Stoopid Monkey!

BUFFY: 4.22 ‘RESTLESS'

2012-02-14T12:50:00.003-08:00

Some of the best funny bits of season four

WRITER: Joss Whedon

DIRECTOR: Joss Whedon

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

With the battle against Adam and his demon horde won, an exhausted Buffy, Giles, Willow and Xander return to Buffy’s house to relax and chill out. Soon, though, they all fall asleep, in to what will turn out to be very, very strange and potentially deadly dreams in which something angry and primal is stalking them — the spirit of the First Slayer, furious that her power was invoked for the gang's enjoining spell. And original slayer wants to make ‘em pay.

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

Where to start with Restless?

It’s perhaps the strangest, weirdest, (arguably) smartest episode of the entire series. Joss decided to end season four in a way no one expected, or that had been done before to my knowledge on a major US TV series. Here we delve deep in to Buffy, Giles, Willow and Xander’s subconscious’s through their dreams. Dreams which play out just as dreams usually play out – disjointed, apparently nonsensical, surreal.

There’s a lot here to explore, to think about.

Joss says he pretty much sat down and wrote by free association, letting it all tumble out of his head on to the page. And you can tell. That kind of writing works well here as dreams are often like that - a jumble of images, of ideas, hard to interpret. But there’s also lots of foreshadowing of future events in Restless – mostly from season five with a certain unexpected arrival, but also from season six and what happens to Willow. And then a certain major event from season seven concerning Spike. It’s subtle but it is all there.

For Willow it seems her fears are of being a major player in all things Scooby and that she’ll not be truly accepted for who she is by her friends. Her biggest fear, though, seems to be that underneath the cool, cute, magiced-up College girl Willow, she is still really the mousy, insecure little geek from school.

On to Xander, whose fears are mostly about him being trapped in a loser life, stuck in bad low paid jobs and never escaping his parents’ basement. Oh, plus some guilt around being kinda hot for both Willow and Tara and, ahem, Buffy’s mom.

Giles, meanwhile, seems to focus on how he treats and relates to Buffy, seeing her as a little girl, an innocent, naïve daughter who he must be hard and strict with in order to keep her safe.

Finally, Buffy herself deals with issues such as marginalising her mother (who literally becomes part of the building, living inside its walls) and confronting the source of her power as well as the question of who and what she really is.

In the end Buffy confronts the First Slayer who is furious that Buffy isn’t like her: a pure primal power for killing and nothing more. Buffy settles in her own mind that she is much more than that, and that she has to have her friends back, that she needs them to be strong, to keep her as her and not as something similar to the First Slayer. This fundamental realisation forces the dreams to come to an end and the gang to wake up, disturbed but in one piece and with lots to ponder over, just like the audience.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?
The First Slayer

WHY IT ROCKS

1. Original. Restless is like nothing else I’ve seen on TV. Sure, other TV shows have gone weird and trippy, but not with the same depth of meaning, clues, signs and portents which do pay off in future seasons. Often weird and trippy is just weird and trippy for its own sake. Not here. Joss’s idea was to as accurately as possible capture the look and feel of a genuine dream but to layer it with meaning and with ideas and clues to be argued and debated over by fans until time itself ends.

2. Direction. This episode is beautifully directed. The camera work, composition, cinematography is quite something. Individual shots are quite stunning as are the dissolves. It kinda reminded me in places of a Tarsem Singh film, just not quite as visually batty. The use of the interconnected sets at the studio Buffy was filmed in is quite ingenious too, allowing characters to, in a single unbroken shot, literally step from, say, the Bronze right in to Xander’s basement, then on in to a Sunnydale U hallway etc. Its how the studio space was arranged for real but is also quite odd and jarring when watched as part of a constructed narrative. Two of my fave directed bits are the black and white Spike-striking-poses sequence and the single slow motion close up shot of Ms Kitty Fantastico walking towards camera. Joss was really rockin’ the camera on this one.

3. The First Slayer. Actress/model Sharon Ferguson does a great job as the First Slayer being full of so much wordless, primal power and lethal ferocity. With her animalistic movements, long wild hair and war paint she makes for a truly scary figure. Thankfully we will see her again in future eps of Buffy.

4. The Cheese Man. Perhaps no other character in Buffy outside of the core group has been more discussed/debated/pondered than the mysterious cheese man, a happy bespectacled chap who turns up now and again to talk about and offer to the Scoobies some slices of processed cheese. Bizarre! I have nothing. Joss…?

5. Spike’s b&w photo shoot. As mentioned earlier, really cool sequence. James Marsters is clearly having way too much fun striking those cheesy poses.

6. Guest stars. Yay! Oz is back, albeit a dream Oz in Willow’s head seen canoodling with Tara in class. Still, it’s Oz. Big smile. Plus we get Phina Oruche back as Giles’ on and off girlfriend Olivia playing mommy figure to Buffy in Giles’s dream. But best of all is the excellent Armin Shimerman back as odious (now eaten by giant snake demon) Principle Snyder doing his best Marlon Brando/Colonel Kurtz impression. Love it.

WHY IT SUCKS

It doesn't suck. But I get why some people wouldn’t like it. It is weird. It is rather self indulgent. It is mostly about Joss getting to play in his sandbox and doing what ever the hell he wants to do. But so what? Joss doing what he wants to do almost always ends up being out of this world awesome! Just as it is here.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

Spike striking a pose

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Xander: “Apocalypse Now is a gay romp. It's the feel-good movie of whatever year it was.”

Xander: (to Willow) “So whatcha been doin'? Doing spells? (to Oz) She does spells with Tara.”
Oz: “Yeah, I've heard about that.”
Xander (dreamily): “Sometimes I think about two women doing a spell... and then I do a spell by myself.”

Buffy: “But what else could I expect from a bunch of low-rent, no-account hoodlums like you? Hoodlums, yes, I mean you and your friends, your whole sex. Throw 'em in the sea for all I care. Throw 'em in and wait for the bubbles. Men, with your groping and spitting. All groin, no brain. Three billion of ya' passin' around the same worn out urge. Men... with your sales.”

Cheese Guy (to Giles, while wearing two slice of cheese on his head): “I wear the cheese, it does not wear me.”

Giles: “Somehow our joining with Buffy and invoking the essence of the Slayer's power was an affront to the source of that power.”
Buffy: “You know you could have brought that up to us before we did it.”
Giles: “I did. I said there could be dire consequences.”
Buffy: “Yes, but you say that about chewing too fast.”

AND ANOTHER THING

1. This episode marks Seth Green’s final ever appearance in Buffy, though not Oz’s. The character returned in the Season 8 comic book series where he was living happily in Tibet with a wife and child…until Buffy and her band of on the run slayers turn up.

2. The outfit Willow wears in her dream, after Buffy rips off her "costume," is the exact same outfit she wore in Buffy 1.1 'Welcome to the Hellmouth.'

3. A quote from Joss re. The Cheese Man: "The cheese man means nothing. He is the only thing in the show that means nothing. I needed something like that, something that couldn't be explained, because dreams always have that one element that is just RIDICULOUS. Thus, man of cheese. Plus funny. (to me)"

4. When Giles is singing at the Bronze, Buffy composer Christophe Beck and Four Star Mary (the real band behind Dingoes Ate My Baby) are all onstage with him.

HOW MANY STAKES?

Cave Slayer is very angry! 5 (out of 5)

And so ends my Buffy Season Four retrospective. It’s on to season five soon.

BUFFY: 4.21 ‘PRIMEVAL’

2012-02-11T11:44:00.002-08:00

Buffy’s best fights from season 4

WRITER: David Fury
DIRECTOR: James Contner

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

Adam reveals his plan to his ‘brother’ Riley who it turns out has a chip planted inside of him by Maggie Walsh; a chip which allows Adam to control him. So what's Adam been up to? Well, he's been deliberately loading the Initiative with demons and wants Buffy in there to lead the humans in battle when he releases the demon horde upon them. Buffy, he figures, will maximise demon casualties allowing for lots and lots of human and demon spare parts, which he can then use to build an army of hybrids to begin bringing order to a chaotic world. Meanwhile at the caves, Buffy has a run in with Spike and figures out what’s been going on. She, Giles, Willow and Xander meet up and realise that Spike, working for Adam, has been playing them off against each other, looking to isolate Buffy from her besties. Buffy also figures out Adam’s plan and our girl decides to mount a surprise attack on Big Bad's secret lab in the Initiative before he can put his nasty plan in to action. But how to defeat the big nasty? It seems he feared the strength that Buffy drew from her friends, which goes and gives Giles an idea for a powerful spell to give the Buffster the advantage in combat. The gang then heads to the Initiative where they break in through Riley’s old frat house, repelling down the secret elevator shaft. However they are soon captured by Initiative types and pretty soon must watch helplessly as Adam takes control of the facility releasing all the demons from their cells. A massive human vs. demon battle ensues complete with explosions, mass casualties, body parts cleaved away. Buffy and the gang escape custody and cast their spell, imbuing Buffy with the strength of her three best friends and of the original primeval magic of the Slayer. Meanwhile Riley manages to remove the controlling chip from his chest and fights the newly demoned up Forrest, eventually besting his now monstrous ex-best friend. At the same time, primevaly boosted up Buffy finds Adam and engages him in a one on one smack down. Adam is unable to match or work around Buffy’s new power and ends up having his power cell ripped from his body by her, killing him stone dead. Later, somewhere in Washington DC, a bunch of Government officials discuss what happened in Sunnydale and make the decison that their interference in all things supernatural was a mistake and that the Initiative should be shut down and buried forever.

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

The power of true friendship, of drawing strength from those who care for you and who you care for. Not being alone. This is one of the fundamental themes of the entire series. Buffy has only lived as long as she has, has only been as successful as she has because she’s got what no other slayer ever had: friends, family, a life (of sorts). She has people to care about and who care about her. Who have her back. The power in that is immense.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

Adam, Demon-Forrest, lots of let loose demons.

WHY IT ROCKS

1. Action. You want big action? Fights? Explosions? Gun battles? Fire? Sets blowing up? Limbs severed? Check all those. Primeval is big. It’s ballsy. It’s an action spectacular. Humans and demons fight, fly through the air, lose body parts, explode. You name it, almost every stunt is in here. Seeing the fantastic Skunkworks location used as the Initiative engulfed in flames and carnage is pretty darn cool. Director Jim Contner and the stunt team did a splendid job. The stuntmen really earned their pay on this one inc. high falls and full body burns – still the most dangerous stunt to do. Contner shows lots of wide-angle destruction as well as fast cut frenetic carnage and more intimate battles and bloodshed. I especially liked Forrest blowing up, his dismembered head sent spinning at the camera. Cool.

2. Buffy goes Neo. Okay, so Joss loves The Matrix. It’s his favourite film. And here you can tell. When Buffy becomes possessed by the primeval force, she slows time, stopping bullets in slo mo and turning missiles in to doves. The FX look amazing if totally ripped off of the Wachowski’s. But its kinda cool seeing the same thing used in a magic/supernatural context as opposed to the scifi one in The Matrix.

3. The Buffy/Adam fight. Buffy’s hand to hand fight with Adam is bloody great. It is fairly brief but its a big ol’ fist pounding slug fest as she dodges his huge blows and counters with hard and fast poundings of her own. A tiny girl laying epic blows on a huge, hulking Frankenstein monster type and sending him reeling is just such a goddamn awesome image. Its moments like those that remind me why she’s possibly my favourite hero character ever, and still, all these years later, just so dam cool.

4. The elevator repelling scene. In a very Buffy scene, Buffy and Willow have a touching heart to heart and reconnect as best friends…while repelling on ropes down an elevator shaft. This sweet and touching scene is then undercut with funny as the pair hug…and then pratfall the rest of the way down. At the bottom of the shaft they continue to hug, and when Xander comes down next they hug him too. Unaware of the context Xander takes it the wrong way and thinks they are all about to die. Heh.

WHY IT SUCKS

1. Despite the coolness of Buffy and Adam’s big end fight, it does feel oddly small scale and ends kinda quick. Basically they are fighting one on one in a small room with nobody else about. I wish they’d been able to stage the fight out in the main Initiative set somehow. It would have been a lot more visually interesting with all the carnage going on around them.

2. Sarah lost a fair bit of weight over seasons 3 and 4 and her stunt/fight double is, in several scenes, obviously a lot more muscular.

3. I love Spike, but how come Buffy didn’t just stake him when it became clear he was working for Adam? Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad she didn’t, but it doesn’t make a whole heap of sense.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

The fights and FX are fab but I do love the elevator-repelling scene. It’s disarmingly sweet, character based and funny. Quintessential Buffy.

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Xander: “Spike's working for Adam?! After all we've done — Nah, I can't even act surprised.”

Buffy: “Xander!”
Willow: “Oh, wonderful Xander!”
Buffy (while giving a group hug): “You know we love you, right?”
Willow: “We totally do.”
Xander (morose): “Oh God, we're gonna die, aren't we?”

Spike (to Adam, about getting his chip removed): “Hello? Paging Dr. Owe-me-one.”

Willow (to Colonel McNamara as he's searching their equipment): “It's a gourd.”
Giles: “A magic gourd.”
Colonel McNamara: “What kind of freaks are you people?”

Uber-Buffy: “You could never hope to grasp the source of our power. (Pushes a hand in to Adams chest, pulling out his power core). But yours is right here.”

Spike (faking enthusiasm to help the Scoobies and save his own skin): "Then lets go save 'em, by gum!"

AND ANOTHER THING

Primeval is the standard big fight/epic conclusion to this season’s story arc concerning The Initiative and Adam. But it is not the season finale. In a left field decision made by Joss, and flying in the face of normal TV drama, he decided instead to end this season with a strange little character driven coda; an experimental episode about dreams and consequences which explores our main characters inner most fears, strengths and weaknesses. Restless is that episode. The one that ends season 4 proper. And it quickly became one of the most discussed, debated and beloved episodes of Buffy and of Joss’s writing career so far.

See ya in the Scoobies’ dreams.

HOW MANY STAKES?

Uber-Buffy beats all before her. 4 (out of 5)

BUFFY: 4.20 ‘THE YOKO FACTOR’

2012-01-20T04:57:00.000-08:00

Giles sings Freebird

WRITER: Doug Petrie

DIRECTOR: David Grossman

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

Buffy gets back from her troubling visit to Angel in LA. Meanwhile Spike, recruited by Adam with the promise of removing his chip, hatches a dastardly plan to weaken the slayer: he intends to separate her from her friends by spreading rumours and lies amongst them. This proves very successful, putting the Scoobies at each others throats. Then Angel turns up, looking to find Buffy to apologise for how things went in LA, but he has a run in with a jealous Riley. Eventually the pair face off in front of Buffy who enforces a peace. She makes things right with Angel, who then leaves for LA. Buffy must then put things right with Riley…and break the news to him that she saw Adam kill his friend Forrest in an earlier run in she had with the big lug, one which Buffy barely survived. Shocked, Riley storms off alone. Later, Scooby Gang infighting comes to a head at Giles’s place (no pun intended) and an angry and distraught Buffy, worried about Riley, walks out on them all, heading off to fight Adam alone. Meanwhile Riley has found Adam, and the two of them, alone, face off.

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

Complicated relationships, group dynamics, the darker side of human nature – resentment, anger, jealousy. It all comes in to play here. Spike does his part to ferment it but the tensions were already there bubbling away under the surface.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

Adam and Spike

WHY IT ROCKS

Bad Spike. The platinum one gets to have a ton of fun messing with the Scoobies, sewing not-so-subtle seeds of discord amongst them. My personal favourite is how he gets Giles to degenerate in to a sulky drunk with the use of just a few well chosen words – observations about how Buffy treats her one time Watcher. Thing is, Spike is not too far from the truth. What’s best, though, is the one huge flaw in Spike’s plan that Adam identifies near episode’s end. Oops. Poor William.

Miss Kitty Fantastico. Tara and Willow get themselves a kitten who they call Miss Kitty Fantastico. She’s very cute and would make a good familiar. Shame she pretty much disappears after this season.

Angel. Unlike his last visit to Sunnydale, this one is really cool. Angel's fight with the Initiative guys and then with Riley is well done and pretty intense, as is his eventual confrontation with Buffy, after which the pair sorts out their issues and come to a peace. Boreanaz is great. Scowling, long black coat billowing, his brooding intensity is ramped right up to the max. Now THAT’S Angel. Plus his childish smirk to Riley after Buffy appears to take his side is perfect. Angel always had that slightly childish, petulant side to him. Great stuff.

Lots of plot. A ton of stuff happens in this episode. Lots and lots of character dynamics/exploration of relationships. Also a moving forward of Adam’s (still unknown) plan of action which seems to involve getting lots of demons in to the Initiative and also having Buffy lead the fight against them all. There’s not a moment in this ep that isn’t working flat out on character or plot. Nice work Doug Petrie.

Clown pants. Poor Riley is forced in to borrowing some of Xander’s less stylish clothes. Ugh!

WHY IT SUCKS

Um, nothing I can think of. This episode’s pretty much all-round great.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

The current boyfriend and the ex-boyfriend smack down.

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Xander (about the clothes he's letting Riley borrow): “Try those on. You'll feel like a new man.”
Riley: “Would this man have a bright red nose and big floppy feet?”

Spike (startling Giles): “You know, for someone who's got "Watcher" on his résumé, you might want to cast an eye to the front door every now and again.”

Anya (hitting Xander in the chest): “You're joining the Army?!”
Xander: “OK. (to Anya) One. Ow! (to Spike) Two. Where'd you get that idea? (to Anya) Three. Ow! (to both) I'm not joining the Army!”

Angel (angrily to Riley): “Don’t test me, boy!”

Buffy (to Riley about Angel): “He's... not bad.”
Riley: “Seriously? That's a good day? Well, there you go. Even when he's good, he's all Mr. Billowy Coat King of Pain, and girls really....”

Willow (fighting with Buffy): “We have to face it, you can't handle Tara being my girlfriend.”
Xander (to Buffy and Willow): “No! It was bad before that! Since you two went off to college and forgot about me. Just left me in the basement to… Tara's your girlfriend?”
Giles (drunk, off camera): “Bloody hell!”

AND ANOTHER THING

When Spike comes "bursting" into Giles', his reflection can be seen in a mirror behind Tara and Willow. Oops.

That’s really Tony Head playing an acoustic guitar and singing Lynrd Skynrd’s ‘Freebird’ right before he’s rudely interrupted by Spike. This was the second time Giles is caught singing. The first was in ep. 18 ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ when Willow, Xander, Tara and Anya walk in on him singing ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ at the Espresso Pump. Tony Head is a veteran of musical theatre. He had a brief role in Tim Burton’s film of Sweeny Todd (most of it was cut) and had a starring role in Darren Lyn Bouseman’s recent musical horror film Repo: The Genetic Opera.

HOW MANY STAKES?

Spike’s mixing it up. 4.5 (out of 5)

BUFFY 4.19: ‘NEW MOON RISING’

2012-01-14T12:34:00.001-08:00

Willow and Oz’s very first date. Cute. (Ally and Seth circa 1988)

WRITER: Marti Noxon

DIRECTOR: James A. Contner

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

Just as Willow and Tara are enjoying the flowering of their new romantic relationship, who should suddenly turn up out of the blue but Oz. Yep, good ol’ Oz. The taciturn wolfman is back. He’s been travelling the world searching for a cure for his werewolfism. And he appears to have found it. His reappearance throws poor Willow and obviously crushes an already insecure Tara. Oz, not knowing about Willow and Tara, is looking to get his girl back now that he’s discovered a way to control his beast, to keep it inside. However he soon cottons on to Willow’s new relationship. And an explosion of jealousy releases his savage inner beast. Transforming in to a wolf, Oz chases Tara only to be quickly captured and subdued by Riley and a squad of Initiative soldiers who think he’s the demon who killed one of their men earlier on (he isn’t). Before Tara can tell Riley’s its Oz, the unconscious wolf is carted away. Tara rushes to find Buffy and Willow to tell them what happened. A plan is quickly formed to sneak in to the Initiative and rescue Oz, which the gang manages to do, forcing Riley to finally choose a side.

