4.

Really a childrens' sci fi film, though notable for cult actor River Phoenix.

LA Confidential, film4, 9pm.

Shown quite a bit, but worth seeing! Homage to 1940s "pulp" magazines, and films, in which sleazy private eye / cop stories appeared. Kim Basinger, up till then not taken too seriously as an actress ("a pair of legs with a pout on top", said one critic!), got an oscar (for her "Veronica Lake like" role).

Ping Pong, BBC4, 11pm.

I haven't seen this multi award winner, but might be worth a look, if anything like eariler Japanese film Tampopo, which was wonderful and hilarious.

Timecode, film4, 1.45am (Tues morning).

Haven't seen this either. Interesting idea, with 4 simultaneous frames on screen, it got huge coverage upon release, and provoked very mixed responses.
Timecode is the clock signal electronically written onto film and videotape, for picture and sound editing purposes.

Good range of different viewpoints here:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/timecode/ .

Channel Hopper

A few weeks before completing the third of the HellRaiser films, Mr Anthony Hickox unleashed this production onto the unsuspecting world.

Paying homage to more than a few cult horror films, this sequel to the original Waxwork adequately hides a pitifully low budget with decent special effects, and a reasonable cast / crew.

From the man that brought you Lobster Man from Mars......

You don't have to have known the original to enjoy this.

Canal18 - Hispasat - 9.30 UK time - 10.30 Europe

There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness"

spiney

Tuesday, 12th Sept.

The long Good Friday, 9pm, film4.

Not sci fi, but v good so worth mentioning. A low budget indy Brit flik gangster story (owing something to the Krays), surprisingly one of the best films of 1980, a time when the few Brit fliks made were mostly utter crap.
Bob Hoskins was never better than here, where he plays an extremely violent gangster boss. Especially memorable is the scene where he rounds up suspected enemies, and hangs them upside down on meat hooks!
Shot around London, but not in the usual "tourist" locations, which makes it even more interesting.

Wiki says this can be seen as a parable about Thatchersim, or even as an Oedipal conflict. Hmmm, that's pushing it .... however, there's no doubting it's a good film!

Highlander, film4, 10pm.

"Immortals" Sean Connery and Christopher Lambert battle it out, with various different weapons, while time travelling up and down through the centuries. This entertaining fantasy was something a bit different, and very popular, and there were sequel films and a tv series, but this 1st film is the best of them.

Nice soundtrack from Queen, who eariler had provided the music for Flash Gordon (there's also a tribute to Freddy Mercury, 9.45pm, ITV1).

The Silence of The Lambs, 10pm, ITV2.

" ....and I ate his liver, with a bottle of Chianti", says Hopkins, playing "cannibal" mad doctor Lecter.
Who hasn't seen this? Nevertheless, a nicely crafted film, well cast, and fine performances from Hopkins and Foster.
Personally, I much prefer Michael Mann's eariler Hannibal Lecter film, Manhunter.

spiney

Wed 13th Sept.

Ronin, BBC3, 9pm.

Not sci fi, but an excellent thriller, with a fine international cast, set on streets of Paris, with some nice car chases, one of which is - apparently - remarkably similar to that in which Princess Diana was killed.

Director John Frankenheimer was most famous in late 50's / early 60's, for films like Birdman of Alcatraz, 7 Days in May, The Manchurian Candidate, etc. His later films are still excellent, but not as famous. This was his last "major" work.

Scriptwriter David Mamet is a controversial USA playright/director - often highly critical and dismissive of actors generally - who became well known through plays like American Buffalo and Glengarry Glen Ross.

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamet%2C_David .
http://www.instantcast.com/casting/become_an_actor.asp .
(it's worth looking at the summary of Mamet's controversial ideas about acting, in these 2 short articles!).

Double Jeopardy, ITV2, 9pm.

Again, not sci fi, but a fair thriller. A woman's husband has framed her, with the crime of attempting to kill him, and after finishing her jail term, because of double jeopardy - you can't be tried twice for the same crime - she can then kill him legally with no consequences (great storyline, but wouldn't work in real life!).
Cast includes excellent film actor Tommy Lee Jones, anything with him in is worth watching.
Highly topical because, last Monday, UK legal history was made when a person was first tried twice for the same offence, and convicted!

I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle, M+M, 10pm.

A dispatch rider gets a bike, and discovers it runs on blood.

This low budget recent Britflik comedy horror sounds as if it should be entertaining, sort of like Little Shop of Horrors (the original, non-musical), but in fact has had mixed reviews for bad taste:
http://www.britishhorrorfilms.co.uk/...torcycle.shtml .

Arthur, BBC1, 11.15pm.

