Askewed Perspective

Left work early yesterday to make it to the new local cinema to watch Zack and Miri Make A Porno, surprisingly only the second Kevin Smith film (after Dogma) I've been able to catch at the cinema. (The ticket was also thankfully alot less than the £8 I had to shell out the last time I went to this cinema!).

So, any good? Well, Smith has matured as a visual storyteller as this looks the best of all his movies and has some interesting shots and camera moves. Seth Rogen is amiable enough and Elizabeth Banks (Betty Brant in the Spidey films) is not exactly hard to look at but after a promising start, the film soon had me wondering and having watched the whole thing, I'll have to say my fears were confirmed and it's not much of a repeat viewer.

I loved the dialogue in Smith's previous films but here some of the characters spout some Smith characteristics: not so much what the characters say or talk about, but the phrases they use. That become disconcerting because the dialogue flowed in a familiar way but didn't have too many laughs to back it up. There are some funny bits and it ends up being quite a sweet film but overall, it just didn't have me chuckling as much as the Clerks instalments in particular, but any of the previous View Askew films in general (except for Jersey Girl, which was quite good for a chick flick). I hope the film does well but I fear I'll only pick up the DVD (as the features are bound to be great) cheap in the sales and then mostly out of complete ism for my collection of Smith films.

Funnily enough though, A Threevening With Kevin Smith turned up today on DVD, and I'm looking forward to that as I really enjoyed the previous ones. This one was filmed in Red Bank, as the DVD cover shows the theatre, which I passed on the way to the Secret Stash store. For those interested, it's near Carlos O'Connor's, the only Irish-Mexican restaurant I've ever seen!

Arriving with that DVD was DC Super Heroes, a DVD featuring all the supporting short cartoons from the 1960s Superman cartoon series produced by Filmation. It's always a bad thing to revisit childhood shows and these look decidedly ropey from clips I've seen on Youtube. However, watching early adventures of Green Lantern, Hawkman, Flash, the Atom, the Justice League and the original Teen Titans. Mainly picked up for the curiosity factor, this also serves two further purposes: seeing if I can stand this old animation may let me know if I can possibly contemplate the 60s Space Ghost DVD and also gives me something to watch in lieu of Family Guy.

I hardly watch any TV but used to enjoy BBC3's Family Guy double bills each night after I'd finished pottering about but it's been reduced to only a night or two each week. However, my TV viewing's suddenly shot up this week: always watch Heroes of course (which is a bit directionless but far better than last season and back on track now, despite sloughing viewers in the States) but Smallville's also back. I actually quite liked the first two episodes after the hacky seventh season. There feels like real character progression for the first time in ages. I find I don't miss Lex much as he'd been fairly marginalised over the past two seasons and while I'd prefer him back, Tess Mercer (get the ref?) is a decent character---undecided about Doomsday though. No Lana is also a bonus, as is more Lois. Joe Aherne's Apparitions (starring Martin Shaw as an exorcist) was surprisingly not bad so I'll keep tuning in for the moment and Clone on BBC3 will earn a look if I remember, although I have to say that I don't hold out much hope for this one. Still, Lead Balloon's also back and I love this show...loved the dialogue with Jack Dee's grumpy Rick Spleen character moaning to his wife about having their miserable Polish home help Magda staying with them for a few days...

"She used to live next to a power station, a little Calor gas isn't gonna hurt her..."
"It's carbon monoxide---it's potentially fatal..."
"...She could open a window..."


In addition, a ton of new reading material arrived this week: two new books from Cinebooks turned up today surprisingly quickly (and they have other interesting-looking books coming out over the next few months too) and my monthly parcel contained the new Azzarello/Bermejo Joker GN, the latest collections of Ex Machina and Empowered (a guilty pleasure, but I like Adam Warren's art) and Spidey: With Great Power. Lots of my time being eaten up again, I fear...