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

Oz is back and dealing with his inner beast. So we are back to that beast within metaphor. There is also a potentially abusive relationship angle here as we now realise that anger, jealousy – especially to do with Willow - lets loose Oz’s beast. They have a conversation where Oz says if she ever makes him angry then he could go all animal and hurt her. At least Oz realises the issue and makes responsible decisions. There’s also a theme of bigotry and sexuality. Willow basically comes out to Buffy, telling her about Tara. Initially Buffy is rather shocked and kinda thrown. But she soon recovers and gives her friend the support she needs. Later, when discussing with Riley about Oz being a werewolf, and seeing shocked Riley’s reaction to Willow having been involved with such a creature, Buffy gets angry at Riley’s apparent bigotry. She rightly says that love isn’t always clean and simple. You love who you love. Though I suspect Buffy is angrier at her own initial reaction to Willow confiding in her as well as also reflecting on her own past relationship with Angel.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

Oz I guess, with the Initiative guys having a good try.

WHY IT ROCKS

The script. Marti Noxon wrote an emotional rollercoaster. Poor Willow. Poor Tara. Poor Oz. People are gonna get hurt. And hurt they do indeed get.

The themes. As discussed in the ‘What’s the sitch beneath the sitch?’ section, the themes are strong and pretty effective without ever beating the audience over the head.

Oz. Yay! Seth Green returns for his penultimate ever appearance on Buffy to tie up the loose ends left hanging after his rather hasty departure earlier in the season. And as always he’s great. It’s good to see a slightly new side to the character – a pent up aggression which is totally against type.

Willow. Alyson Hannigan is truly excellent. Poor Willow is put through the emotional wringer, not knowing what to do, not wanting to hurt anyone. Her last scene with Oz in his van is wonderful as is her sad little speech to him, perfectly written by Marti Noxon. Her final scene with Tara is equally good and oh so sweet.

Tara. Amber Benson does strong work. You can see her heart starting to break when Oz turns up. She has to make you believe that Willow would want to be with her. And she does. Tara is sweet, gentle and willing to put everyone else’s needs before her own.

WHY IT SUCKS

As always, werewolf Oz looks rubbish. Hairy monkey time again.

I’m not quite sure why the Initiative guys would believe that Buffy would really kill their general when she’s holding him hostage. Everything they know of her would tell them she’s bluffing. Hey ho.

Oz has been gone for about five and a half months. He seems to have travelled an awful long way and seen a lot of remote parts of the world in that time. Not impossible, just a bit improbable.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

Willow and Oz’s final goodbye

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Riley: “OK, I'm up less than a minute and somehow I've managed to piss you off.”

Buffy: “You mean Tara has a crush on Oz? No, you — oh. Oh. Um... Well... That's great. You know, I mean, I think Tara is a really great girl, Will.”
Willow: “She is. And... there's something between us. It wasn't something I was looking for. It's just powerful. And it's totally different from what Oz and I have.”
Buffy: “Well, there you go. I mean, you know, you have to follow your heart, Will. And that's what important, Will.”
Willow: “Why do you keep saying my name like that?”
Buffy: “Like what, Will?”
Willow: “Are you freaked?”
Buffy: “What? No, Will, don't — (regains her composure) No. No, absolutely no to that question. I'm glad you told me.”

Adam: “Scout's honour.”
Spike: “You were a Boy Scout?”
Adam: “Parts of me.”

Oz: “It was stupid to think that you'd just be... waiting.”
Willow: “I was waiting. I feel like some part of me will always be waiting for you. Like if I'm old and blue-haired and I turn the corner in Istanbul, and there you are. I won't be surprised... Because you're with me, you know?”

AND ANOTHER THING

In the original script Emma Caulfield was listed with the regulars for the first time, though she wasn’t yet added to the opening credits.

HOW MANY STAKES?

Return of the Wolfman. 4 (out of 5)

BUFFY 4.18: ‘WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE’

2012-01-13T15:27:00.000-08:00

Giles singing ‘Behind Blue Eyes’

WRITER: Tracey Forbes

DIRECTOR: David Solomon

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

Buffy and Riley are caught up in the passion of their relationship, looking for any chance to ‘be together’. Meanwhile Xander and Anya are rowing because after not having had sex for two nights Anya thinks the spark has gone and they are going to break up. Later, at a party at Riley’s frat house, Buffy and Riley take to his room and engage in non stop lovemaking, while in the rest of the house psychic energy left behind by abused and deeply troubled teenagers begins to manifest, trapping and scaring the partygoers as it starts tearing the house apart. Xander, Anya and Willow escape, but Buffy and Riley are still inside, trapped in endless, oblivious, psychically powered lovemaking which will eventually kill them…

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

It’s all about sex, baby, yeah! Or more appropriately, it’s about natural passion, how we express it, how we can be caught up in it, become lost in it. And how serious sexual repression can end up being just as destructive as over indulgence.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

Mrs. Holt, the creepy old religious nutter who abused the kids in her care.

WHY IT ROCKS

Theme. It’s an interesting theme to explore – the potentially destructive power of both sexual passion and repression, two sides of the same coin.

Spike. He’s funny. Showing up at the party with Anya…then realising it’s full of Initiative guys. Silly boy. His offered then quickly retracted offer to help Xander rescue a trapped Buffy and Riley is also most amusing.

Giles sings. Willow, Tara and Xander go to find Giles…at the Espresso Pump playing a guitar and singing ‘Behind Blue Eyes’, much to Xander’s horror. Tony Head does a great job singing a great song. Xander’s horror is totally unjustified. The open mouthed look on Willow’s face is priceless though, as is her admission that she used to have a crush on the G man.

Nice FX. The physical and visual FX used to show the destruction of the house are pretty good, especially the mystical tentacles and vines that invade it, shutting off Riley and Buffy from the rest of the house.

Anya. She’s always great. Here her lack of understanding of how human romantic relationships work, especially in the first passion fuelled few weeks and months, is funny. Her assumption that hers and Xander’s relationship is now over because they haven’t had sex for a couple of days is chucklesome and leads to much confusion and anger on her count. And Xander’s.

WHY IT SUCKS

Nothing really sucks. It’s a solid episode. It’s just nothing special.

Anya’s hand. At one point Anya has her hand run through by a nasty vine. She seems to shrug it off and it is soon forgotten. Um, if that happened to a normal human (which Anya now is) it would be a pretty major trauma, probably needing surgery, or at least a lot of stitches. Plus, y’know, painful!

When Spike realises he doesn't want to go into Lowell house to save Buffy and Riley, his reflection can be seen first in the window and then, even more clearly, in the glass door.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

Giles singing and Willow’s reaction. Cute. (see vid at top)

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Anya (after Spike tries scaring her): “Oh now, come on! You're not even bumpy anymore.”
Spike (feeling his forehead): “Oh. I was just a minute ago. Hang on, get me mad again.”

Spike (entering the Lowell House party with Anya): “Hey... I know these guys from somewhere.”
Anya: “Initiative soldiers. They live here. Experiments happen in the lab under the house — that's where they kept you and put in your chip. Let's have fun!”
Spike: “What are you doing? You brought me here?”
Xander: “Anya? What are you doing? You brought him here?”
Spike: “That's what I said, only I hit the "here" part.”

Anya (upset, to Xander): “I'm just trying to tell you that we have nothing in common besides both of us liking your penis, and now I don't even have that!”

HOW MANY STAKES?

Not too wild. 2.5 (out of 5)

BUFFY: 4.17 ‘SUPERSTAR’

2012-01-08T09:47:00.000-08:00

Episode promo

WRITER: Jane Espenson
DIRECTOR: David Grossman

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

When Buffy and her friends encounter a nest of vampires, the slayer gets nervous, fearing she’ll be unable to handle that many vampires at once. Her friends agree, not having much faith in the Chosen One. So they turn to the one man they know can help them; the all round Mr Wonderful; the world famous…Jonathan Levinson. Yes, little geek Jonathan is somehow the worlds most famous and beloved man. He’s a miracle. He invented the Internet, starred in The Matrix, is a best-selling author and musician, advises the military and best of all, is the greatest killer of vampires and demons ever. The world worships him. As do Buffy and her friends. And Jonathan does indeed help them kill the vamps. But later on that evening, a nasty monster with a distinctive symbol on its head mauls a young girl, a superfan of Jonathan’s he met earlier on. Jonathan seems unusually evasive and unconcerned, trying to dissuade a suspicious Buffy from investigating the beast. Unfortunately the monster shows up again and attacks poor Tara, who only just survives. So Buffy decides to take the initiative (no pun intended) and hunt down and kill the monster with or without Jonathan’s help. She is also determined to get to the bottom of what the short superstar is hiding from them all.

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

I guess it’s about wanting to be someone you’re not. Wanting to be popular and successful without actually having to work at it. By taking an easy shortcut.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

A creepy monster that savages people and seems linked somehow to superstar Jonathan. Oh, and a few assorted vamps.

WHY IT ROCKS

Jane Espenson. Superstar is a Jane Espenson script so it’s well written and amusing.

Theme. It works quite well I guess. I see it more as a comment on the modern celebrity/get famous fast culture without actually having to do anything to earn it. Jonathan makes people believe he’s famous for good reason, though really he isn’t. He’s just so desperate to be popular. Like lots of so-called celebrities these days.

Danny Strong. Recurring Buffy background actor Danny Strong gets to have a starring role this week as one-time geek Jonathan. His previous Buffy role of any size was in the season 3 episode Earshot where, at the end of the episode, Buffy stopped him from killing himself. And here he does a great job. He pulls off a super smart, super suave performance as superstar Jonathan. It’s only really when we see him at episode’s end reverted back to normal nerdy Jonathan that we realise what a bang up job he did. Luckily Jonathan will stay a recurring character in Buffy taking a more prominent role in season six. Nice one, Danny.

Anya. Emma Caulfield is hilarious as Anya. The scene where Buffy turns up at Xander’s to find Anya alone and Anya reluctantly letting her in to wait for Xander is most amusing, as is Anya’s explanations about alternate realities including a world without shrimp. Love her.

The opening titles. 'Superstar' is the only episode of Buffy where the title sequence was re-cut as a one-off, here inserting lots of heroic shots of Jonathan.

WHY IT SUCKS

It’s a potentially good idea. But, for me at least, it doesn’t really work. The ‘A’ story is simply not strong enough (no pun intended). Luckily the more interesting stuff is the ongoing fallout between Buffy and Riley after Riley’s unwitting liaison with Faith. Throughout this episode the couple works through their mutual issues of trust and hurt (with Jonathan’s help) and end the episode stronger than ever.

The rubbery monster created as a consequence of Jonathan’s spell is a bit rubbish.

Alternate realities have been done before on Buffy (The Wish) but this one seems a bit muddled as Jonathan has altered our reality and not created a whole new one ala Cordelia and Anya in The Wish. Quite how far it extends and how it works is not very clear.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

Anya and her world without shrimp…or world with nothing but shrimp.

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Spike (to Buffy): “Yeah, back off, Betty!”
Buffy: “It's Buffy! You big, bleached... stupid guy.”

Anya (trying to give Buffy a pep talk): “Oh, buck up you! You kill the best! Go you! Kill, kill.”

Buffy: “Anya, tell them about the alternate universes.”
Anya: “Oh, okay. Um... say you really like shrimp a lot. Or we could say you don't like shrimp at all. "Blah, I wish there weren't any shrimp," you'd say to yourself —“
Buffy: “Stop! You're saying it wrong.”

Buffy: “I think that Jonathan may be doing something so that he's manipulating the world, and we're all like his pawns.”
Anya: “Or prawns.”
Buffy: “Stop with the shrimp! I am trying to do something here!”

Giles (after Xander reads out a spell in Latin, setting the book on fire): “Xander, don't speak Latin in front of the books.”

AND ANOTHER THING

The Jonathan comic books shown in ‘Superstar’ were made specifically to use in this episode by Dark Horse comics, the same company that (in real life) publishes the Buffy comics. Later on, Jane Espenson went and actually wrote a Jonathan mini series for Dark Horse, which was published not long after this episode aired.

Brad Kane, the real voice of Jonathan's singing at The Bronze, played Tucker, trainer of the Hell Hounds, in ‘The Prom.’ Brad was also the singing voice of Aladdin in the Disney movie.

HOW MANY STAKES?

Superstar? Super…okay. 2.5 (out of 5)

2011: MY YEAR IN FILMS

2012-01-01T08:37:00.000-08:00

It’s that time again.

After some not so careful consideration here’s my favourite and most loathed movies of 2011 plus a brief look at the coolest flicks for 2012.

So here goes…

TOP TEN FAVE FILMS OF 2011:

10. Captain America: The First Avenger

This position was a toss up between Cap and Thor, Marvel’s two in house produced entries in to this year’s summer movie season. Both were excellent with Kenneth Branagh doing a bang up job bringing the God of Thunder to life. However I marginally preferred Cap as it hit my geek buttons slightly more. It’s the 1940’s WW2 setting, the genuinely sweet romance between Steve Rogers and hot English agent Peggy Carter, the uncredited Joss Whedon rewrite (you can tell in places) and that killer ending, plus the teaser for Joss’s The Avengers after the end credits. Kudos to director Joe Johnston and star Chris Evans et al for handling potentially silly and corny material with wit, warmth and a steady hand. Make mine Marvel.

9. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Tomas (Let the Right One In) Alfredson’s adaptation of John le Carre’s 1970’s spy thriller is a beautifully written, acted and directed film with a refreshingly adult tone. It’s a complex, slow burn film that requires patience, attention and a certain level of intelligence from its audience. As much as I love my fun/escapist movie entertainment it is a welcome relief to go and see something now and again that is unapolagetically adult and demanding of its audience. A smart, thoughtful and engrossing film packed with great acting turns from Gary Oldman as lead George Smiley, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hardy.

8. Sucker Punch

Haters be gone! Zack Snyder’s pop video/video game/musical/art house movie is a thematically rich and visually stunning delight featuring his usual bravura explosion of cutting edge-and-beyond filmmaking techniques. It’s like Inception meets Shawshank Redemption meets Girl, Interrupted by way of all sorts of hyper stylised video games and fevered fantasies. Sucker Punch is a much maligned and misunderstood feast for the eyes as well as for the brain, if only the lazy and the thick could be bothered to dig a little deeper. Covering thematic areas such as the objectification and abuse of women, it kinda makes for a weird companion piece to Lucky McKee’s The Woman (see below). Wicked stuff.

7. The Woman

Lucky McKee writes and directs only his third major film (after May and The Woods), working once again with his muse and good luck charm, actress Angela Bettis. The Woman is a brutal, shocking, disturbing but brilliant treaties on the way women can be viewed and treated by men. In the film, a feral woman is captured in the forest by the brutal father of a family and kept locked in a shed where she becomes the object of the father’s and his son’s fascination/anger/desire. The father wants to ‘train’ The Woman in to becoming more human, more of what he believes a woman should be – compliant, grateful, subservient – the way he has ‘trained’ his downtrodden wife (Bettis) and teenage daughter. Secrets and brutality reign in this isolated family. But those secrets are about to come out. And the Woman is looking to get loose. McKee is a smart director, unflinching in what he does, what he shows. Angela Bettis is great as always as the poor mother, but it is Sean Bridgers as the vile father and statuesque one-time model Pollyanna McIntosh as The Woman who stun. Hard viewing for sure, but a great film none-the-less.

6. Hugo

Martin Scorsese takes a break from gangsters and thrillers to make a film about a young orphan boy in 1930’s Paris looking to make one last desperate connection with his dead father. Hugo is about several things – family, friendship, our place in the world, how everyone effects everyone else in some way, about the importance of stories to humankind. Most of all, though, Hugo is a love letter to cinema itself, to its origins, its history, its power in unleashing imagination, in lighting up the world. This is all hung on the backbone of a fun and glorious looking kids adventure as young Hugo (the excellent Asa Butterfield) and new best friend Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz) try to recover Hugo’s father’s notebook and repair an old clockwork automaton. Scorsese recreates 30’s Paris as a wondrous retro city of lights, full of great gothic buildings, high towers, sweeping snowy vistas. It looks amazing. He also uses 3D in possibly the best way I’ve yet seen it used. It serves as an intrinsic part of the story. Seeing how Hugo is about cinema and its progression, then 3D becomes the latest aspect of that. And Scorsese uses the extra dimension to dizzying effect in some scenes and in some truly weird and cool ways in others. It’s the one film this year I’d say that you must see in 3D if at all possible so it can tell its story properly. Everything about Hugo is brilliant, technically, artistically, and thematically. It might just be my favourite Scorsese picture yet. Way to go, Marty!

5. Super 8

JJ Abrams writes and directs this late 1970’s set homage to all things Spielberg and Amblin as a group of small town kids get together one summer to make a horror movie before events intervene to set them on a scary real life adventure. The story itself may not be very original but, as always, it is the telling of the story that counts. The core of Super 8 is the kids and their relationships with each other and with their parents. Great genre pieces aren’t really about monsters or spaceships etc. they are about people, about life, about how we live our lives. And that’s what Super 8 is. It’s a film about childhood, about friendship, about kids relating to, and dealing with parents, and vice versa. And the kids here are outstanding. They act and sound like real kids, not the usual super sweet or overly adult Hollywood kids we usually get. They are real. They are recognisable. Super 8 is a smart, scary, touching, beautifully made ode to a time gone by.

4. Tangled

Tangled is a joy from start to finish. It's a laugh-out-loud funny and immensely charming CG animation from Disney based upon the classic story of Rapunzel. The character animation here is nothing short of astounding and the warm, sharp script crackles and zings with wit while Zachary Levi, Mandy Moore and Donna Murphy are all pitch perfect in their voice roles. This was almost as big a surprise as last year’s How to Train Your Dragon. I can’t emphasise enough how awesome this film looks as well as the razor sharpness of its script and its performances. Too good for kids, do yourself a favour and see it, preferably in HD. Even the songs are good.

3. Drive

Well now, I didn’t see this one coming. Ryan Gosling is a loner Hollywood stunt driver and mechanic by day/wheelman for villains by night who gets close to his cute neighbour (Carey Mulligan) and her kid. But when Mulligan’s husband comes out of prison and is targeted by vicious gangsters, Gosling offers to help him by driving for a job that will clear the father’s debts. Of course it all goes horribly wrong, putting Gosling, the mother and her kid in terrible danger. Cue lots of car chases, blood, death and tears. Drive is an odd film. But a brilliant film. Its oddball director Nicolas Winding-Refyn has described it as an existential, noir action thriller. I’m not sure I know what that means. To me, Drive is basically a western. Gosling’s character has no name, being referred to simply as the Driver. He’s a gifted troubled loner who, like in Shane etc. steps in to help save a family from dastardly outlaws. The story is simple, brutal, touching and utterly compelling. And the car chases are realistic and brilliantly shot. The film also looks fantastic with a sleek, dark, gritty look. And the performances are also excellent, especially the always wonderful and luminous Mulligan and a genuinely nasty turn by Albert Brooks. Winding-Refyn previously made the bonkers Bronson and the boring as hell Valhalla Rising. Drive is not bonkers and is far from boring. See it.

2. Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Let’s face it, this had the potential to be utter crap…just like Tim Burton’s 2001 Apes remake. Wisely though, Fox opted for a prequel/reboot, hired some good writers, a strong, visionary director and somehow allowed him get on and make the film he wanted to make. Oh yeah, they also hired Weta to do the FX (big thumbs up) and Andy Serkis to play lead chimp Caesar (bigger thumbs up). The end result is Brit director Rupert Wyatt, in only his second feature, knocking it out of the park. ROTPOTA is brilliant! It’s an intelligent scifi thriller, a cautionary tale about what we do to our environment and to other species. It’s also just a damn good, old fashioned, revolt/underdog strikes back adventure ala Spartacus and numerous prison escape films. Caesar is simply a great character as played by Serkis. Following his life and his rise to power is mesmerising and thrilling. And not once do Wyatt and co. drop the ball. The build up has been so strong that the eventual Apes vs. humans showdown is stunning, reaching a skin tingling pinnacle in Caesar’s spoken roar of protest. A great movie then, and a more than worthy addition to one of the greatest scifi franchises of all time. Go Ape!

1. X-Men: First Class

How the hell did this happen? How did Fox, a studio well known for big budget summer cockups, make my two favourite films of the year? The world has gone mad. Anyway, it happened, so there. Just so you know, I bloody love this movie. I love the X-Men anyway, especially Bryan Singer’s two movies. Forgetting that naff Brett Ratner effort and the risible Wolverine thing, X-Men First Class proves to be the right and proper successor to Singer’s X-Men and X2. In fact, Mr Singer came back and was producer here. Thank God! Mathew (Kick-Ass) Vaughn is now the director for this utterly brilliant 1960’s set prequel to Singer’s fantastic X-Men and X2. James McAvoy is a young Prof. X who meets up with Michael Fassbender’s Nazi hunting Magneto and together they must try to stop evil ex-Nazi Kevin Bacon from starting World War 3. Rich in story and character, X-Men: First Class is a slick and exciting superhero action adventure with genuine heart and soul as well as some pulse quickening action and mighty fine spectacle. The entire cast is great but the never better Fassbender is the real star. The A list awaits him. So, forget the barely adequate X-Men: The Last Stand and the godawful X-Men origins: Wolverine, this one’s the real X deal.

The best of the rest (in no particular order):

Thor - Marvel-ous God of Thunder
Hanna - Fairytale teen assassin goes a killin’
True Grit - Jeff Bridges does grizzled in the Cohen Bros. fantastic remake.
M:I-4 - See Tom run, see Tom hang from tall buildings.
Attack the Block – Heroic hoodies vs. nasty alien beasties.
Super – scary psycho vigilante and his even scarier sidekick bash in skulls.
The King’s Speech – Royal stuttering becomes feel good drama.
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil – two misunderstood rednecks try to survive a bunch of lunatic college kids.
A Lonely Place to Die – Melissa George tries to save a child from kidnappers in the Scottish mountains.
Stakeland – Grim survival in a post-apocalyptic vampire filled USA.

The top three new-to-me films I saw in 2011 which weren't released in 2011 (And yes, it's a Ghibli fest)

3. My Neighbour Totoro

Hayao Miyazaki’s utterly captivating and charming story of childhood innocence, freedom and imagination. If you don’t watch this with a big ‘ol smile on your face then you have a heart of stone. It’s fun, it’s imaginative, and it’s immensely sweet in a totally unsentimental way. There’s no bad guys, no violence, just a whole bucket load of kindness towards, and admiration for, the free and innocent spirit of young children. A joyful family classic from Studio Ghibli.

2. Grave of the Fireflies

In total contrast to Totoro we have this utterly devastating animated film (animated but not produced by Ghibli) telling the story of a young orphan boy and his little sister struggling to survive in devastated WW2 Japan. Grave of the Fireflies is powerful, affecting filmmaking that delivers more than one emotional gut punch to its audience. It sits up their alongside the likes of Schindler’s List as one of THE most effective attacks on the horrors of war being inflicted upon the most innocent. A hard watch. A great film.

1. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Hayao Miyazaki’s awesome 1984 scifi/Eco adventure tells of a far future Earth and a young princess in a hidden valley having to save her people from ever encroaching poisonous jungles, huge vicious beasts, and warring tribes of humans in mechanised flying fortresses. James Cameron obviously nicked loads of this for Avatar and has admitted to being a big fan. Miyazaki’s film is the superior one though. The story here is more complex, more layered, richer in theme and character than Cameron’s film. It also looks amazing.

THE FIVE FILMS I HATED MOST IN 2011:

5. The Chronicles of Narnia: the Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Boy, Michael Apted sure knows how to make a dull movie. Not content with sending Bond fans in to boredom induced comas with the rubbish (except for the ace pre-credit sequence) The World is Not Enough, he then went and did the same to kiddie winkies the world over with this flat, dull, episodic, horrifically blatant Christian propaganda trash. There’s no proper story, just some random arsing about on the water before that bloody lion turns up again at the end. Somebody please kill this franchise.

4. Shark Night 3D

A boring, bloodless, boobless, pointless exploitation movie with no sodding exploitation. What a waste of 80 mins. A bunch of sharks are let loose in a salt-water lake to munch on a bunch of bland, annoying teens. Utter rubbish. If you want some quality fishy exploitation fun then see Piranha 3D instead. Now THAT’S how you do it.

3. Season of the Witch

Yay! The bottom five wouldn’t seem right without Nicolas Cage. And this putrid turd fits the bill nicely. I can’t even remember why I hated it so much, only that I did. I recall vague flashes of anger at the way the film depicted the witch of the title and how bloody dumb and annoying the story and characters were. Anyway, it sucked.

2. The Howling Reborn

Some bright spark decided to reboot the long dead Howling franchise by turning it in to a quasi-Twilight effort set in a swanky American private school. DOH! So here we get an annoying teenage boy moping around the place, giving uber-pretentious voiceovers of absurd irony-free self-analytical dialogue you wouldn’t even hear in the worst episode of Dawson’s Creek. This is all because said bland and mopey teen boy feels like an outsider and has a yearning love thang going on for an equally bland and mopey teen girl. Soon though, mopey boy and girl get together and get caught up in some shit about a long lost werewolf mommy coming back to reclaim her kid. Yikes! This is Howling PG-13 for the kids. The werewolf FX are actually ok (when we finally see them) but blood and gore is almost non-existent, as are any scares, tension, or genuine depth to the shitty story. The really annoying thing is that this obviously had some sort of budget to it. It actually looks pretty good with good locations, glossy/gritty photography, nice helicopter shots of cityscapes, a decent score, and some pretty decent FX. It’s just a shame the script is terrible and the director utterly clueless. Bad wolf!

1. My Soul To Take

I always new Wes Craven could be a shit moviemaker but this was ridiculous. Over his entire career Wes has made two great movies and two very good movies. The great ones are A Nightmare on Elm Street and Wes Craven’s A New Nightmare. The very good ones are Scream and the original The Hills Have Eyes. Everything else ranges from okay (Scream 2, 3, 4/The People Under the Stairs) to the utter shite (Shocker/Last House on the Left/Vampire in Brooklyn). But Wes reached a new nadir with this one. He wrote this himself, you know. It’s some nonsensical crap about teens in a small town who share the same birthday as some long dead local killer, getting themselves killed off one by one in the most boring, workmanlike ways possible. Is lead teen possessed by the long dead killer? Who the fuck cares? I was bored rigid for the entire running time. As the barely adequate Scream 4 shows us, Craven has long passed his sell by date. Let the old codger retire. He gave us Freddy Krueger. His good work is done.

The rest of the worst: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Your Highness, Insidious, Fast Five.

MY FIVE MOST LOOKED FORWARD TO FILMS OF 2012:

5. Skyfall – Daniel Craig is back as Bond. Javier Bardem and Ralph Fiennes co-star with Sam Mendes directing.

4. The Avengers – God…I mean Joss Whedon writes and directs Marvel’s superhero team up. Major Yayness!

3. Prometheus – Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender star in Ridley Scott’s scifi thriller set in the Alien universe about the origins of human life.

2. The Hobbit Part 1 – Peter Jackson returns to Middle Earth for more Tolkien. What’s not to love?

1. The Dark Knight Rises – Christopher Nolan finishes off his Batman trilogy in what is sure to be grim yet stunning style.

BUFFY: 4.16 ‘WHO ARE YOU?’

2011-12-24T06:58:00.000-08:00

Buffy: Who Are You? Vs. Linkin Park (Numb)

WRITER: Joss Whedon
DIRECTOR: Joss Whedon

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

Part 2 of this story sees Buffy and Faith having switched bodies with Buffy trapped in Faith’s body, drugged up and on the way to jail, before being stolen away from the cops by a Watcher’s Council wetworks team. Faith, meanwhile, is busy practising living in Buffy’s skin whilst also planning to skip the country courtesy of mommy Summers’ credit card. Having some time to kill before she leaves, Faith takes Buffy’s bod for a test drive, stirring up some trouble amongst the Scoobies, before moving in on Riley, trying to take the big unwitting guy on a sexy slutty Faith ride. But Riley is having none of it and insists on ‘making love’ to who he thinks is Buffy. This turns out to be a deeply disconcerting event for Faith. Genuine physical love is alien to her and experiencing it puts her in direct contact with something she hasn’t known for a long while: her conscience. Meanwhile Buffy escapes the Watchers and goes to a sceptical Giles for help. Tara and Willow soon turn up having already worked out what’s going on. The witches have devised a magical plan to get both slayers back in to their correct bodies. But first they have to find Faith. Speaking of, the dark slayer is at the airport and is about to skip the country when she sees on TV that a local church in Sunnydale has been taken hostage by a bunch of crazies (vamps she realises). That pesky conscience starts to sting her again. Meanwhile Buffy has also seen the same news item and is rushing to the scene to rescue the parishioners. Another slayer vs. slayer showdown seems imminent.

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

It’s the beginnings of the road to redemption for Faith. By ‘becoming’ Buffy she gets to really see and feel the goodness and love that surrounds Buffy and the effect it has on her, making her stronger, more resilient, making her care. It also allows Faith to see herself for what she truly is, that the pain and anger she holds on to, for so long aimed at Buffy, is really aimed at herself. And in the end showdown at the church, Faith lets that pain and anger out. She gets to pummel on herself, literally, unleashing all of her self-loathing. Faith’s continued redemption carries on in season one of Angel, which runs concurrently with this season of Buffy.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

Adam, a vampire gang, the Watcher Team, and Faith.

WHY IT ROCKS

Well it’s a Joss episode so it’s great. But you want specifics? Okay…

Sarah and Eliza. They are both wonderful playing each other. I bet that Sarah acted out Buffy’s scenes first while Eliza watched, then copied her, and vice versa. In many ways Eliza has the hardest job seeing as how Buffy doesn’t have the same big character tics as Faith – the cocky swagger, bad girl attitude, catch phrases. But Eliza does a great job. She captures Buffy’s earnestness, her wide eyed pleading, her little looks she gives when scared, confused, the way she reacts when she says something wrong or when she goes off on a bit of a tangent. Sarah, meanwhile, gets Faith down pat. She masters the swagger, the way Eliza holds herself, her unique vocal inflections. To be honest, it’s weird that Buffy’s friends don’t think something’s wrong almost immediately. It’s Tara, a stranger to Buffy, who realises.

Mirror. The scene early on with Sarah as Faith, alone in the bathroom, staring in to the mirror, practising being Buffy, saying Buffy-like things and pulling odd faces. It’s utterly brilliant and quite unnerving. Sarah is looking directly in to camera, speaking directly to us with the editing being deliberately erratic. The sequence is designed to emphasise the dark chaos of Faith’s mind, to put her (and us) off balance. “Because it’s WRONG!” she keeps repeating, trying to make it sound correct. Pure genius!

Faith and Spike. The scene at the Bronze where Faith (in Buffy’s body) has a run in with Spike is fab. Of course Spike thinks she’s Buffy and while he’s being all pissy and macho Faith throws him totally off guard by coming on all sultry, slutty, sexy, flirtatious. And for a while Spike doesn’t know how to react, looking like an undead rabbit caught in headlights. Poor chap.

Willow and Tara. We’ve guessed for a while now where their friendship was headed. But this episode confirms it. Tara pretty much tells Willow how she feels. The pair then ‘do a spell’ together to access a higher plane in order to help Buffy. The dreamy sequence of the two girls’ spell casting together, eyes closed, breathing hard, both of them building to a point of ecstasy and then collapsing is well done if not exactly subtle.

Faith meeting Tara. Willow brings Tara to the Bronze where they run in to Faith, though Willow of course thinks she’s Buffy. Willow introduces Tara to ‘Buffy’ and goes to get a drink. Faith quickly realises the true nature of Tara and Willow’s relationship, saying to Tara, “So Willow’s not driving stick anymore.” She is also casually cruel to poor mousy Tara, making fun of her slight stammer.

Faith and Riley. Faith (in Buff’s body) then goes to find Riley and tries to seduce him in her usual aggressive, dangerous way. Riley doesn’t want that kind of thing and insists on being gentle and making love. The scene is great. It is not in the least bit sexy or erotic but feels rather creepy and unpleasant. It’s all about character and tells us so much about Riley and how he feels about Buffy as well as how Faith sees herself and how she views men.

Church fight. The Buffy and Faith vs. vamps, then Buffy vs. Faith fight at the church is great. Some splendid fight co-ordination and stunts.

WHY IT SUCKS

British goons. The Watchers Council goon squad is a bit rubbish for a so-called special ops team. Plus they are annoyingly cliched British, calling people a “ …ponce.” A word I only ever hear in American TV shows when people are trying to be British.

Holy Hostages! The vampire church/hostage thing is a bit odd. It feels more like a purely functional thing for the script rather than a genuine event that comes out of the story. It’s there only to get Faith to start on her road to redemption and to have her confront Buffy yet again so that they can be swapped back in to their own bodies. Still, some nifty fights and stunts.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

The mirror scene. “Because it’s WRONG!”

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Willow (regarding Faith): "Ooh, I wish those council guys would let me have an hour alone in a room with her. If I was larger, and had grenades."

Anya: "We were going to light a bunch of candles and have sex near them."
Faith-in-Buffy: "Well, we certainly don't want to cut into that seven minutes."
Anya: "Hey!"
Xander: "I believe that's my 'hey.' Hey!"

Faith-in-Buffy (to Riley): "What nasty little desire have you been itching to try out? Am I a bad girl? Do you want to hurt me?"

Giles: "Um, if you are Buffy, then you will let me tie you up without killing me until we find whether you are telling the truth."
Buffy-in-Faith: "Giles, Faith has taken my body, and for all I know she's taken it to Mexico by now. I don't have time for bondage fun. Ask me a question, ask me anything."
Giles: "Who's President?"
Buffy-in-Faith: "We're checking for Buffy, not a concussion."

Buffy-in-Faith: "Oh, when I had psychic power I heard my mother think that you were like a stevedore during sex. Do you want me to continue?"
Giles: "Actually I beg you to stop."
Buffy-in-Faith: "What's a stevedore?"

Faith-in-Buffy (manic, beating up on Buffy-in-Faith): "Shut up. Do you think I'm afraid of you? You're nothing! Disgusting! Murderous bitch! You're nothing! You're disgusting!"

AND ANOTHER THING

Faith’s full redemption story was originally supposed to play out in its entirety through this season of Buffy. But it was seen as too much extra story to incorporate in to the season and so it was decided instead to move the rest over to Angel with Buffy doing a guest appearance. A good idea as Faith works great in Angel. The two characters have a lot on common and make a good team. Something they are still doing in the current official comics continuation series ‘Angel & Faith’.

HOW MANY STAKES?

We got Faith in Buffy. 4.5 (out of 5)

BUFFY: 4.15 ‘THIS YEAR’S GIRL'

2011-12-18T09:31:00.000-08:00

Buffy vs. Faith smackdown

WRITER: Douglas Petrie
DIRECTOR: Michael Gershman

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

Buffy is scared for Riley, wounded and back in the hands of the Initiative. She starts planning a desperate raid on the facility…when Riley suddenly shows up. He seems better and says he just walked out, albeit after they tried to stop him. Buffy is joyful to see her man back to his old self and in seemingly good shape, though still kinda sore from his Adam inflicted wound. Meanwhile, across town, in the hospital, Faith, still unconscious following her battle with Buffy at the end of last season, is dreaming scary dreams. In those dreams she is being constantly stalked and attacked by Buffy. Then, after the pair tussle in a rain-sodden open grave, Faith finally appears victorious. And wakes up. Disorientated, she escapes the hospital and wanders the town, running in to a demon who gives her a present from an old friend. The Mayor. He left her a recorded video message to watch if/when she were ever to wake up. Part of his message is to tell Faith that with him gone and their plan failed, the dark slayer will be all alone with no place in the world for her anymore. So he gives her a small magical device. Then, message over, and with her mind set, Faith sets out to track down Buffy, to seek revenge. However Buffy has now been forewarned, having been told by the police that Faith is awake and on the loose. Buffy immediately starts searching for her. The next day Faith surprises Buffy on campus and the pair fight. But Faith goes and escapes. Later that night though, she turns up at Buffy’s house and takes Joyce hostage. Buffy arrives to save her mom. And thus another brutal slayer vs. slayer fight ensues. But before Buffy can get the upper hand, Faith employs her magical gift from The Mayor. A beat later and Buffy clocks a distracted Faith, knocking her out. The police arrive and take an unconscious Faith away. Buffy’s mom asks her rather stunned looking daughter if she’s okay, to which ‘Buffy’ eventually replies with an evil smile: “Five by Five.” Gulp!

To be continued…

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

As Faith is back so we return to the whole mirror image/dark side of yourself thing that Faith represents to Buffy. She also acts as Buffy’s conscience, pointing out her flaws and selfish shortcomings. In this episode we are reminded that Joyce has not been a part of this season except for early on when Buffy was feeling lost and alone. Since then, her mom has been a sidelined character in Buffy’s life, something Faith gleefully points out to them both. She’s not wrong. When Buffy took the ones she cares for most in to hiding a couple of episodes ago Joyce was noticeable in her absence. It is also cool to note that in Faith’s head Buffy is the monster, the cruel one who wants nothing but to cause pain.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

The glorious Ms Lehane

WHY IT ROCKS

Gotta have Faith. She’s my second fave character in the Buffyverse and Eliza Dushku rocks my world in this role. To have her back is brilliant! As always she’s an inferno of anger, lethal violence and dangerously provocative sexuality. And yet beneath all of that lives a scared, damaged and deeply vulnerable child. Here, Faith is desperate to find a new life and to take revenge on the person she believes ruined her old one. Namely Buffy. Faith makes for a brilliant villain. In this one episode there is more sense of danger and dread than in the entire season so far.

The Mayor. Awesome to see Harry Groener back as Mayor Richard Wilkins. He’s only in two scenes - in Faith’s dream enjoying a nice picnic with her, then again in the video message that newly awakened Faith watches. Such a great character. A truly loveable bad guy.

The script. Ace Faith writer Doug Petrie returns to the character he does best using Faith as a conduit to explore the darker, more selfish realms of Buffy’s soul, to show us Buffy as the monster, the big bad in someone else’s life. He manages to show us Faith as a victim. A victim of her upbringing and of her own doing with Buffy as the single physical embodiment of everything bad that has ever happened to her. The Buffy/Faith mirror image thing is then taken to its logical ends with the episodes final uber-cool reveal.

The fights. We get two major slayer vs. slayer smackdowns. The first is in broad daylight at Sunnydale U in front of hundreds of students. The second is in Buffy’s house where windows, doors, furniture all get destroyed. Both are great. The first is briefer and more of a traditional Buffy battle, while the second is a big ol’ brawl with loads of property wreckage as bodies go flying through glass doors, tables are crushed, walls pounded. As always, the director, fight co-ordinators and performers do us proud. The camera stays back and just lets ‘em go at it. Editing is rhythmic and propulsive and we get to hear and feel every single bone-crunching blow.