This superb comedy is "film of the day". Dudley Moore is a rich spoiled obnoxious brat, whose life changes when he meets hooker Liza Minnelli, after which his family threatens to disown him .....

The real star of this is John Gielgud, hilariously playing the cynical world weary butler (and looking very fit, he was 77 at the time!), for which he very deservedly got an Oscar (Dudley Moore also got one).

After the "Pete and Dud" satire days ended, Peter Cook stayed in the uk, and relative obscurity, while Dudley Moore had a 2nd career in Hollywood, briefly, in a few films like 10, etc .....

spiney

Thur 14th Sept.

Death Hunt, 10.15pm, ITV4.

Nice action adventure, including some dynamite throwing, and a chase across the (cold!) Canadian wilderness.

Stars both Charles Bronson and Lee Marvin, two "tough" men who most certainly weren't "Shakespearian" actors (!), but nevertheless very good at what they did, and hence appeared in many films of this type.

Unbreakable, 11.10pm, ITV2.

Another "supernatural mess", from M Night Shyamaian, and again starring Bruce Willis.

A security guard seems strangely immune to injury and death, in fact just like comic superheroes, as a comic collector tries to persuade him .......

Reminds me of that tv yoghurt advert, you know, if you're having pleasure, it must be balanced by somebody else's pain. Trite stuff.

spiney

Friday 15th Sept.

Mysterious Island, 10.05am (mid-morning), CH4.

I've not seen this - in fact, not even heard of it - however, it apparently does include some prime examples of Ray Harryhausen's stop-frame animation, which just alone would make it "worth catching".

(you've probably seen quite a bit of Harryhausen, even if you didn't know it!).
http://lavender.fortunecity.com/judi.../harryhis.html .

The Hunt for Red October, 11.35pm, BBC1.

This has been frequently shown, recently, almost to the point of tedium! Nevertheless, it's an excellent "cold war" action thriller, with some sci fi elements. If you've not already seen this, then it's still very much a "don't miss"!

Stars Alec Baldwin, but the film is "made" by Sean Connery and Sam Neill, both excellent film actors (of course!). There's also a small but good performance by Tim Curry (Frank N Furter in Rocky Horror Film).

Videodrome, Ch4, 1.20am (Sat morning).

DO NOT MISS THIS BRILLIANT CULT HORROR FILM!

For sheer intelligence, this is one of my top ever personal faves! In which respect, it's at least equal to The Wicker Man.

James Woods (very much a cult film actor!) is investigating a particular illegal satellite tv station called Videodrome, purveying what seems to be horrific sickening porn, plus snuff movies. Doing so, he gets drawn into a bizarre hallucinatory semi-real world ......

Also stars Debbie Harry, looking very lovely here, in a rare acting role.

There's much more to this film than ever "meets the eye", and all I can do is "scratch the surface", by providing just a few hints .....

The technical situation portrayed - decrypting an illegal satellite signal - reflects the USA/Canadian stuation at that time, where cable tv material - including strong porn - was distributed via C band analogue satellite, often using primitive encryption, fairly easily broken ....

After a 1st viewing, Woods finds he is then addicted, and "inserts" the video cassette into himself ..... partly a comment on tv integrating so completely with - and taking over - our lives, almost becomming a bodily appendage .....

(the special effects are quite gory and nauseating - deliberately! - and were also very impressive at the time, although now maybe less so. However, that's not the point, as they're a metaphor .... since we might well fantasise, during any/all sexual activity, possibly using some remembered video images, then exactly where do we "put" the barrier between fantasy and the "real world"? ..... ).

Also, at that time, there was a huge debate about "video nasties", the lack of controlling legislation allowing all sorts of things ....

The bizarre deceased character Brian O'Blivion - still existing, but only on videotapes - and his daughter running the "cathode ray mission" (doss-house) - are a very slick comment on 1960s meida pundit Marshall McLuhan, who very famously said: " .... the medium IS the message ..." and described various "hot" and "cool" media.

Here's an excellent link, quickly and easily presenting the main ideas of McLuhan as a slideshow (very aptly!). Very cleverly presented, as printed "handwriting" on a ring-binder, thus encompassing McLuhan's 3 "stages", and showing the medium as the message!
To view slides, keep clicking on right single arrow:
http://www.usm.maine.edu/com/techdet/sld001.htm .

And, a very astute review of Videodrome:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s1340vid.html .

spiney

Saturday 16th Sept.

Normally, I only cover free to air British tv! However, it's worth mentioning that this Sat/Sun TCM has a Kubrick Weekend, showing some of his best films, including all 3 sci fi ones. Also, two of them brilliantly star Peter Sellers (see below).

Otherwise, on FTA a Peter Sellers extravaganza, but I'm not quite sure why today, just coincidence?

(not sci fi, but MUST be mentioned!).