Dream sequences. Faith’s dream sequences are terrific and tell us lots about how she feels and what scares her as well as foretelling a key event in season five. Buffy and Faith are making up a bed in Buffy’s home when Faith says they have to get things ready cuz “Little sis is coming.” Just shows Joss and co. had lots of Buffy planned out in advance. Once more continuity (past and forward) will prove to be a major strength of this show.

Gutted. While out searching the woods for Adam, Buffy and Xander come across a dead demon hung in the trees with its innards splayed open. According to writer Doug Petrie this is a direct homage to Silence of the Lambs.

WHY IT SUCKS

Why the hell does Buffy think Xander can fix an Initiative blaster? He ain’t Scotty.

There is some seriously awful costuming in this episode. I’m no fashion expert but Xander’s orange vest/shirt combo is hideous. And Willow’s fluffy orange hat she wears throughout is equally nasty. Also, what they dress poor Tara in is far from flattering. At least Faith looks cool. But then she’d look cool in a garbage sack.

After the fight on campus, Faith escapes and we see her vault a high stone wall. As she does, the whole thing wobbles rather obviously. EEK! Also, any Buffy fan will know that this fake wall is a part of the exterior standing set on the Buffy production lot. We see it all the time as part of the graveyard.

Right before Buffy finds the demon hanging from the trees, we can clearly see someone in the bushes to her right. It looks like a boom mic operator as we can see the long pole reaching out above him. Oops!

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

'Buffy': “Five by Five.”

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Xander (regarding Adam and Faith): "I'd hate to see the pursuit of a homicidal lunatic get in the way of pursuing a homicidal lunatic."

Willow: "That was the funnest coma ever."

Buffy: "Faith, these are innocent people."
Faith: "No such animal."

Willow: "She's like this cleavagey slutbomb walking around going 'Ooh. Check me out, I'm wicked cool. I'm five by five.'"

Spike: "Can't any one of your damned little Scooby club at least try to remember that I hate you all?"

Joyce: “Are you sure you’re alright?”
‘Buffy' (evil smile): “Five by Five.”

AND ANOTHER THING

The first day in this episode is Friday, February 25, 2000 - four days before it actually aired in real world time (February 29th 2000).

Around the time Eliza Dushku was filming this episode she was also filming the well thought of and highly successful cheerleader comedy Bring it On in which she co-starred with Kirsten Dunst.

HOW MANY STAKES?

I now have Faith in this season. 4 (out of 5)

BUFFY: 4.14 ‘GOODBYE IOWA’

2011-12-16T14:57:00.000-08:00

Short episode promo

WRITER: Marti Noxon
DIRECTOR: David Solomon

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

Professor Walsh is dead and her monstrous creation Adam is on the loose. Riley’s Initiative pals think that Buffy killed Prof. Walsh but they soon discover the truth when Adam finds, kills, and dissects a young child in the woods, curious about what makes the little boy work. Buffy and the Initiative separately investigate. They search everywhere for what they think is an escaped Polgara demon. Meanwhile Riley is acting strange: paranoid, angry, violent. With Xander’s help, Buffy sneaks in to the Initiative to find out what has been going on with Riley as well as the mysterious ‘314’. It soon becomes clear that Riley is suffering withdrawal from a secret drugs cocktail Maggie Walsh had been feeding him and her other soldier boys with. As paranoid Riley starts accusing Buffy of betrayal (especially after seeing Spike hiding at Giles’s and then Buffy in a demon bar) things seem ready to explode. And then things get even worse: Adam suddenly turns up, having returned to the Initiative, looking for answers too. The horrible secret of ‘314’ is finally revealed to all.

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

The twisted parental/family theme continues as Adam reveals to Riley that they are ‘brothers’ - If not genetically then by the fact that they were both created and nurtured in their current forms by ‘Mommy’ Maggie Walsh. She saw them both as her creations, her children. So now we are going to have two warring brothers – one of whom is desperate to have the other with him, by his side, and will do anything to make that happen. There’s also the continuing theme that life is not black and white. It is not straightforward. Riley sees things very simply and rigidly whereas Buffy has learned to manoeuvre her way through the confusing, oft contradictory maze of life. This is all gonna be a big wake up call for Agent Finn.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

Adam and a withdrawal-ridden Riley

WHY IT ROCKS

Continuation. This episode continues directly on from where the last episode ‘The I in Team’ finished, from the very same scene in fact. That’s the second time Buffy has done that this year, the previous one being from Hush to Doomed.

The mystery of Tara. Amber Benson is sweet as mousy Tara. She secretly and deliberately sabotages Willow’s demon locating spell - a character point that will pay off in episode 6 of season 5 entitled ‘Family’. Talk about planning ahead.

Life of Riley. This episode is a showcase for Marc Blucas. Riley is gradually becoming unhinged as he suffers major drugs withdrawal. And Blucas is excellent. Seeing nice, affable, wholesome Riley slowly degenerate in to a violent, paranoid, abusive psycho is kinda cool and scary. The scene in Willy’s Bar where he threatens to shoot dead a terrified woman is pretty intense. So stuff the haters cuz I like Riley. And I like Marc Blucas as Riley.

Buffy and the gang hiding out in Xander’s basement. The three girls sharing the bed and watching cartoons is cute, as is Giles’s annoyance at his uncomfortable night spent in a beachball chair. Then, dressed in her stylish Yummy Sushi pyjamas, Buffy goes and gives a commanding speech to the gang about what she’s gonna do next, which she quickly concedes isn’t really commanding at all while dressed in PJ’s with fish on them.

Evil Adam. What Adam does to the little boy (all off screen thankfully) is ghastly. The scene where they meet is reminiscent of the one in Frankenstein where the monster meets a little girl by the lake, then throws her in, drowning her. George Hertzberg is rather good in this scene and later when confronting Riley and Buffy at the Initiative. His cool, dispassionate manner is disconcerting and at odds with his deeds and his appearance.

WHY IT SUCKS

Disjointed. This is a season plotting episode. Its main function is to link story points together across various episodes and advance the main season arc. As such, it feels more like a series of incidents and events than a cohesive story in its own right.

Continuity errors. The Polgara demon was captured the night before this episode starts. But two days into the episode, Riley says that "the Polgara demon [we] captured last week" must have killed Walsh. And later, Willy says that he heard a Polgara demon was in town and taken off the streets "a week or two ago."

A 90’s Demonoid. I like the design and look of Adam if not being totally sold on the way the character is used as the big bad. However for a state of the art human/demon/cyborg, why the heck would he have an old fashioned floppy disc drive in his chest and use that to load up info? C’mon, this was made in the year 2000! The internet was in full flow. Couldn’t he have had some better way of accessing info? Wireless hacking in to networks maybe? It just looks really silly.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

Riley freaking out at Willy’s Bar.

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Buffy: “This is Spike. He's um... it's a really long story. But he's not bad anymore!”
Spike: “Hey! What am I, a bleeding broken record? I'm bad! It's just... I can't bite anymore, thanks to you wankers.”

Buffy: “I'm the only one that can pass the retinal scan.”
Xander: “The — Eww! I don't wanna see that!”
Buffy: “Retinal scan, Xander.”

Xander (amazed, seeing the Initiative base): “I totally get it now. Can I have sex with Riley, too?”

Spike: “Double shot of O-Neg, keep. Make it the good stuff. I don't want no freakin' Orangutan.”

Buffy: “I feel an attack of dumb blonde coming on.”

AND ANOTHER THING

Buffy's "yummy sushi pyjamas" are real. They are made by the same company (The Cat's Pyjamas) that made the butterfly pyjamas she wore in "Beer Bad."

Joss is very definite about how Tara’s name is pronounced. It is Tear-ah, not Tah-ra as we Brits would say. He apparently tells people off for saying it wrong.

HOW MANY STAKES?

Riley loses it. 3.5 (out of 5)

BUFFY: 4.13 - ‘THE I IN TEAM’

2011-12-13T15:09:00.000-08:00

A short promo for this episode

WRITER: David Fury
DIRECTOR: James A. Contner

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

Riley officially brings Buffy in to The Initiative where she gets a beeper and lots of reading material. To begin with, Buffy is excited and swept up in her new world. But a worried Willow tells her to be careful and watchful as they don’t know what the Initiative is really all about. Once inside, Buffy discovers that things in the Initiative are need to know only. Riley and his boys just go on mission as ordered and do as they are told no questions asked. But when Buffy comes in to the mix she starts asking questions of Professor Walsh. Questions that are making the Professor more and more uncomfortable – especially about the mysterious ‘314’ as mentioned by Ethan Rayne in the previous episode. Soon, Professor Walsh, thinking Buffy too much of a liability, hatches a nasty plan to send our girl out alone and have her trapped and then killed by some rogue demons. Then, come episodes end, the mystery of ‘314’ is revealed, with deadly consequences.

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

The primary theme here is about questioning authority, not just taking things on blind faith. Riley and his boys are trained and conditioned to just do as they are told, no questions asked. But Buffy is the total opposite. She simply has to ask questions, she has to know what she is fighting for. She wants reasons. And they better be good ones. There’s also a weird rather twisted parental thing going on with ‘mommy’ Maggie Walsh and her ‘children’ Riley, Adam, and even Buffy. Maggie wants to create perfect (in her eyes) children who will behave just as she directs them to behave. Buffy does not fit the bill and so needs to be kicked out of the family. Permanently.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

Maggie Walsh, Polgara Demons, and Adam.

WHY IT ROCKS

Nasty Maggie. In this episode we realise just how nutty Prof Walsh is. And what she’s been doing all of her demon experiments for. Her cold and calculating attempt to kill Buffy is…cold and calculating. Lindsey Crouse is nicely chilly in her final appearance on Buffy.

Spike needs help. In a lovely reverse of last episode, Spike gets shot by an Initiative tracking dart and needs Giles’ help to escape them and to get the dart out. Let’s just say Giles gets his money back. Heh.

Buffy and Riley’s bonk/battle. There’s a beautifully and rather erotically filmed sequence in this episode which crosscuts Buffy and Riley making love for the first time with them in violent battle with multiple demons.

Willow and mousy Tara becoming closer. Aww.

Willow’s spell to ionise the atmosphere in Giles’s home has an amusing hair raising effect.

It’s a trap! The sequence where an unwitting Buffy is sent by Prof. Walsh in to a deadly trap is great. Watching on monitors, Maggie thinks Buffy has been killed…just as Riley turns up. Maggie tells Riley that something terrible has happened, that Buffy rushed off alone and against orders, and is now dead. As Maggie is busy lying to Riley, Riley sees on the monitors behind the professor Buffy’s grim face appear. Shocked, Professor Walsh turns to see Buffy alive and well as our girl tells her that she’s made a big mistake. And that she’s going to find out what a slayer really is. Yes!

Adam. The secret of ‘314’ is revealed. A huge demon, human, cybernetic hybrid monster stitched together ala Dr Frankenstein’s creation. Though Adam was never my favourite Buffy big bad, he is still a striking looking creation. Kudos to the make-up guys. And to actor George Hertzberg for wearing it well.

WHY IT SUCKS

Buffy wears out her welcome with The Initiative kinda quickly.

Professor Walsh makes a rather hasty exit (due to Lindsey Crouse suddenly deciding she wanted to leave).

I love Buffy but she can be a bit of an unfeeling so and so sometimes. Whenever something new and shiny comes along she’s kinda quick to drop her friends, especially poor Willow. It happened last season with Faith. And look how well that turned out. Still, that’s part of the main theme of this season – the power of true friendship, being more confident, more powerful when with the right people.

Adam. Yes, I know he’s in the ‘Why it rocks!” section above but I’ve always had mixed feelings about him. He looks cool. The basic concept behind him is pretty good (putting science and the supernatural together in to a physical form). But he just always felt kinda flat and lacking in any real challenge for Buffy. Plus there’s no real connection between them. In season one, The Master and Buffy were locked together in prophecy. In season two, Angelus was Buffy’s ex-lover. In season three, Faith is the temptress and the dark reflection of Buffy, and The Mayor is an odd (and evil) fatherly presence. The connection here is between Riley and Adam, not Buffy and Adam. I think Buffy always works best when she has a real emotional connection to the big bads she battles.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

Grim-faced Buffy on the monitors behind a shocked Professor Walsh, telling her she’s going to find out what a slayer really is. Go Buffster!

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Willow (about Buffy): “Guess she's out with Riley. You know what it's like with a spanking new boyfriend.”
Anya (re: Xander): “Yes, we've enjoyed spanking.”

Buffy (about Riley's lunch selection): “ ... A Twinkie! That's his lunch? Oh, he is so gonna be punished.”
Willow: (Miserable) “Everyone's getting spanked but me.”

Buffy: “You said it was big. You told me, but you never said it was huge!”
Riley: “Don't like to brag.”

Walsh : “You might want to be suited up for this.”
Buffy: “Oh, you mean the camo and stuff. I thought about it, but on me it's gonna look all Private Benjamin. Don't worry, I've patrolled in this halter many times.”

Buffy (grim-faced on monitors): “Professor Walsh? That simple little recon you sent me on — wasn't a racoon. Turns out it was me, trapped in the sewers with a faulty weapon and two of your pet demons. If you think that's enough to kill me, you really don't know what a Slayer is. Trust me when I say you're gonna find out.”

AND ANOTHER THING

Professor Walsh’s exit feels rushed for a good reason. Lindsey Crouse suddenly decided she wanted to leave the show, forcing the writers to bring forward her demise by several episodes. A shame.

HOW MANY STAKES?

The Team works. 3 (out of 5)

BUFFY 4.12 ‘A NEW MAN’

2011-12-12T14:44:00.000-08:00

A short promo for this episode.

WRITER: Jane Espenson

DIRECTOR: Michael Gershman

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

While the gang are all moving on in their lives with new college careers and/or new relationships taking up their time, poor Giles is feeling ignored, left out, forgotten. Buffy hardly calls on him anymore and has completely failed to mention the fact that she’s dating Riley and that Riley is part of The Initiative, an organisation Giles knows nothing about as he never got told by Buffy that the commandos he’s been investigating are in fact a secret government demon hunting outfit based beneath Sunnydale U. Giles is understandably annoyed at this, hearing it for the first time by accident from Willow. Later, an encounter with old nemesis Ethan Rayne leads Giles and his once-upon-a-time friend to go for a few beers, allowing Giles to drown his sorrows…only to wake up the next morning having been turned in to a huge, ugly Fyarl demon by dastardly Ethan. Naturally the ex-watcher seeks out the gang to help him. But they can’t understand his demon-speak and think he’s the rampaging monster who’s kidnapped the real Giles. Amazingly only Spike can understand him. And so, for cash, the mercenary vamp agrees to help Giles track down Ethan Rayne and reverse the spell, to hopefully return Giles to his old human self.

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

Giles is unintentionally sidelined, forgotten, ignored. Plus he also gets castigated by Professor Walsh who suggests that Buffy has lacked a strong father figure in her life, lacking discipline. And to top it all off, nasty ol’ Ethan Rayne gets him drunk and turns him in to a demon, hoping that an unwitting Buffy will then slay her former watcher. Becoming the demon personifies what Giles is feeling: old, angry, and not recognised by the gang anymore.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

Ethan Rayne, The Initiative (kinda)

WHY IT ROCKS

A strong theme. Jane Espenson’s script is right on the mark. It’s meaningful, character driven and very funny indeed.

It’s the Giles and Spike show. For a significant portion of this episode Giles (albeit in demon form) teams up with Spike to find Ethan Rayne. The two together make a great odd couple team – bickering like a couple of old women. One might be evil but the pair share a certain unspoken bond what with being English an’ all.

A car chase. Yep, we get the first Buffy car chase as the Initiative pursue Spike and Demon Giles in Giles’s knacked out old car with Spike driving. It’s kinda small scale but quite cool and mostly played for laughs with Spike having trouble finding the gears.

Scaring Professor Walsh. The simply genius moment where Giles, in his demon form, makes Spike stop the car just so he can run out and scare Professor Walsh, then casually hops back in to the car feeling a little happier with life.

Robin Sachs. Yep, he’s back as chaos worshipping sorcerer/Giles nemesis Ethan Rayne. And he’s great. The scene with the pair of old mystics and one time friends getting drunk over a few pints is most amusing. While Giles is sharing his troubles, Ethan is busy trying to drunkenly pick up the waitress. It’s funny and is also a useful plot point for later on.

Tony Head. This is Giles’s episode. And Tony Head steps up to the mark. He really sells the tired, hurt, world weary Giles. And when he becomes a giant scary demon encased head to toe in prosthetics and creepy ram horns (great make-up BTW) he is obviously having a ball. His violent clumsiness is great as is his desperate attempts to make himself understood by the gang. But it’s the scaring Professor Walsh moment that is complete and utter genius.

That crappy Citroen finally gets totalled. Get a proper car Giles.

WHY IT SUCKS

It takes a while until Giles actually turns in to a demon.

Xander and co. don’t exactly do a proper search of Giles’s home before coming to the conclusion he isn’t there and that he’s been kidnapped/eaten by a demon.

The resolution is cute but pretty unbelievable. We’re expected to believe that Buffy stops at the last moment from killing Demon Giles by recognising the look of disappointment in his eyes. Huh?

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

Demon Giles taking time out of hunting for Ethan to give Maggie Walsh a well deserved scare. Priceless.

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Buffy (introducing Giles to Riley): “Giles was the librarian at my high school.”
Riley: “Ah, I've seen the library. It's gone downhill since you left.”

Buffy (about her surprise party): “Of course, you could smash in all my toes with a hammer and it would still be the bestest Buffy birthday bash in a big long while.”

Walsh: “So, the Slayer.”
Buffy: “Yeah, that's me.”
Walsh: “We thought you were a myth.”
Buffy: “Well, you were myth-taken.”

Giles: “What am I? I'm an unemployed librarian with a tendency to get knocked on the head.”

Ethan: “I've really got to learn to just do the damage and get out of town. It's the stay and gloat — gets me every time.”

Giles (about Ethan): “You have to help me find him. He must undo this, and then he needs a good being killed.”
Spike: “And I'm supposed to do this just out of the evilness of my heart?”

AND ANOTHER THING

In an online chat, Jane Espenson said about Spike after he crashed the car: "That was cut... for time. In fact, he got out of the car injured and he said 'I can kill demons. I can crash cars. Things are looking up!' It’s too bad this got cut. It was a nice moment. And now you know..."

HOW MANY STAKES?

Demon Head. 4 (out of 5)

BUFFY 4.11 ‘DOOMED’

2011-12-06T13:25:00.000-08:00

Short trailer for this episode

WRITER: Marti Noxon, David Fury, Jane Espenson

DIRECTOR: James A. Contner

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

Beginning where ‘Hush’ ended, Buffy and Riley are sitting together, not talking, unsure how to begin explaining to each other about their now not-so-secret lives. Eventually they do, and Buffy reacts badly. She wanted a nice normal guy. But now she seems to think that a relationship with Riley would be doomed. And so tries to end it between them. But Riley doesn’t understand and won’t walk away so easily. The couple’s heart to heart is suddenly interrupted by an earthquake. Riley is excited. But Buffy is scared as she sees earthquakes as omens of impending doom. She goes to see Giles who seems utterly unconcerned by the quake, putting it down to the usual Californian landmass shifts. Meanwhile Willow, at a party, makes a gruesome discovery, while Spike, who’s still staying with Xander, has become suicidal due to his now utterly miserable and degrading existence. Pretty soon though, Buffy is proved right about the earthquake being an omen of doom when the gang discovers that a demon cult is planning to reopen the Hellmouth beneath the destroyed Sunnydale High in order to usher in the apocalypse.

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

It’s about attitude, positive and negative thinking, being fatalistic. Buffy starts the episode utterly fatalistic – about Riley, the world, everything, but she gradually changes as it goes along, discovering that it is possible to rewrite at least part of your own destiny. Plus it's also about never quite being able to leave your past behind, but also letting it go enough so as not to ruin your future. Willow and Xander are both unhappily reminded about their geeky pasts, while Buffy is still living in her past, haunted by her doomed romance with Angel. Then of course the gang quite literally revisit their past by having to return once more to Sunnydale High to battle evil.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

The Vahrall demons

WHY IT ROCKS

Three of the best. You’ve got three of the series’ best writers credited for this ep. As such, there are some great character beats and lots of wonderfully funny scenes and dialogue.

Suicidal Spike. James Marsters is hilarious as poor miserable Spike who’s been reduced to living in Xander’s basement, doing laundry and wearing some god-awful clothes. The scene where he tries to stake himself by falling on a table but only destroying said table is very funny. He can’t even do that right. In this ep poor Spike reaches an ultimate low. Luckily by episodes end he discovers something that gives him a new lease on (un)life.

Sunnydale High. Yay! We get to visit the semi-collapsed and burned out remains of Sunnydale High complete with chunks of charred Mayor Meat.

Xander’s ol’ pal. Riley thinks he recognises Spike (dressed in some awful Xander clothes). Spike, putting on a dreadful American accent, declares: “Me? No. No, sir. I'm just an ol' pal of Xander's here.” Heh! What you have here is an American actor playing a Brit doing a bad American accent. Most amusing indeed.

Joyful Spike. Towards episodes end Spike discovers that though he can’t hurt humans he can hurt demons, much to his immense joy. The last few seconds of the episode shows an excitable Spike trying to get a TV watching Willow and Xander up and out with him to go and find evil to fight, ”For the safety of puppies….and Christmas.” Good ol’ Spike. He just wants to do some damage. And if it’s only to demons then so be it.

WHY IT SUCKS

What story? The actual story itself is a bit naff. It’s just some demons trying to open the hellmouth to start an apocalypse. It’s paper thin. Basically this is an episode to cover the fallout from ‘Hush’ and to move the characters in to new positions for the rest of the season, though thematically it works ok within the terms of the episode itself.

Is it just me or does Giles’s voice in the scene where he’s telling Buffy that the earthquake is nothing to worry about sound a bit odd? It’s almost as if his lines were rerecorded and then overdubbed. It sounds a bit…fake.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

Gleeful Spike right at episode’s end.

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Buffy: "I'm the Slayer. (Riley looks blankly.) Slay-er. Chosen One. She who hangs out a lot in cemeteries. (He still looks blankly.) You're kidding me! Ask around. Look it up. Slayer, comma, The."

Riley: "Buffy. She's pretty cool, huh?"
Forrest: "Yes, already! She's cool. She's hot. She's tepid. She's all-temperature Buffy."

Giles: "Oh — as usual — dear."

Spike: “My sodding sleeping chair's bloody... sodden.”

Xander (to Spike): “I hate to break it to you, O Impotent One, but you're not the Big Bad anymore. You're not even the Kind of Naughty. You're nothing but a waste of space. My space! And as much I always got a big laugh watching Buffy kick your shiny white bum, and as much as I know that I could give you a little bum-kicking myself right now, I'm here to tell you something: You're not even worth it!”

Buffy (anxiously to Giles about the earthquakes): “I told you. I said 'End of the World,' and you were like pooh-pooh, Southern California, pooh-pooh.”

Xander: “Think of the happy. If we don't find what we're looking for, we're facing the apocalypse.”
Spike (cheering up): “Really? You're not just saying that?”

Spike (on his newly regained bad-assness): “That's right! I'm back and I'm a bloody animal! Yeah!”

Spike (excited to a bored looking Xander and Willow): “I say we go out there and kick a little demon ass! What, can't go without your Buffy? Is that it? Too chicken? Let's find her! She is the Chosen One, after all. Come one, vampires, Grrr, nasty! Let's annihilate them. For justice, and for... the safety of puppies, and Christmas, right? Let's fight that evil! Let's kill something! (Frustrated now) Oh, come on!”

AND ANOTHER THING

As of this episode Marc Blucas gets added to the opening credits

Forrest tells Riley that he "don't got game," which might be an in joke seeing as how Leonard Roberts who plays Forrest co-starred in the 1998 movie He Got Game.

HOW MANY STAKES?

We’re doomed, we’re doomed! 3 (out of 5)

BUFFY 4.10 ‘HUSH’

2011-12-02T14:36:00.000-08:00

The Gentlemen are coming...

WRITER: Joss Whedon
DIRECTOR: Joss Whedon

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

Buffy has a disturbing dream featuring a glimpse of a very creepy looking ghoul and a little girl singing a strange nursery rhyme. Back in awake land, she and Riley clearly like each other a lot but seem reluctant to communicate that fact to each other. Giles has an old friend to stay (Olivia) so he has Xander take Spike for a few days. Xander though is having problems with Anya. She wants to know where their relationship is going and Xander seems unable to communicate his feelings to her. Meanwhile Willow has joined a disappointing Wicca group but finds a possible new friend in quiet, mousy Tara. Later that night, a group of scary, ghoulishly grinning ‘Gentlemen’ float in to town accompanied by their weird straightjacket-clad henchmen. These ‘Gentlemen’ steal everyone in Sunnydale's voices, before then starting to harvest human hearts from conscious victims who've been rendered unable to scream. Trapped in total silence, Buffy and the gang eventually work out what’s going on. And the next night Buffy sets out on patrol to find and stop the nasty fairytale ‘Gentlemen’ before they can steal any more human hearts. The only problem being, Riley and his soldiers have been sent out too, meaning Buffy and Riley may very soon come face to face while battling the shared demonic threat.

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

It’s all about communication. How often what we say gets in the way of what we mean. Actions usually do speak louder than words.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

The Gentlemen

WHY IT ROCKS

Everything about ‘Hush’ rocks! It’s a Joss episode and my second favourite episode of Buffy ever.

A legend. This episode is legendary. It can be argued that, along with one or two other episodes of Buffy, ‘Hush’ has transcended the series to become a pop culture entity in its own right. You can watch this ep totally separate from the rest of the series, know what’s going on, and absolutely love it. It is scary, creepy, vicious, visually stylish, funny, thematically rich and just all round fab. One of the best hours of television ever.

The Gentlemen. Inspired by fairytale villains mixed in with the influences of Nosferatu, Dark City’s ‘The Strangers’, and a heavy dose of Tim Burton weirdness, these guys are truly the stuff of nightmares. Their ghoulish appearance, eerie gliding, weirdly polite manner and horribly rictus grins only add to their uber creepiness. The best Buffy monsters by far, they have also earned a place in the wider pantheon of great screen monsters. A genius and truly scary creation. Brrr

Doug Jones. The fabulous mime artist/actor Doug Jones plays the lead Gentleman. You’ll know Doug’s work as Abe Sapien in Hellboy and as Pan in Pan’s Labyrinth amongst others. Once you know him he is easy to spot even under loads of make up. And he always manages to be brilliant!

The script. For a 44 min episode of which 27 mins has no dialogue, Hush is brilliantly written. A lot is exchanged between actors in looks, behaviour, body language i.e. using forms of communication other than speech as is the theme of the tale. Joss packs a lot in to the episode and makes it entirely character based (as always) and very, very funny, not to mention action packed and pretty darn creepy.

The direction and look. Joss also directs and does his usual sterling work. The episode looks gorgeous, from the dark and moody photography to the splendid art direction to the gloriously creepy make up and visual FX. This ep could happily be shown on the big screen. I wish it would be. Joss keeps his usual directorial style of long takes and playing scenes in one shots (keeping the actors in frame at the same time, not cutting between them). This helps lend extra chemistry and energy to scenes.

The score. Christophe Beck provides a lot of music in a wonderfully spooky Danny Elfman-esque score. It reminded me a bit of Sleepy Hollow (which came out about the same time as Hush).

The ‘Who are The Gentlemen?’ lecture theatre scene. Giles provides a hand drawn overhead projector presentation to the gang (while playing Danse Macabre on a tape deck) spelling out who The Gentlemen are and what they plan to do. This scene is utterly brilliant and is now iconic in TV land. So damn funny, so damn cool. The gag with Buffy miming staking someone is pure gold. TV doesn’t get any better than this.

WHY IT SUCKS

It doesn’t. And if you think it does then go away and never speak to me again.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

Lots of candidates but I love Buffy’s ill-judged staking mime. It always cracks me up.

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Dream Girl's Rhyme: “Can't even shout, can't even cry, The Gentlemen are coming by. Looking in windows, knocking on doors, they need to take seven and they might take yours. Can't call to mom, can't say a word, you're gonna die screaming but you won't be heard.”

Spike: “Sometimes I like to crumble the Weetabix in the blood. Gives it a little texture.”
Giles: “Since the picture you just painted means that I will never touch food of any kind again, you'll just have to pick it up yourself.”
Spike: “Sissy.”

Anya (to Xander): “You don't need me. All you care about is lots of orgasms.”
(Giles and Spike stare at them.)
Xander: “OK, remember how we talked about private conversations? How they're less private when they're in front of my friends?”
Spike: “Oh, we're not your friends; go on.”
Giles: “Please don’t.”

Giles: “I have a friend who's coming to town, and I'd like us to be alone.”
Anya: “Oh, you mean an orgasm friend?”
Giles: “Yes, that's exactly the most appalling thing you could've said.”

AND ANOTHER THING

Joss Whedon received an Emmy nomination for this episode, in the category of Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series. The episode also received a nomination for Outstanding Cinematography. It didn’t win either. Dammit!

The newscaster seen telling the world about the mysterious laryngitis that has swept through Sunnydale is Carlos Amezcua, an actual newscaster on KTLA's morning news, a WB affiliate in Los Angeles.

The music Giles plays during his transparency lecture is Danse Macabre. It was also the theme for the BBC’s Jonathan Creek, which co-starred Tony Head in its first episode.

’Hush’ is the episode where we first meet Tara played by Amber Benson. Tara will go on to become Willow’s girlfriend and a much-loved character in the show.

Several members of the cast are on record as being well and truly creeped out by having The Gentlemen around on set. Apparently they looked and behaved just as creepy off camera as on. Just no heart stealing I hope.

HOW MANY STAKES?

Silence is golden. 5+ (out of 5)

BUFFY 4.09 ‘SOMETHING BLUE’

2011-12-02T12:55:00.000-08:00

“Don’t I get a cookie?”

WRITER: Tracey Forbes
DIRECTOR: Nick Marck

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

Willow, still feeling terrible over Oz’s leaving, tries a spell to lessen her heartbreak. Unfortunately the spell goes wrong and unbeknownst to the misery stricken Wiccan what ever she says about the people she is closest to actually happens to them. Arguing with Giles, Willow says that he just doesn’t see anything. And a short time later Giles starts going blind. Then, angry at Xander over his advice to her about love, she tells him he’s in no position to give advice as he’s just a demon magnet. Pretty soon demons start showing up out of the blue, accosting poor Xan. Best of all though, Spike escapes from Giles’s place and Buffy has to leave Willow to go find and recapture the naughty vamp. Willow, upset that Buffy has left her to go find Spike, says that Buffy should just go marry him then. Next thing we know (much to Giles and Xander’s horror) Buffy and Spike are very much in love and planning their wedding, which leads to one confused conversation between Buffy and a totally flummoxed Riley. Things start getting even more out of hand as the gang is cornered by more and more demons out for Xander’s blood. At the same time, impressed by Willow’s curses on her friends, the great vengeance demon D'Hoffyrn goes and brings the unwittingly havoc wreaking girl to his dimension and offers her a job.

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

Dealing with heartbreak. Friends helping those who are dealing with heartbreak.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

Willow (unwittingly), lots of various demons out to get Xander, and D'Hoffyrn.

WHY IT ROCKS

The script. Making up for some of the naffness of ‘Beer Bad’ Tracey Forbes writes a fun, frothy frolic of an episode. It’s not deep, it’s not clever, and it plays almost like a dose of fan fiction, but it is a lot of goofy fun.

Comedy. There is some broad and very funny comedy in this episode. A lot of it comes from Giles and his loss of sight and his exasperation and disgust at Buffy and Spike ‘in love’. The stuff at Giles’s house with Buffy and Spike being all lovey dovey is hilarious. After Xander arrives and sees Buffy and Spike canoodling, and then hearing that Giles is blind, he stares in horror at the mystically loved-up pair and says plaintively, “Can I be blind too?”

Spike and Buffy sitting in a tree… Spike and Buffy start out the episode at each others throats (well, Spike would be if he could actually hurt her). The platinum vamp is chained up in Giles’s bathtub being fed blood from a novelty mug while Buffy taunts him with her bare pulsing throat. They continue to go at it until Willow’s spell does its thing and suddenly the pair is in blissful love and all over each other, planning their wedding. The chemistry between them is great and they are so darn funny together.

Giles. Tony Head is fab. He sells the growing blindness so well not to mention his wonderfully judged air of horrific exasperation at everything that’s going on. Very funny indeed. He even gets to do a spot on pratfall.

The Amy rat. Very briefly we get to see Amy turned back human again, albeit for a split second behind an unwitting Willow and Buffy’s backs. It’s a swift gag. But it’s a nice nod to continuity (something Buffy does brilliantly) and is rather chucklesome.

WHY IT SUCKS

Rubbery demons. Some of the demons attacking Xander are kinda rubbery and not too convincing.

Poor Willow. The gang’s rather insensitive attitude to Willow (mostly behind her back) is pretty grim and not very nice. Lest they forget Buffy had only recently stopped obsessing over nasty Parker. Cut the poor redhead some slack people!

Fluffy Buffy. This ep is a lot of goofy fun but is entirely fluff and doesn’t add anything weighty to the season.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

Giles’s reaction to seeing Buffy and Spike ‘together’.

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Xander (watching Willow dancing energetically at the Bronze): "I believe that's the dance of a brave little toaster."

Giles: “We can't let you go until we're sure that you're impotent or —“
Spike: “Hey!”
Giles: “Sorry, poor choice of words. Until we know that you're...”
Buffy: “Flaccid?”
Spike: “You are one step away, missy!

Buffy (faux-sexy): “Look at my poor neck — all bare, and tender, and exposed. All that blood, just pumping away.”
Spike (angrily): “Giles, make her stop!”
Giles (to Willow, exasperated): “If those two don't kill each other, I might lend a hand.”

Spike (yelling): “Passions is on! Timmy's down the bloody well, and if you make me miss it I'll —“
Giles: “Do what? Lick me to death?”

Giles (hearing Spike and Buffy kissing): “Stop that right now! I can hear the smacking.”

Buffy (gleeful): “Spike and I are getting married!”
Xander (stunned): “How? What? How?”
Giles: “Three excellent questions.”

Buffy (to Willow): “And the bad boy thing? Over it. Okay, I totally get it. I'd be really happy to be in a nice relationship with a decent, reliable… Oh my God, Riley thinks I'm engaged!”

HOW MANY STAKES?

Willow didn’t mean to do it. 3 (out of 5)

BUFFY: 4.08 ‘PANGS’

2011-11-30T10:53:00.000-08:00

A bear! You made a bear! Heh.

WRITER: Jane Espenson
DIRECTOR: Michael Lange

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

It’s almost Thanksgiving and in his latest menial job, Xander is helping excavate the ground at Sunnydale U for a new faculty building, only to fall through the ground in to what is the lost Sunnydale Mission, buried in an earthquake years and years ago. Unfortunately Xander’s accident also unleashes the vengeful spirit of a Native American Chumash warrior who infects Xander with all the illnesses the original European settlers infected his people with. The spirit then moves on to start taking murderous revenge on local people of status for the slaughter of his people centuries ago. At the same time, Spike, hunted by Initiative commandos, is wandering the town, miserable and starving, staring longingly through windows at other vampires having happy blood feasts. Poor chap. Meanwhile, Buffy is feeling the need for some homespun Thanksgiving food and general cosiness and decides to lay on a big meal at Giles’s house for the gang. But circumstances are gonna make Buffy’s meal harder and harder to prepare for. First, Willow is anti Thanksgiving. She sees it as a celebration of the massacre of an indigenous people. She is also against ‘slaying’ the Chumash warrior because he is rightfully upset by what was done to his people. This leads to her falling out with Giles who remains insistent that they must stop the warrior at all costs. Second, Xander turns up sick as a dog, finding out he now has several diseases including syphilis. Third, Spike turns up out of the blue seeking sanctuary and with info about the Initiative. Third, Buffy feels a strange invisible presence around her. A presence we soon find out is actually Angel who’s secretly been helping her after Doyle received a vision back in LA of Buffy in mortal danger. So, can the Chumash warrior be stopped before he kills anyone else? Can Spike be trusted? Can Xander’s syphilis be cured? Can Buffy get the turkey on the table in time for a nice cosy Thanksgiving dinner?

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

It’s all about Thanksgiving and what it means. Not being an American Thanksgiving means virtually nothing to me. But I understand there seems to be a debate about it in the US of which Willow takes one side: that it is a nasty sham - a ‘yam sham’ which is really all about the massacre of indigenous peoples. I do like how Giles, and to a greater degree Spike, (both Brits like me) take a far more hard-nosed and practical view of the whole thing. Anyway, as with all things there’s always more than one side, and at least this episode of Buffy, though very charming and very, very funny, makes an effort to expose some of the darker truths.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

Hus, the Chumash spirit warrior

WHY IT ROCKS

Big funny. Pangs is hilarious. The great Jane Espenson ™ wrote a wonderfully funny script that deals with the whole Thanksgiving issue nicely while playing up some great character beats and producing plenty of laugh out loud moments – many of which are to do with Spike. And speaking of…

Spike. Yep, once again James Marsters rocks! This is the start of Spike becoming an unwilling part of the Scooby Gang. Its needs must for poor Spike. He can’t get blood from people anymore so is starving while also being hunted by the Initiative commandos. So he seeks refuge with his sworn enemies hoping they won’t hurt him, as he’s all helpless and fangless. Putting Spike at the centre of the group dynamic works a treat. He sits there, tied to a chair, giving blunt acidic commentary on everything going on around him. He is the truth teller. He spells it out like it is. This role was originally taken by Cordelia and will soon be taken by Anya seeing as how Spike is limited in what he can do and where he can go by that darned daylight. But he will from now on remain an integral part of the Scooby Gang whether he or they want him to or not.

Sickly Xander. Poor chap. He gets various diseases all at once including (gulp!) syphilis. His pasty pathetic state is very, very funny.

A Buffy bear hug. Buffy wrestles a bear and it looks so silly but manages to be (intentionally) hilarious and made all the better by Spike’s reaction.

The ‘cavalry’ charging to the rescue…on bicycles.

The end Thanksgiving dinner scene and Xander’s faux pas. And Spike’s smug look.

WHY IT SUCKS

The whole Angel sneaking around thing is pointless and contrived. It is only there to get Buffy to go visit him in LA in the following episode of Angel. Still, its cool seeing Captain Forehead mixing with the gang again.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

Spike’s horrified reaction to the Chumash warrior turning in to a bear.

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Buffy (about construction-working Xander): “Very manly. Not at all Village People.”

Willow (angrily to Giles): "You know, I don't think you want to help! You just want to slay the demon and go 'la, la, la.'"

Spike (on his implant): "I'm saying that Spike had a little trip to the vet, and now he doesn't chase the other puppies anymore."

Spike (shocked): "A bear! You made a bear!"
Buffy (timidly): "I didn't mean to!"
Spike (panicking): "Undo it! Undo it!

Xander (looking ill and worried):”Can we come rocketing back to the part about me and my new syphilis.”

Giles (dryly): “Yes, I’m always behind on terms. I'm still trying not to refer to you lot as 'bloody colonials.'”