The Wrong Arm of the Law, film4, 3pm.
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, BBC2, 9.50pm.
Being There, BBC2, 11.50pm.

In Wrong Arm, a bunch of clever new crooks start a series of robberies by impersonating police officers (IPCs). That's very bad news, both for established crooks, and for the real police, so they agree to co-operate, with a "temporary truce".
Sellers plays Pearly Gates (possibly a homosexual reference!), a sleazy East London crook with a deliberately fake French accent (shades of later Inspector Clouseau), whose "front" is a ladies' fashion salon. Lionel Jeffries is a manic overactive dyspepsic policeman (a role he repeated briliantly, in several films!). John Le Mesurier is the nose always in air but mustn't step in any dogshit Chief Constable, worried only about his pension.
Especially funny is the fairground scene, where cops and crooks negotiate, hammering out the terms of their truce whilst riding on roundabouts, big dippers, etc.
The script is by Galton and Simpson, famous for Hancock and Steptoe, so - of course - is very funny! Unfortunately, this film suffers - like so many other Britflicks from that period - from "trade union bashing" (the crooks supposedly representing unionists), which it would have been better without, nevertheless it's still a fine film, despite this problem, thanks to great cast and script.

I haven't seen Life and Death, so can't comment, but am looking forward to watching it. Geoffrey Rush is exactly the right actor, can't think of anyone else better, and the rest of the cast are also well known (and importantly, intelligent!) comedy actors, so should be a fine film.
No doubt there's the usual liberties, for dramatic effect! However, it's now 25 years since Sellers unexpectedly died (age 54!), which has allowed all the facts to come out meanwhile, so hopefully the story will have a "balanced perspective", showing lots of this amazing (troubled!) man's many facets, and not just a limited "slanted version"!

Finally, never mind this "Sellersfest", Being There - in any case - is Film of the Day!
Sellers plays "Chance" (approproiate nickname), a simple minded oldish man with no education at all, who nearly all his life has been a gardener in a particular house, and knows about nothing else whatsoever!
Suddenly, his employer dies, and he's thrust into the world outside the house, which he's never seen! Totally confused, all he can do is talk about gardening, but to other people this sounds like "pithy homely wisdom", and Chance ends up as nominated USA presidential candidate ........
There's an excellent scene where Chance leaves his house for the first time ever, to the accompaniment of Also Sprach Zarathustra (the famous music that begins 2001 A Space Odyssey).
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/8200/being.html .

Being There works on many levels, as a simple funny story, and also as criticism of politics, media, lifestyles, etc, but however .... ....

"Being There" is a literal translation of "dasein", a fake German word (da sein), coined by philospher Martin Heidegger in his monumental existentialist work Being and Time. It means "human being in contextual setting", ie, you can't separate a man at all from the surrounding environment, he's very much integrated into it. Going together with that is the concept Sorge (concern, sympathy), which in the film Shirley Maclean represents.
That much is quite clear. However, whether these major existentialist concepts are here being used seriously - or merely satirised - I've no idea!
Although the Heidegger connection is entirely overt and obvious, for some reason nearly all so-called film critics have missed it (maybe none is a philosopher!), I can only find a single Internet reference that specifically mentions this connection, and it's passworded!

For a bit on Heidegger, try:
http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/heid.htm .
http://www.angelfire.com/md2/timewarp/heidegger.html .
(good luck with that 2nd link, then try the Wikipedia article on Being and Time, it's miles clearer!).

This film was a "different sort of part" for Sellers, had he lived a bit longer, he would have had a "whole new career" as a "more serious" - but always highly talented - actor!
When he died, he already had a heart pacemaker, and was due to have a heart operation the very next month, which would probably have saved him!
However, in a sense Sellers has never left us, leaving behind a large amount of often repeated highly popular work (including The Goon Show, being repeated on BBC7).

added. Sellers was fascinated by - let's say gullible about! - the occult, and frequently (so i understand) took advice from friend and expert Michael Bentine.
Bentine was also a Goon - for 2 years - then left, and started his own separate parallel but highly accomplished surrealist comedy career (if any of his stuff gets re-broadcast, watch it!).
Bentine wrote 2 books, The Door Marked Summer, and Doors of the Mind, in which he claimed to regularly have had occult experiences for his whole life, including seances, and otherwise ghosts just "continually following him around". A fascinating but strange man, like his friend Sellers.

spiney

Oops sorry, I almost forgot .....

The Wicker Man, Sat 10pm, ITV4.

In the last 30 years there's been 2 "intelligent" horror films. Videodrome was shown last night, and this is the other one!