Spike: “What part of 'help me!' do you not understand?”
Buffy: “The part where I help you.”

Anya: “So this is Angel. He's large and glowery, isn't he?”

HOW MANY STAKES?

I give thanks every time I watch this episode. 4 (out of 5)

BUFFY: 4.07 ‘THE INITIATIVE’

2011-11-29T15:38:00.000-08:00

Xander and Harmony’s pathetic fight. Heh.

WRITER: Doug Petrie
DIRECTOR: James A Contner

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

Spike, zapped unconscious at the start of the previous episode, wakes up in a white, sterile cell. He soon discovers he’s a prisoner, along with other supernatural types, in a secret government facility beneath Sunnydale and is destined for study and eventual vivisection. Naturally Big Bad wants out. And being a cunning badass he soon escapes. Meanwhile Buffy is helping Willow deal with Oz’s leaving, while Riley discovers to his surprise that he has feelings for Buffy and decides to try and “court” her. Buffy and Willow attend a party at Riley’s frat house where Riley attempts awkward conversation with Buffy before being urgently called away by his pals. Buffy is also called away urgently by Xander, who tells her that Spike is back in town and gunning for her. Back to the frat house and we soon discover that Riley is actually Agent Finn and he and his frat buddies are in fact the masked commandos seen sneaking around town this season. Riley and co. work for the secret government organisation that captured Spike. And Professor Walsh is the one in charge. We follow the boys down underground beneath their frat house where the huge hi tech headquarters of ‘The Initiative’ is revealed with its cells and its labs and its soldiers with laser guns. Professor Walsh tells Riley, who is the head soldier, that Hostile 17 (Spike) has escaped and needs to be tracked down and recaptured. Riley and his men suit up and head out on a Spike hunt. Meanwhile Spike has found out where Buffy now lives. He goes to her dorm surprising a morose Willow. Annoyed to find Buffy not there, Spike comforts himself by attacking poor defenceless Willow instead.

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

This is the episode that kicks the season’s main plot and theme in to gear. The plot is The Initiative and its plans to capture, study and use demons (or ‘subterrestrials’) for possible government applications. The theme is the clash of science and magic and how the two don’t play well together. The underlying theme I guess is about nature and primal forces (represented here by magic) and its continual clash with the ever increasing power of science and human invention and development. There is also the theme of human arrogance, thinking we know everything and then bumbling our way in to places and situations we find we can’t properly handle. Perhaps a bit of a comment on western foreign policy too? Though this was made pre the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

Spike and The Initiative

WHY IT ROCKS

The script. Regular writer Doug Petrie delivers a mighty fine smorgasbord of a tale crammed full of drama, action, comedy, pathos, action, comedy, more action, more comedy, and plot twists. And he juggles it all perfectly. He also delivers one of THE best scenes of the entire season with the Spike and Willow dorm room scene. Pure genius. Only on Buffy.

The direction. James A Contner is, according to Doug Petrie in his episode commentary, the go to guy on Buffy for action. And he does a great job here. Spike’s escape from The Initiative is visually cool and pretty darn exciting. And the end corridor fight in the dorm is simply brilliant! But Contner also delivers big time with the comedy. This episode juggles multiple styles and tones often in the same scene. Great stuff!

Spike. James Marsters gets added to the main title credits and delivers a fangtastic performance. He’s the bad guy of the episode but he is also heroic in his cool James Bondian escape from The Initiative. He just radiates uber-cool badass before turning horrifically evil when attacking poor Willow in her room, which then, after the scary cliffhanger act break, leads directly in to one of the best and funniest scenes of the entire season.

The Spike can’t perform scene. Spike attacks Willow in a horrifically savage way, all frenzied hand held camera style. But when we come back to the scene we find a dejected Spike sat on the end of Willow’s bed, Willow unharmed and consoling him because he can’t bite her. Due to her post-Oz state she even takes it personally thinking Spike’s inability to perform is because he didn’t really want her anyway, to which Spike then consoles her by saying he’s always liked her and would bite her in a second if he could. It’s a wonderfully written scene performed with such bizarre warmth and humour by James Marsters and Alyson Hannigan. Moving from pure frenzied horror one moment to warmly hilarious the next is no mean feat. But this is partly why Buffy the Vampire Slayer works so well as a show. It isn’t just one thing. It straddles multiple genres and styles. It’s horror, comedy, romance, action, drama, teen angst, scifi etc. sometimes all in the one scene. And it works.

Nasty Parker gets knocked the f*%k out! Riley, hearing Parker Abrams make an especially crude and unkind joke at Buffy’s expense, punches the guy, knocking him out cold. The punch is as much a shock to Riley as it is to everyone else. It is then that he realises he has feelings for this rather “peculiar” girl. Nice one Agent Finn.

The Initiative HQ. We get the big reveal of the huge underground HQ in this episode. And it’s quite something. We get the gleaming white cells plus the central command and experimentation area. It’s huge and full of scientists and soldiers and high tech equipment. It looks fab. Very James Bond.

The Xander vs. Harmony fight. Xander, coming across Harmony in the woods, faces off with the upset (dumped again by Spike) vamp. The pair then engages in what is the saddest most pathetic fight ever. And it is hilarious. The director shoots it as if it is an epic fight between titans, using wide shots, close ups and even dramatic slow mo with a soaring score underneath. The truth is it is two people wrestling badly, slapping, kicking, hair pulling, and generally making a hash up of a fight. It ends with the pair agreeing to separate and go their own ways both highly embarrassed. Genius!

The end fight. The big showdown in Buffy’s dorm is great. It’s a threeway battle between Buffy, a bunch of Initiative commandos (including Riley) and Spike…all done in the dark and with gas from an exploded fire extinguisher and smoke from a flare gun. Thus Buffy can’t see Riley properly (he’s masked anyway) and Riley can’t see Buffy due to the darkness and the smoke. But the fight is big and wonderfully staged and directed and edited, taking place down a long dorm hallway. There’s even a cool Matrix homage with Buffy and the flare gun. “Dodge THIS!” Heh.

WHY IT SUCKS

Spike and his implanted chip. Nothing against the chip itself, it’s a great plot device used to neuter the poor lad and stop him from hurting people. Only problem is, in this episode he is clearly hitting people and fighting after he gets chipped while also not being able to bite Willow. It is clearly stated that the chip is working and stops him from hurting any human. Joss admitted right after the episode aired that they dropped the ball here. It simply shouldn’t have happened. Spike should NOT have been filmed fighting and hurting any humans. It was an error, something that was missed.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

The Spike and Willow ‘bedroom’ scene. Poor Spike.

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Spike (about Buffy): "I always worried what would happen when that bitch got some funding."

Buffy (coming to Willow’s defence after Prof. Walsh lays in to her): "You know for someone who teaches human behaviour, you might try showing some."
Prof. Walsh: "It's not my job to coddle my students."
Buffy: "You're right. A human being in pain has nothing to do with your job." (walks away)

Forrest: “Check her out. Is she hot, or is she hot?”
Riley: “She's Buffy.”

Buffy: “Now if you'll excuse me, I need go find something slutty to wear tonight.”

Spike: “I don't understand. This sort of thing's never happened to me before.”
Willow: “Maybe you were nervous.”
Spike: “I felt all right when I started. Let's try again.”
(He tries to bite her, but he can't do it.)
Spike: “Damn it!”
Willow: “Maybe you're trying too hard. Doesn't this happen to every vampire?”
Spike: “Not to me, it doesn't!”
Willow: “It's me, isn't it?”
Spike: “What are you talking about?”
Willow: “Well, you came looking for Buffy, then settled. You didn't want to bite me, I just happened to be around.”
Spike: “Piffle.”
Willow: “I know I'm not the kind of girl vamps like to sink their teeth into. It's always like, 'Oh, you're like a sister to me,' or, 'Oh, you're such a good friend.'”
Spike: “Don't be ridiculous. I'd bite you in a heartbeat.”
Willow: “Really?”
Spike: “Thought about it.”
Willow:” When?”
Spike: “Remember last year? You had on that fuzzy pink number with the lilac underneath.” (Gives her a sexy look.)
Willow: “I never would have guessed. You played the bloodlust kinda cool.”
Spike: “Mmmm. I hate being obvious. Being all fangy and 'Rrrr.' Takes the mystery out.”
Willow: “But if you could...”
Spike: “If I could, yeah.”
Willow: “You know, this doesn't make you any less terrifying.”
Spike: “Don't patronise me! (Paces around the room.) I'm only a hundred and twenty-six!”
Willow: “You're being too hard on yourself. Why don't we wait a half an hour and try again? (Makes a funny face, coming to her senses.) Or... (She grabs a lamp and whacks him over the head.)

AND ANOTHER THING

The Initiative HQ was actually filmed at Skunkworks in California where the US Airforce Stealth Bombers were built. Hence it looks huge and suitably high tech.

Doug Petrie in his commentary states that the main touchstones for this episode were James Bond movies, the classic British TV show The Prisoner (of which he and Joss are huge fans – see the big white balls hanging around The Initiative HQ as a homage) and The Matrix. Plus a bunch of classic rom com movies.

James Marsters has been added to the opening credits.

Seth Green's name has been taken out of the opening credits.

It is in this episode that we finally discover that Oz's real name is Daniel Osbourne.

HOW MANY STAKES?

Take the Initiative. 4.5 (out of 5)

BUFFY: 4.06 ‘WILD AT HEART’

2011-11-27T10:21:00.000-08:00

A video about this episode featuring ‘Need to Destroy’ by THC as heard in the episode.

WRITER: Marti Noxon
DIRECTOR: David Grossman

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

It’s full moon time again and Oz is getting ready to get hairy. But his growing friendship and obvious attraction to sultry singer Veruca is worrying Willow, though she won’t say anything as she doesn’t want to come across all jealous. On the first night of the full moon (remember in Buffy that werewolves change the night before, the night of, and the night after the full moon) Oz gets loose from his cage and meets up with another werewolf, scaring Professor Walsh in the process. The two werewolves fight. Fade to black. The next day Oz wakes up in the woods naked…entwined with a naked Veruca. It is obvious the pair got it on while in wolf form. Veruca is a free spirit and won’t be caged when she turns. She tries to entice Oz to give up locking himself away at full moons and to be with her from now on. Their mutual animal attraction is undeniable but Oz resists. That night, concerned that Veruca might hurt someone, Oz tricks her in to his lockable cage. The next morning Willow turns up to free him but she is heartbroken to find a naked Oz and naked Veruca entwined yet again. Oz tries to explain but Willow is inconsolable. The next night, Veruca, determined to get Oz for herself, decides to eliminate the one thing standing in her way: Willow.

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

The heartbreak around relationships that for what ever reason are just not working anymore. Plus the old resisting the beast inside, and how pure animal lust based upon nothing more can be destructive.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

Veruca

WHY IT ROCKS

The script. Marti Noxon wrote a smart, funny, tragic, heartbreaking script that in one episode utterly destroys a brilliant relationship which had been at the very heart of this show for the previous two years.

Oz and Willow. We watched as Oz became utterly entranced upon his first seeing Willow back in early season 2, a then rather awkward, geeky young girl. And we watched Willow become deeply attached to this kind, whip smart, stoically funny base player who just happens to be a werewolf. Their chemistry together has been second to none, making them a pure joy to watch on screen. But in the space of 44 minutes it all gets torn asunder.

Alyson Hannigan. We already know she’s an excellent actress and in this episode she gets to bring the pain in a big way: the floods of tears, the look of utter devastation that haunts her face and her entire demeanour. As Joss once said, and I paraphrase, if you want to get the audience on side then just put Willow in danger or make her cry. Instant emotional gut wrench. And he’s right. Ally making the big wet eyes just stabs your heart.

Seth Green. We love Seth Green. He’s Scott Evil. He’s Chris Griffin. He’s co-creator of the ace Robot Chicken. He’s been in loads of movies. But to some of us he will always be Daniel ‘Oz’ Osbourne – the first big love of Willow’s life. Here, Seth gives a typically low-key Oz style performance, though you can feel the confusion, the anger, the pain and the anguish radiating from him throughout. His last scene with Willow is brilliant and would make the stoniest of hearts crack just a little. We will miss you Oz. You were THE (wolf) man! *Sniff*

Spike’s hilarious cameo. At the start of the episode the platinum vamp is watching from a safe distance as Buffy bests a vamp. He then starts to give an angry and dramatic monologue directed at the Slayer only to be suddenly and unceremoniously stunned unconscious by one of the mysterious army guys seen prowling around all season. And that’s the last we see of him all episode.

WHY IT SUCKS

Though a very good episode it feels like a rather rushed exit for such a beloved character. But there were unavoidable reasons for this. See ‘AND ANOTHER THING’ further down for more.

Veruca. The sexy, sultry, dangerous bad girl act doesn’t really come off. She comes across more as a rather annoying wannabe. You want sexy bad girl? Faith. ‘nuff said. Paige Moss who plays Veruca is okay but using my own inner animal I detected no real depth or edge to her performance. Nothing to make my inner beast perk up. Guess it’s just a werewolf thing.

The werewolves. Since the show redesigned the wolves after their first appearance in 2.15 ‘Phases’ they have looked like utter shit. I hate them. They look like people in silly furry costumes prancing around like idiots. There is nothing remotely wolf-like about them. Professor Walsh even says in this episode that at first she thought they were gorillas. That’s an insult to gorillas. And what's with Oz’s ridiculous werewolf mutton chops in his mid-transformation phase? Jeez!

Lip synching. Paige Moss’s lip synching to the songs Veruca sings is terrible. It doesn’t match at all. Plus her ‘sultry’ and ‘seductive’ stage performance is so overdone it is pretty darn funny.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

A tie between Spike’s hilarious cameo at the start and the last scene between Willow and Oz. It gets you right here (points at chest).

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Buffy (to random vamp she's fighting): "You know very well, you eat this late... (Stakes him.)... you're gonna get heartburn. Get it? Heartburn? (He turns to dust.) That's it? That's all I get? One lame-ass vamp with no appreciation for my painstakingly thought out puns. I don't think the forces of darkness are even trying."

Willow: "I have wrong feelings about other guys sometimes. But I feel guilty and I flog and punish."
Buffy: "Exactly. I'm sure Oz is flogging and punishing himself... this is sounding wrong before I even finish."

Spike (to Buffy, out of earshot): “Watch your mouth, little girl. You should know better than to tempt the Fates that way. 'Cause the Big Bad is back, and this time it's... VARGHHHHHH!” (As he's being shocked with a taser.)

Giles: “Don't look at me that way. I'm down with the new music.”

Willow (To Xander): “I need a translator from the 'Y' side of things.”

Oz: “Look, Buffy, you should know that, that —“
Buffy: “Oz, now might be a good time for your trademark stoicism.”

Willow: “Oz, don't you love me?”
Oz: “My whole life I've never loved anything else.”

AND ANOTHER THING

THC is the real band playing the music of Shy, Veruca’s band.

Seth Green’s departure from Buffy was a rather short notice affair. He’d had a big hit that summer with Austin Powers 2 and was looking to further his film career. Luckily Oz wasn’t killed off and would reappear in one episode of season 5 to draw a final line under the Willow/Oz story.

HOW MANY STAKES?

Bye, bye Oz. 3.5 (out of 5)

BUFFY: 4.05 ‘BEER BAD’

2011-11-27T07:01:00.000-08:00

Excellent musical tribute vid to the slayer and her relationship with booze.

WRITER: Tracey Forbes
DIRECTOR: David Solomon

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

Still feeling depressed, confused and dejected over being a Parker Abrams one night stand, Buffy takes solace at the on campus pub where Xander is now working (illegally) behind the bar. In a vulnerable state, she gets drawn in by a gang of hard drinking upper classmen and starts knocking back the beer by the pitcher developing a real taste for the amber nectar. Only problem is, said beer has been magically enhanced so that prolonged ingestion regresses someone to a inward and outward caveman state – complete with heavy brow, monosyllabic communication and acting purely on base wants and needs. Can Xander and the gang get to Buffy before she regresses to full on cave slayer, and can they stop the marauding cavemen upper classmen from hurting people?

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

There is none. It’s all there in the title and on the surface. Metaphors be gone! Apparently beer is bad for you and too much turns you in to an aggressive, foolish sub human. There’s a bit of stuff about the human id, ego and superego and how we manage their competing needs in life, but it’s really just padding to what is the most blatant and unsubtle story ever done on Buffy.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

The writer? No, okay, I guess it’s the gang of marauding upper classmen cavemen.

WHY IT ROCKS

Beer Bad is notorious amongst fans as possibly THE most despised episode of Buffy. Personally I don’t hate it as it still has a few redeeming features. But not many. So here goes…

The caveman make-up and transformation FX are actually pretty good.

Xander’s enthusiasm to his friends about being a barman and his barman’s opening spiel, which includes a concerned face, a clicked on lighter, followed by the words “Rough day?”

Willow getting the upper hand with nasty Parker. The single best scene in the episode. Way to go Will.

Cave Slayer Buffy. Always the pro, Sarah throws herself in to the role. Thankfully she’s not gone all heavy browed like the others (Xander cut her off in time) but she’s still all matted straggly hair, monosyllabic aggression and ape-like pratfalls. She’s pretty darn funny too.

Normal Buffy’s earlier fantasies of Parker apologising to her for his behaviour, which comes full circle hilariously as he actually does apologise to Cave Slayer Buffy, not realising what’s happened to her. Cave Slayer Buffy’s scowling response? After a beat, she whacks him over the head with a stick, knocking him out cold. Screen goes black. Credits. It’s a perfectly timed gag.

WHY IT SUCKS

The story is quite simply rubbish. Metaphor and theme is disposed of and replaced with a stupid, rather insulting and patronising story about the dangers of alcohol. Buffy has done this sort of thing before but in far more subtle and creative ways. I expect a lot more from this show. If this were some other less intelligent, less sophisticated supernatural drama (*cough*Charmed*cough*) then I’d kinda expect it. But not from Buffy. Was Joss away that week or something?

The upper classmen cavemen are all utterly embarrassing in their running around, grunting and general stupidity. The make-up is cool but can’t mask the stupidity of the whole affair.

Buffy still obsessing over Parker. It's getting annoying now. C'mon Buff, snap out of it.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

Willow getting one over on nasty Parker. She had me going for a while.

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Xander (chipping in on a conversation between Buffy and Willow): "Pfffft. Nothing can defeat the penis!" (Notices how loud he was) "Too loud. Very unseemly."

Xander: “Giles, don’t make Cave Slayer unhappy.”

Xander: “How much beer would you say a person would need to consume before they start seriously questing for fire?”

Willow (To Parker): "That's right. I got your number, id boy. Only thing you're thinking about is how long before you can jump on my bones."

Buffy: “I'm suffering the afterness of a bad night of... badness.”
Willow: “You didn't. Not with Parker again.”
Buffy: “No. with four really smart guys.”
Willow: “Four? Oh... ow. Oh, Buffy, are you OK? Do you want to talk about it?”
Buffy: “I went to see Xander. Then I saw Parker. Then came... beer.”
Willow: “And then group sex?”
Buffy: “Pffft... gutterface. No! Just lots and lots of beer.”

Buffy: “Want beer. Like beer. Beer good.”
Xander: “Beer bad. Bad, bad beer. What the hell am I saying?”

Xander: “And was there a lesson in all this? Huh? What did we learn about beer?”
Buffy (grins stupidly): “Foamy!”

AND ANOTHER THING

This episode was Emmy nominated for hairstyling.

Kal Penn of Harold and Kumar fame (amongst other things) plays one of the cavemen.

In this ep we are introduced to sultry singer Veruca who in the following episode will play a major role in one of the main characters leaving the show.

HOW MANY STAKES?

It’s not Scooby Doo anymore; it’s Captain Caveslayer! 2 (out of 5)

BUFFY: 4.04 ‘FEAR, ITSELF’

2011-11-22T14:26:00.000-08:00

Short episode promo

WRITER: David Fury
DIRECTOR: Tucker Gates

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

It’s Halloween and one of the frat houses is throwing a Scary House Halloween party. Said house has been prepared to be everything innocently spooky and scary for the soon to arrive party guests. But unbeknownst to the frat house boys, a symbol they found in a book and then painted on to the floor for creepy effect is really a mystical symbol designed to bring forth the terrible fear demon Gachnar. All the symbol needs to start its work is some human blood, which Oz accidentally supplies after cutting himself while fixing the party’s sound system. Later on that night, Buffy, Willow, Oz and Xander arrive at the frat house ready for some silly, creepy seasonal frolics…only to find it seemingly deserted. After venturing inside, the house then traps them, separates them, and begins to subject each of them to their deepest personal fears…

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

Well, the whole thing is really just a big ol’ Halloween fest. An excuse to have some creepy good fun. Thematically though we are in fairly obvious territory: facing and conquering your fears, not letting them control you. The gang’s fears have changed now that they’ve grown older. Back in season one’s ‘Nightmares’ Willow’s biggest fear was being on stage. Now it is one of her spells going wrong and turning on her. Xander’s fear was clowns. Now it is being invisible to his friends. Of course Oz wasn’t in season one but his fear is of losing control and turning in to a werewolf and hurting Willow. Meanwhile Buffy’s fear is no longer rejection by her father. Now it is that no matter what she does, how hard she fights, she won’t be able to save people. As the gang has matured so have their fears.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

A scary house which includes knife-wielding corpses, transforming werewolves, vampires buried in the basement, bats, spiders, eyeballs and all sorts of creepy stuff. Oh, and Gachnar, the fear demon. And Anya dressed as a bunny.

WHY IT ROCKS

The story. David Fury wrote a fun rollercoaster spooky house tale for Halloween that has decent thematic depth and is all about the characters.

Giles fully embracing the spirit of Halloween…in a sombrero. And Buffy’s reaction.

Gleeful Giles with his toy Frankenstein’s Monster. “It’s alive!”

Anya and the thing that scares her the most: bunnies.

Anya in her giant bunny costume. So cute. So funny.

Giles with a chainsaw.

Buffy as Little Red Riding Hood. She looks real cute in her blood red cloak. It harkens back to season three’s ‘Helpless’ where we last saw her wearing a red hooded cloak whilst fleeing from psycho vampire Zachary Kralik.

Xander dressed in a tux just in case they all get turned in to their costumes again ala season two’s ‘Halloween’. If they do, then Xander wants to be James Bond. Buffy thinks he’ll more likely be a waiter.

Oz’s Halloween costume. Willow has come as Joan of Arc as she appreciates Joan’s close relationship with God. When the gang ask a normally dressed Oz what he’s come as, Oz silently reveals a small nametag on his jacket. It reads simply ‘God’. Heh.

The ‘big’ reveal of Gachnar.

WHY IT SUCKS

It’s a standalone episode and a token Halloween episode so doesn’t really add anything to the season. Still, it’s a lot of fun.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

It’s a toss up between Anya in bunny costume and the hilarious final reveal.

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Xander: “Well, that's the funny thing about me. I tend to hear the actual words people say and accept them at face value.”
Anya: “That's stupid!”
Xander: “I accept that.”

Buffy: “Thank the Lord.”
Oz: “You're welcome.”

Buffy: "Conjuring? Will, let's be realistic here, okay? Your basic spells are usually only about 50-50."
Willow (angrily): "Oh yeah? Well... so's your face!"
Buffy: "What?"

Xander (taunting the fear demon in a silly voice): "Who's the little fear demon? Come on, who's the little fear demon?"
Giles: "Don't taunt the fear demon."
Xander (worried now): "Why? Can he hurt me?"
Giles: "No, it's just... tacky."

Giles (annoyed, suddenly realising what the caption under the drawing of Gachnar says): “Actual size.”

HOW MANY STAKES?

A fearful 4 (out of 5)

BUFFY: 4.03 ‘THE HARSH LIGHT OF DAY’

2011-11-15T15:51:00.000-08:00

Spike v Buffy smackdown

WRITER: Jane Espenson
DIRECTOR: James A. Contner

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

Spike is back in Sunnydale. He’s searching for the mythical Gem of Amara - a precious stone that can, according to legend, render any vampire who wears it unkillable. The gang finds out and Buffy sets out to find Spike and stop him before he can find the Gem and become invulnerable. But Spike hasn’t come back alone. Drusilla is AWOL still. So instead Spike has now hooked up with…Harmony! Um, Harmony? Cordy’s one time airhead best friend? Yes indeed. It was a small bit in the ‘Graduation Day part 2’ end battle but Harm got bit by a vamp and is now a denizen of the night, though she is still just as vapid and airheaded as always. And now, for some bizarre reason, Spike has hooked up with her, even though she is steadily driving him nuts with her continual inane chatter and constant demands. Meanwhile, Buffy has hooked up with smooth and seemingly sensitive fellow student Parker Abrams. She spends the night with the guy after they go to a party, only for him to latterly cruelly discard her as nothing more than a bit of fun. Poor Buff is confused and emotionally wounded by this rejection and just doesn’t understand. At the same time, ex-vengeance demon and now cute human girl Anya confronts Xander, saying she wants to have sex with him to try and get him out of her head. Being a guy and apparently unable to resist Anya’s, um, charms, Xander agrees and they do indeed do the deed. But afterwards things don’t quite work out as Anya had planned.

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

The emotional implications of sex. Oh, and bad, bad men. We can be such a thoughtless, cruel, unfeeling bunch. Well, at least the guys in this episode of Buffy are. This is basically about emotionally vulnerable girls being ‘taken advantage of’ by predatory men. Okay, in Xander’s case that’s kinda unfair as Anya is basically doing all the predating. But Xander could see she was acting strange and was clearly confused and vulnerable, yet he still went ahead and got his jollies. Meanwhile it is obvious that Spike is with Harmony for only one reason. He clearly can’t stand her and is continually and viciously mean to her, even going so far as to try to kill her at one point. Yep, she is annoying, and a soulless demon, but even so. And then there’s Buffy. Suckered in by ‘sensitive’ sweet talker Parker. He tells her just what she wants and needs to hear, and thus gets her in to bed, getting his jollies, before then cutting her loose and moving on to the next potential conquest. The episode ends badly for the three main women of the piece with the final shot being of Buffy, Harmony and Anya all walking away in different directions, moving slowly, sadly, in to darkness.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

Spike and nasty Parker.

WHY IT ROCKS

Jane Espenson. Yep, it’s a Jane Espenson script. So you’re gonna get some great character beats and some big funny amidst the drama and thematic depth. This episode has one of my all time favourite lines in Buffy. After a pouty Harmony says to Spike, “You love that tunnel more than me,” Spike replies caustically, “I love syphilis more than you!”

Spike. It’s James Marsters playing Spike. ‘nuff said.

Anya. Not only do we get the return of Spike – the best character in all of Buffy and (in my opinion) all of TV ever, but we also get the return of ex-vengeance demon Anya and her innocently direct, often horribly rude, yet always hilarious attitude. Emma Caulfield is simply brilliant. Anya rocks!

Music. There are some good tunes in this episode, especially at the party Buffy and Parker go to where for some reason the then already famous singer Biff Naked is playing.

Daylight vamp fight. The daytime showdown between a gem wearing Spike and an emotionally bruised Buffy is small scale but is still an inventive, well-staged battle. The fight blocking and stunt work is top notch.

Crossover. This story leads directly in to Angel episode 1.3 ‘In the Dark’ in which Oz brings the Gem of Amara to Angel in LA as a gift from Buffy only for Spike to show up and try to get it back. Back then, before Buffy moved to UPN from season six, Angel aired directly after Buffy on the WB. Two hours of solid Buffyverse every week. Yay!

Harm’s Way. A special shout out to Mercedes McNab who returns as Harmony and has much more to do now that Harm’s joined the fang gang. She makes for a wonderfully shallow, ditzy vampire.

WHY IT SUCKS

It doesn’t. Spike returns and he is brilliant. As does Anya. My only issues are how come someone as famous as Biff Naked would be openly playing a frat party? And how does Buffy manage to wake up the next morning after a night of raucous sex looking a million dollars and with not a single hair out of place. Only on TV.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

Xander’s explosive cranberry juice reaction when he turns around and sees Anya naked. Heh.

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Buffy: “Harmony’s a vampire? She must be dying without a mirror.”

Anya: “Sometimes, in my dreams, you're all naked.”
Xander: “Really? You know, if I'm in the checkout lane at the Wal-Mart I've had the same one.”

Anya: “I like you. You're funny and you're nicely shaped, and frankly it's ludicrous to have these interlocking bodies and not... interlock. Please remove your clothing now.”
Xander: “And the amazing thing? Still more romantic than Faith.”

Harmony: “You love that tunnel more than me.”
Spike: “I love syphilis more than you.”

Oz (to Giles): “OK, either I'm borrowing all your records or I'm moving in.”

Spike (to Buffy): “So, you let Parker take a poke, eh? Didn't seem like you knew each other that well. What exactly did it take to pry apart the Slayer's dimpled knees?”

Buffy: “So what I'm wondering is: does this always happen? Sleep with a guy and he goes all evil?”

AND ANOTHER THING

Harmony's last name is Kendall. The character Sarah Michelle Gellar played on US soap All My Children was named Kendall. A little inside joke?

The album that Oz holds up at Giles' place is Loaded, the Velvet Underground's 1970 album.

James Marsters was uncredited in the original airing of this episode (he is later added to the opening credits).

HOW MANY STAKES?

This one’s a Gem (of Amara). 4.5 (out of 5)

BUFFY: 4.02 ‘LIVING CONDITIONS’

2011-11-13T13:02:00.000-08:00

It's all super fun!

WRITER: Marti Noxon
DIRECTOR: David Grossman

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

Creepy demons turn up in Sunnydale, clearly looking for something or someone. Meanwhile Buffy is getting more and more aggravated by her relentlessly perky, neat freak, Celine Dion and Cher loving roommate Kathy. So much so that Buffy begins to suspect that Kathy is in fact evil. That she is not human, and that she must be stopped. Buffy’s friends are freaked out by this and think Buffy has gone off the deep end, so they try to convince her that Kathy is really a normal (ish) human being and not some evil hell beast that needs to be slayed. But Buffy won’t be convinced and is determined to gather the proof of Kathy’s inhumanity in order to validate her intended forthcoming slaying of her roommate.

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

The metaphor is the roommate from hell. Literally. And carrying on from 4.1 ‘The Freshman’, it remains part of the whole moving out in to the world and out of your comfort zone deal. Part of doing that successfully is learning to get on with people you might not have bothered with before, to allow for people’s foibles and habits, to learn patience and compromise. This is Buffy’s first experience of living with someone outside of home. And she gets Kathy, who’s a total neat freak (whereas Buff can be a bit of a slob) and obsessed with annoyingly mundane details like keeping a log of phone calls for when the bill comes in, for labelling individual items of food etc. Plus she has habits that Buffy truly hates – closing the window at night, clipping her toenails on the bed, playing Cher’s horrendous chart botherer ‘Believe’ over and over and over and over…

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

Yes, Kathy is annoying, and there are a couple of creepy looking demons who lurk around the place, but as has been done before and will be done again, it is actually Buffy herself who is doing the scary stuff for most of the episode.

WHY IT ROCKS

The script. Marti Noxon’s script is, to quote Kathy, “Super fun!” Watching Buff slowly start to unravel due to the extreme mental torture of having to listen to Cher’s ‘Believe’ over and over and over is most amusing. It is hilarious that Buffy’s only plausible answer as to why a human being would behave in such a way is because they are an evil soulless demon.

Kathy. Yes, she is annoying – though mostly due to her music tastes. But she actually comes across (to those of us not obsessed with her possible evilness) as a rather sweet and (overly) friendly girl. She makes the effort to hang out with Buffy and to be nice to Buffy’s friends. But as we know, Buffy is mightily territorial over such things and is often extremely possessive and defensive about her gang of pals. See what happened last year with Faith. Dagney Kerr is a cutie and she plays Kathy with energetic perkiness and an offbeat charm. Sorry Buff, I kinda liked her.

SMG unhinged. Sarah gets to do all out comedy…if rather dark and batty comedy. And she is very, very good at it. Nutty Buffy is funny.

WHY IT SUCKS

It’s perhaps just a bit too light and silly, though the metaphor of the roommate from hell is nicely played. Problem being, despite the awful music, and the ultimate reveal, I quite liked Kathy. Sorry.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

Xander and Oz watching Buffy who has just been tied up and Xander’s nervously manic laugh when Oz suggests they go check that her bindings are tight enough.

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Buffy (to Oz): "So then Kathy's like, 'It's share-time.' And I'm like, 'Oh yeah? Share this!'" (Buffy punches the air a few times.)
Oz: "So either you hit her or you did your wacky mime routine for her."
Buffy: "Well, I didn't do either, actually. But she deserved it, don't ya think?"
Oz: "Nobody deserves mime, Buffy."

Buffy: "Kathy's evil. I'm an evil fighter. It's simple. I'm gonna have to kill her."

Buffy: “And what are we if not women up to a challenge?”
Willow: “Exactly. I mean, did we not put the 'grr' in 'girl'?”

Buffy (to Willow as she leaves to patrol): “Wish me monsters.”

Buffy: “Cool. You guys can do the brain thing. I'm gonna go to class.”
Oz: “Which could also be construed as the brain thing.”
Buffy: “Not when you're minoring in Napping 101.”

Buffy: “She irons her jeans. She's evil.”

Xander: “Why couldn't Giles have shackles like any self-respecting bachelor?”

AND ANOTHER THING

Clayton Barber, who played a demon in this episode, was Angel's stunt double in the past. He was another vampire's stunt double (Frost's), in the movie Blade.

Dagney Kerr used to be a singer and dancer on cruise ships before she started acting. She went on to a recurring role on Desperate Housewives.

HOW MANY STAKES?

Do you believe in life after love? 3.5 (out of 5)

BUFFY: 4.01 ‘THE FRESHMAN’

2011-11-13T09:12:00.000-08:00

WRITER: Joss Whedon
DIRECTOR: Joss Whedon

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

Buffy, Willow and Oz have just started college at UC Sunnydale. But while Willow is clearly in her element and Oz is being just as laconic and unfazed as ever, Buffy is feeling lost, overwhelmed and highly intimidated by her new life. Unable to find her way around the huge campus, she gets publicly humiliated by a highly obnoxious lecturer before realising that she also has to share a dorm room with one annoyingly perky neat freak of a girl with a decidedly unhealthy Cher and Celine Dion obsession. As if things weren’t bad enough, Buff soon discovers there’s a gang of vamps on campus, led by the supremely bitchy Sunday (played gloriously by Katharine Towne), who for the past eighteen years have been targeting especially vulnerable freshmen, bullying them, stealing their stuff and then killing them. Thinning the herd of the weak ones as they see it. Feeling lost and out of sorts, Buffy’s first run in with Sunday goes badly, ending with the Slayer battered and bruised and having to beat a hasty retreat. Gleefully sensing weakness, Sunday decides to target Buffy as her next victim for persecution.

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

Leaving the relatively safe and known environment of school to either go to university or in to the world of work can be a massive change and culture shock. Some handle it better than others. It can be scary and confusing, often denting confidence. This is exactly what happens to Buffy. She’s left the comforting knowns of school and home life to be thrust in to what is a disorientating and intimidating environment, one to which she feels she doesn’t belong. It doesn’t help that her old support network seems to have crumbled. Willow and Oz are busy with classes and Uni life. Her mom is busy with work having turned Buffy’s bedroom in to storage. Xander is MIA on a see America road trip. And Giles, no longer officially a watcher and unemployed since the school blew up, is busy chilling out and, er, ‘entertaining’ an old friend. All of this leaves out girl feeling lost, miserable and alone, the perfect vulnerable target for nasty Sunday. And speaking of…

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

Queen bitch vampire Sunday as played to the hilt by the excellent Katharine Towne. Her small band of vamps doesn’t really figure as they are just as bullied and browbeaten as Sunday’s human victims. It’s a shame Sunday gets staked. She would have been a great long-term addition to the show.

WHY IT ROCKS

The script. Joss writes a perfect introductory script for the new season, laying out the new environments, possible relationship shifts, and introducing new characters and mysteries that will carry through the entire year. It also balances perfectly the themes of the story with meaningful character development, plenty of pathos, bone crunching action, and lots of subtle and not so subtle comedy. A lot of Joss’s dialogue is especially wonderful here, encompassing the kind of smart, witty wordplay the show is famous for, along with quirky life observations, pop culture references, and even art and literary quotes and references that would most likely fly way over the heads of most. You just don’t get this kind of thing on TV anywhere else. It really shouldn’t work. But it does.

Theme. The central theme of the story is strong and resonates perfectly. We feel Buffy’s vulnerability, her isolation, her loss of confidence. We’ve all been there.

SMG. She gives a great performance and really sells us on Buffy feeling overwhelmed and lost. She wanders around the big, crowded campus looking so small and fragile. When the obnoxious lecturer cruelly humiliates her you just wanna give her a big ol’ hug. And when she is again humiliated by nasty Sunday it’s almost too much to take. You can’t do this to Buffy! Joss just loves to make her suffer.

Sunday. But as great as SMG is, it is Katharine Towne as evil bitch vamp Sunday who steals the show. Her calm yet vicious putdowns and general sense of power and effortless superiority makes us hate her and love her in equal measure. Watching her beat, abuse and humiliate poor Buffy is pretty harsh stuff. And she does it so well. I’d have loved to see her get together with Spike.

Xander. Xander pops up late in the episode to give Buffy the much-needed pep talk she needs. He spells it out for her, reminding her exactly who she is and what she can do. The entire scene with Xander and Buffy at the Bronze is brilliant. It is very funny and also very tender and touching. Nicky Brendon is so darn good and reminds us that Xander is the beating human heart of the show. His comforting, encouraging and inspiring speech to Buffy is so well delivered that any true fan couldn’t help but feel their eyes start to sting a bit.

Yoda. Xander’s mangled Yoda quote from that summer’s The Phantom Menace is hilarious. It’s better than the movie.

Giles. Man of leisure Giles living like Hugh Hefner. Heh.

Riley. This ep sees first appearance of Marc Blucas as Riley Finn. Sod the haters, I always liked Riley. He was just a nice, decent guy.

The fights. The first fight between Buffy and Sunday is a full on, fast paced, bone crunching smackdown. It looks like it really hurts. The second one is Buffy pretty much doing the rope-a-dope.

Stake. Buffy’s uber-cool stake twirl near episode’s end, showing us she’s got her mojo back.

WHY IT SUCKS

It doesn’t suck. However the only thing that does bug me is the ‘reconnaissance’ gag. Xander asks Buffy if she’s up for a bit of reconnaissance. She looks confused and asks if he means getting arty like they did in Europe years ago? To which Xander replies, “That was the Renaissance.” I’m sorry, but Buffy is not that dumb. I know it’s an ongoing gag in the show that she occasionally gets words muddled, but Buffy knows perfectly well what reconnaissance means. This just makes her appear needlessly dumb. Naughty Joss.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

Xander’s moving and heartfelt confidence boost speech to Buffy.

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

It’s Joss so there’s tons. But I’ll go with…

Girl Vamp: "Does this sweater make me look fat?"
Sunday: "No. The fact that you're fat makes you look fat. That sweater just makes you look purple."

Giles (to Buffy after she’s seen his ‘friend’ Olivia): "I'm not supposed to have a private life?"
Buffy (looking uncomfortable): "No. Because you're very, very old and it's gross."