Sexually repressed prebyterian cop Edward Woodward (representing law, state, church, authority) flies from Scottish mainland to a remote island, investigating a disappeared girl. There, he finds a bizarre artificially introduced paganism ("new age", though that phrase came later) comprising bits and pieces from Buddhism, Druidism, Wicca, Magik, etc. Also, worst, "free love" (The Pill had appeared, the "sexual revolution" was underway, and 1967 was the Hippy "summer of love").

At first, the islanders deny the girl exists, but there's many traces of her, then things turn very sinister ....... (the end of Wicker Man "echoes" that of the original 1931 Frankenstein film, but I've no idea what that signifies .....).

Integral to this film is the music and songs! If badly done, they would have been a disaster, but they're beautifully done. Important, because music is a major element of all religions, expressing the joyous aspect (condemnation is for sermons!). For example, Anglicanism has sublime choral evensong, evangelicals singing "I luv Jesus, he's my mate", and perhaps even charismatic "singing in tongues" (a very eerie sound) ....

Famously, Britt Eckland has a (lengthy) topless scene (double yum!), although when she's seen full length from rear it's a body double (was there a problem with Britt's butt?). Dance pioneer Lindsay Kemp also appears, bizarrely but very effectively, as the landlord! Perhaps most notoriously, Christopher Lee - as the island's Laird - ends up wearing a dress, and singing, which was apparently partly an in-joke (to make him sing, and get him into drag!).
There's also good performances from horror film cult actress Ingrid Pitt, and Diane Cilento (who?).

Many elements of the paganism shown appear to be from (Scotsman!) James Fraser's highly influential 19th century work The Golden Bough, about many different pagan religions' worship of "the corn God", one of these (claimed as!) being Christianity itself! The point being that, although the new age religion and Christianity seem diametrically opposed, perhaps it's not quite that simple ......

Robin Hardy's "other big film" is The Fantasist, comming nowhere near the huge achievement of Wicker Man but nevertheless very interesting! It got shown on horror channel, a few times, before rot set in .....
The 2006 Hollywood "remake" of wicker man has been slammed by critics, and condemned by both Hardy and Lee.

http://www.steve-p.org/wm/ .
http://www.nmpft.org.uk/fantastic/20...l.asp?ida=6221 .
http://world.std.com/~raparker/explo...d/exbough.html .

(The text of The Golden Bough - abridged and full - is available for free download from several websites, eg Project Gutenberg).

PS, screenwriter Anthony Schaffer also wrote other high profile plays and screenplays, perhaps most famously Sleuth.

spiney

Sunday, 17th Sept.

Cape Fear, ITV4, 9pm.

This remake with DeNiro is nowhere near as good as the original with Robert Mitchum, but it's "watchable".

American Graffiti, ITV3, 10pm.

Hugely entertaining and enjoyable, multi-coloured and with a fine cast and great 1950s (early 60s?) soundtrack, this was Lucas' "big film" prior to Star Wars.
A group of (oldish!) teenagers drive around a small USA town, in their - sometimes kooky - cars, while learning lessons about life and growing up ....... early appearences by Richard Dreyfuss and Harrison Ford, also Ron Howard (director Apollo 13).
The real stars of this film are the cars, they positively gleam. The film is mostly shot at night, with lots of neon signs reflecting off the shiny cars, the colours on black giving a wonderful chiaroscoro effect! I suspect George Lucas had in mind the masterpiece film Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and was trying for a similar thing .....

http://kathyschrock.net/graffiti/ .

A Beautiful Mind, BBC1, 10.15pm .

Very cleverly made - and engrossing - biopic about schizophrenic maths genius John Nash. We see him entering Princeton, making a special friend, getting married, and being recruited by the government to decode Soviet spy secret messages, sent via magazine small ads (due to his mathematical ability). It's not until some way into the film, that we realise things are not quite as they seem .....

As to what Nash accomplished - including his Nobel Prize winning results in game theory - that's so esoteric that even Spiney doesn't understand it! However, follow the links ....

Schizophrenia is still not understood at all (what is "the mind"?), although nowadays symptoms can often be controlled, partly by drugs.
I had a schizophrenic friend, who used to receive personal messages, just for him, which had been deliberately inserted - by someone unknown - into billboard ads ...... in more serious cases, sufferers see and converse with people who aren't really there .....

A very interesting insight into serious schizophrenia is given by the book Operators And Things, which reads like a sci fi novel, but is a true story. My paperback copy is years old, but amazingly it's still in print! It's also been argued that Swedenborg - who regularly talked to angels, and decribed their eating habits in detail - was schizophrenic.

http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/nash.htm .
amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/0498016641/ref=cm_cr_dp_pt/002-7223169-2251246?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books" target="_blank">http://www.,amazon.com/gp/product/cus...283155&s=books .
http://swedenborg.newearth.org/hh/hh00toc.html .