Buffy (to Giles): "OK, remember before you became Hugh Hefner, when you used to be a Watcher?"

Buffy: “How do you get to be renowned? I mean, like, do you have to be nowned first?”
Willow: “Yes. First there's the painful nowning process.”

Willow: “It's just in high school, knowledge was pretty much frowned upon; you really had to work to learn anything. But here, the energy, the collective intelligence, it's like this force, this penetrating force, and I can just feel my mind opening up, you know? And letting this place just thrust into and, and spurt knowledge into ... that sentence ended up in a different place than it started out in.”
Buffy: “I'm with you. I'm all for spurty knowledge.”

Eddie: “Of Human Bondage. Have you ever read it?”
Buffy: “Oh, I'm not really into porn. I mean, I'm just trying to cut way back.”

Xander (to a morose Buffy): “And you're sitting here at the Bronze looking like you just got diagnosed with cancer of the puppy.”

Xander: “Buffy, I've gone through some fairly dark times in my life. Faced some scary things, among them the kitchen at the fabulous Ladies Night club. Let me tell ya' something: When it's dark, and I'm all alone, and I'm scared, or freaked out or whatever, I always think, 'What would Buffy do?' You're my hero. Ok, sometimes when it's dark and I'm all alone, I think, 'What is Buffy wearing?’...”

Buffy (to Sunday): “Let me answer that question with a head butt.”

AND ANOTHER THING

Couple of foreshadowing moments: first, Buffy’s humorous line about the price of school books and how she hopes when her mom gets the bill she has “…a funny aneurysm.” With our future knowledge this line is far from funny. Second, Xander’s call out for “Avengers assemble!” in order to bring the Scoobies back together. As we know, in summer 2012, Joss will be calling the real Avengers to assemble! Yay!

The skylight above Sunday’s lair is the same set used in season 1 finale ‘Prophecy Girl’ and in 3.19 ‘Choices’.

When Buffy answers the phone and no one speaks, it's Angel on the other end. He makes the call during the premiere of Angel, 1.1 ‘City of…’

HOW MANY STAKES?

Sunday bloody Sunday. 4 (out of 5)

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. Um...okay. I won't.

2011-10-09T09:01:00.000-07:00

WARNING! This trailer is waaay scarier than the actual movie.

Don’t be Afraid of the Dark is written and produced by the great Guillermo Del Toro and is a remake of on an old TV movie that apparently traumatised Del Toro as a child. But for some reason he didn’t want to direct his own script this time and so handed the reigns over to first timer Troy Nixey.

The story sees ten-year-old Sally (Bailee Madison) being sent by an uncaring mother to live with her dad (Guy Pearce) and his new girlfriend (Katie Holmes) in the old, rundown mansion that her dad is renovating in order to sell for a profit. Sally, feeling rejected by her mother and unwanted by her busy father, explores the old house, finding a hidden cellar and an old metal grate bolted shut. From behind the grate she hears whispered voices asking for help, promising to be her friend. Lonely and desperate for a connection, to feel wanted, Sally opens the grate, thus releasing a horde of nasty little gremlin-like creatures in to the house. Creatures we soon discover lied to her and want the little girl for their own horrible ends.

First, let’s get one thing straight. Despite the marketing, Don’t be Afraid of the Dark is not really a horror film.

Okay, it has some mild violence when the local handyman gets attacked by the nasty little critters, and a couple of so so ‘boo’ moments, but the overriding feel is of a mildly creepy fairy story. A Brothers Grimm tale. As in his film Pan’s Labyrinth, Del Toro uses the classic fairytale trope of a little child, feeling alone in the world, getting sucked in to another weird and creepy world full of fairies and monsters. There is even the set-up of a potentially wicked stepmother in the Katie Holmes girlfriend character. But Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark lacks the depth and artistic sensibilities of Del Toro's earlier classic, though it mirrors it in certain ways. Pan’s Labyrinth is an intelligent adult take on how young children can use their innocent imagination to conjure an escape from the harsh realities of life. It is a brutal, haunting, and beautiful film that packs a big emotional wallop. Here, things are reversed. The supernatural ‘horror’ is real and allows the child to finally form a meaningful relationship with a kindly parental figure rather than said child using an imagined supernatural fantasy to escape from adult brutality.

As director, Troy Nixey does solid enough work but can’t seem to create any real tension or a genuine sense of foreboding. He also fails to make the little monsters properly scary. We see way too much of them far too early. Also the tone of the film is kinda contradictory. On the one hand it wants to be a child friendly spookfest, like something Disney might have made live action back in the 1970’s. There’s no swearing, no nudity, and no sex. But on the other hand it does have some blood and some brief graphic violence (old dude getting stabbed by scissors and slashed by a Stanley knife). It wants to be a child friendly fairytale but also a graphic horror too. And as a result, fails to do either especially well.

Of the cast, only young Bailee Madison as Sally makes an impression. She does lonely and afraid very well and really sells the emotional fragility of a child who feels unwanted and pushed from pillar to post, who’s quietly desperate to make a connection with someone…or something. Guy Pearce as the dad is okay. He is pretty much the stock busy, distracted father who disbelieves anything fanciful coming from his ‘troubled’ young daughter. Katie Holmes is also ok as Kim. Actually, to be fair, I did quite like the often much maligned Holmes here. Kim and Sally seem quite similar. Artistic, unsure of themselves, with Kim alluding to her own troubled childhood. And despite Sally’s initial hostility, Kim feels a connection with the little girl. It is also interesting that Bailee Madison and Katie Holmes look very similar. They could be related. Check out Bailee’s photo on IMDB – a dead spit for a young Holmes. Oh, and just as a point of interest, the movie also features Aussie actor Alan Dale in a small role, sharing a couple of scenes with Guy Pearce. Twenty years ago Alan played Jim Robinson in Aussie soap Neighbours alongside Guy who played Jim’s son’s best friend. Small world.

Anyway, in the end, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is an okay little movie that works better as a kids fairytale than as an adult horror. It isn’t scary, the creatures are fairly well done but kinda silly, while overall tension is sadly lacking. But the film looks good, Bailee Madison gives a strong central performance as Sally, and the basic concept is classically appealing, especially to me being the sucker that I am for fairytales in all their guises. 3 (out of 5)

Gary Oldman Goes Spy Catching in 70's Britain

2011-09-25T09:07:00.000-07:00

Trailer

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Tomas (Let the Right One In) Alfredson directs this new adaptation of John le Carre’s famous 1970’s set spy thriller starring Gary Oldman as retired spy catcher George Smiley brought back in to British Intelligence to find a Soviet mole at the very top of the organisation.

I’ve never read le Carre's book and am only vaguely familiar with the old 1970’s BBC adaptation with Alec Guinness as Smiley, so I went to this mainly as a fan of Alfredson and Oldman. And because it has a top notch cast featuring the likes of Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy, Toby Jones, Kathy Burke, Mark Strong and John Hurt.

And it didn’t disappoint.

This is a brilliant film with brilliant work by the cast and their director. Oldman deserves an Oscar nom. As Smiley he is quietly compelling and the model of restrained cunning and intelligence though hampered by an emotional weakness around his estranged wife and haunted by some of the things he’s done in his past. Mark Strong is equally as good as a field agent sent out on a mission that goes wrong and who has to then live with the personal consequences. As director, Alfredson paints a suitably drab atmosphere of 70’s Britain – crumbling old buildings, horrible wallpaper and tacky Wimpy Bars (an old British chain for fast food), all beautifully brought to life by spot on art direction and moody cinematography. And the themes he explores are very similar to those in Let the Right One in. Many of the characters here are loners, separate from life. They don’t join in. They watch from the outside. They are all essentially lonely and emotionally damaged people. Also, as with Let the Right One In, Alfredson isolates his characters, often using windows as a barrier. They are seen looking out of them a lot, looking at a world they don’t feel a part of. Then there is the pacing. It is glacial. There is no big action. Instead it is all about conversations, subtle mind games, red herrings and double crosses by oft middle-aged men in bad suits, usually in drab rooms. But it is all utterly absorbing and highly cinematic, showing us a whole new world, the kind we would never normally see; showing us the toll this world takes on these people. This is the true anti-James Bond or Bourne. Only the always good Tom Hardy as field officer Ricky Tarr comes close to a Bond-esque life, working out in Turkey to get secrets from a possible Soviet source, then seducing the guy's wife, thinking that she is the real source. There is no huge climax to the movie either, only Smiley finally working out who the mole is and springing his subtle trap, followed by the sad and grim aftermath.

Tomas Alfrdson's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a beautifully written, acted and directed film with a refreshing adult tone and feel. It requires patience and a certain level of intelligence from its audience. As much as I love my fun/escapist movie entertainment, it is a welcome relief to go see something now and again that is unapolagetically adult and artistically demanding of its audience. 4.5 (5)

Buffy Season 9: Little Slayer in the Big City

2011-09-16T15:56:00.000-07:00

Clickable thumbnail for a page from BtVS: Season 9.1 'Freefall'

She’s back!

The Slayer returns for her ninth official season, though like the last one, in comic book form. Doesn’t matter. Season 9 (as with Season 8 before it) is canon. It is outlined/plotted, exec produced, and partly written by the god who be Joss. And Joss has written this here first issue – a short, funny, scene setting and character-building story called Freefall.

The story starts with Buffy waking up after the night before, a major hangover raging. She can’t remember what she got up to at the big housewarming party she threw the previous night; a party to which she invited all of her friends: Willow and her new squeeze, Xander and Dawn, Spike, Riley, and Andrew. She just knows something happened, that she likely made an ass of herself after ingesting copious amounts of alcohol. As her pained morning progresses, our girl slowly starts to remember in flashback bits and pieces of what went on the night before, until eventually she gets the full picture. It is then that Buffy’s new roomies confront her about what happened, and about her friends who came to the party. Yikes! Is it gonna be eviction time for the Buffster?

Uh uh, no spoilers here.

Freefall is a ton of fun. The story is told through Buffy’s tired, red tinged, alcohol dazed morning after eyes, her flashbacks a great device meaning that the reader is just as in the dark as Buffy about what she got up to, only learning what happened as she does. It’s true that Joss has such a firm grip on these characters that they live and breath on the page. As to be expected his dialogue is witty, snappy and clever, while at the same time the theme behind the story is strong. There is a forced jollity to Buffy here. But behind that jollity hides sadness and guilt. And yes, pain. Always pain. Wouldn’t be Buffy without the pain. Being the master Mr Whedon is, he can layer all of this stuff in to a very funny, perfectly constructed story about a girl suffering a bad hangover, just trying to get through her day.

So just what is the theme here? Because as we know, theme and metaphor is the bread and butter of Buffy.

Well, after the huge mystical, multi dimensional, world altering/shattering events of Season 8 the concept behind Season 9 is, we’re told, back to basics. Season 9 is supposed to bring Buffy and her friends back to dealing with the everyday, back to using the supernatural as metaphor for the kinds of trials and tribulations we all face in life: growing up, growing older, dealing with parents and family, dealing with relationships, taking on responsibility. Basically living life. This time, for Buff at least, the main theme appears to be about finding your place in the world and where you fit in when things around you have changed. It’s about building a life and trying to figure out what it is that defines you. Is it your job? Your family? Your friends? A lot of this has been touched on before in Buffy, but through the lens of adolescence, of growing up. This time it is through the lens of directionless adulthood. What happens when we are cast adrift from our old life? You can look at it perhaps like family break up, divorce, or losing a long-held job. Big adult life changes. To quote a song I know, “Where do we go from here?”

In Freefall, Buffy is in the beginnings of this adult life-adjustment phase. Things have changed. She’s trying to get a handle on her life now that her leader-of-a-slayer-army days are over. The remaining slayers are still around (many not happy about what Buffy did), but the army is disbanded, and no new slayers will ever be called again. Now, war over, former Slayer General Buffy Summers is in San Francisco working as a waitress, living in a shared apartment with some brand new roomies, trying to discover what she wants to do with the rest of her life. But despite her having cut the world off from magic and from all the mystical dimensions, there are still vampires around who need slaying. So most nights Buff keeps up her old habit of secret patrolling, of vamp slayage, but with no Big Bads, no major apocalypse’s to be averted. At least not yet. So with the rest of her life ahead of her, and its path not being dictated by any Watcher’s Council types anymore, what’s a young, free and single slayer to do? I guess that is the big question for Season 9.

All in all, Freefall is a perfect start to what promises to be a fun and intriguing new chapter in the lives of everyone’s favourite Sunnydale refugees. So thanks to Joss. I read. I laughed. I reread. I laughed some more. I got the nuances, the subtleties, and the not so subtleties.

Great stuff!

Long may the Buffster reign.

An American Slayer in London (and a brooding vamp too)

2011-09-06T09:13:00.000-07:00

Gotta love these Jo Chen covers.

Buffy Season 9 starts proper very soon. Yay!

But before it does, Dark Horse have just published issue 1 of Angel & Faith, a separate title under the Season 9 banner that will run concurrently with the main Buffy title.

Angel & Faith sees disgraced and traumatised vampire with a soul Angel living in London with reformed one time psycho slayer Faith. Now, I don’t wanna spoil things too much for those who haven’t read Season 8 yet, but…

Oh what the hell!

Rupert Giles, stalwart and true Watcher and father figure to Buffy Summers, is dead. He was killed at the end of the big Season 8 showdown. And his killer was none other than a certain heavy-browed, brooding bloodsucker, who’d been under the influence of a nasty mystical force amusingly named Twilight. To make things even worse for poor Buff, having witnessed her soul mate murder her ‘father’, in his will Giles then goes and leaves all of his worldly goods to… Faith! For some reason Giles thought Buffy didn’t need any of it, but that Faith did. Faith’s inheritance includes a house in London, all of the remaining Watcher files/records, and an estate somewhere in the country with horses and stuff. Faith, forever in Angel’s debt for having stuck by her and helped her through her own personal darkness, takes the catatonic-with-guilt vampire with her to London in order to help him along what will now be an even harder road to redemption.

As Angel & Faith starts, Angel is out of his catatonic state and is helping Faith carry on Giles’s work. Using the Watcher files, the dynamic duo are battling evil on the streets and in the homes of Great Britain - starting with trying to finish a job Giles had begun months before: fighting to remove a monstrous, tentacled demon from a scared little girl.

Angel & Faith no.1 is great stuff. Highly enjoyable. Both A & F are in character with plenty of brooding from Angel and sexy sarcasm from Faith. It was great to start the story with a flashback to Giles in good old fashioned demon fighting form before cutting to Faith and Angel continuing and then finishing the exact same fight. The plotting is intriguing, seeing the return of Whistler, the demon who was once Angel’s mentor, who first showed him Buffy before she was called as the Slayer, who convinced Angel to come out of the gutter and be someone. Here, now, Whistler seems to be taking on a possible Big Bad role, recruiting a pair of truly nasty demons who used to work for Twilight. Then there’s Nadira, an angry, sexy, two-fisted Brit slayer who is friends with Faith (they seem a lot alike) but who is also out for blood after her slayer squad were all killed by Twilight’s people. Knowing now that Angel was Twilight, Nadira’s determined to find Angel and kill him, unaware that the big guy is actually being looked after by Faith. And then there’s the doozy of a revelation at the end of the issue, about what Angel is planning to do.

The UK setting gives the book a nice atmosphere, though it perhaps has a few too many British-isms wedged in to characters mouths, hammering home that they are indeed British. And I'm not too sure about the Buffy timeline anymore but I'm guessing this takes place 2/3 years after Chosen, making it circa 2006. If so, then Brit characters talking about public spending cuts and austerity measures would be about four years to soon. But, hey, it's no big deal as it's the characters and the story that I care about. And in that respect, A&F shoots and scores. Christos Gage’s script is tight, witty, emotional and very well structured. His new character of Nadira is instantly likeable. The art by Rebekah Isaacs is also very good. She captures the likenesses of the original actors better than Georges Jeanty manages in the main Buffy comic. Don’t get me wrong, Georges stuff is fine, just a bit more cartoony.

All in all, Angel & Faith no.1 is a very promising start to the future adventures of everyone’s favourite brooding vamp and bad girl slayer. Y’know what I really hope for though in this book? I hope that Oz turns up sometime. Cuz then we can have a Joss version of An American Werewolf in London. Heh. Roll on issue 2.

Meanwhile, on a related (and very cool) geek note:

The other day I had a brief twitter chat with Angel & Faith’s writer Christos Gage. I asked him if there was any chance the duo, while living in the UK, would come to my part of the world – to the west country - seeing as how back in Buffy season six Giles said he kept a flat in the city of Bath. Christos said maybe, and asked if there were any country estates with horses around there. Of course, being the huge Buffy geek that I am, I told him yes, there are loads, including the one shown in Buffy episode 7.1 with Giles and Willow in England, which was actually filmed by Joss at Tony Head's real home in Westbury near Bath in summer 2002. Christos then came back to say that Faith’s inherited country estate will now officially be just outside of Bath. And she may well be visiting soon. So...YAY! I may have contributed in a very, very tiny way to the continuing Buffyverse canon.

More X-ellent X-Men

2011-08-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

X-Men: First Class trailer

Just finished watching X-Men: First Class for the second time. What a bloody great film, my fave of 2011 so far, with Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Super 8 not too far behind. Director Matthew Vaughn did a bang up job, giving XM:FC a super slick James Bond vibe and being helped no end by a smart, textured, yet economical screenplay from usual co-conspirator Jane Goldman. The movie also has a wonderful cast featuring James McAvoy as Xavier and a superstar-making turn from Michael Fassbender as Eric/Magneto. The entire cast is great but special praise goes to the gorgeous and highly talented Jennifer Lawrence as Raven/Mystique. Her relationship with Xavier and Xavier's friendship with Eric is at the heart of the film. Plus the action is all top notch. That Cuban missile crisis sequence at film’s end just rocks my world. Oh, and then there’s the sight of the delectable Rose Byrne in her undies as the icing on this mutant cake. Brilliant film and almost as good as the franchise's still high point of X2.

Also I just finished watching Marvel's last X-Men animated TV show - Wolverine and the X-Men. And that was pretty darn great too. Loved how they wove Phoenix and the Hellfire Club in to the story. Wolverine may have been just a bit too nice and cuddly in this version but his struggle to be a leader and to convince his doubting fellow ex-X-Men that he's the man for the job was pretty compelling. Nice how they kept the rivalry with Scott over Jean and Wolvie’s troubled big brother relationship with Rogue. Plus you get some really cool Sentinel bashing and some very nice little stand alone stories, many of which having elements that come back in to play in time for the big finale. Just a shame they never made a season 2 (funding issues apparently). I still prefer X-Men: Evolution over all but Wolverine and the X-Men came from the same team and carries on the same quality storytelling and character work they managed with Evolution.

Wolverine and the X-Men trailer

Make mine Marvel. :)

Raiders: The Adaptation. Why didn't I do this as a kid?

2011-08-15T10:33:00.000-07:00

South America 1936

Okay, so I’ve watched twice now the legendary Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation.

Jeez! I can’t believe I’ve not seen this until now.

I know it isn't readily available to see, but even so, there are ways and means. And seeing as how Raiders is my favourite film bar none it’s almost criminal that I haven’t sought out and watched this little gem until now.

Time for a brief history lesson:

Raiders: The Adaptation is a 100-minute, almost shot for shot recreation of Spielberg’s classic movie put together by three young friends - Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala, and Jayson Lamb from Mississippi, USA - over a seven year period starting in 1982 and finishing in 1988. The boys were all just 12 when they started. It was filmed in and around family homes, cost hardly anything, and got made through sheer on-the-spot-ingenuity, enthusiasm and a deep love for the material. On its completion the movie had one local showing in 1989 and was then largely forgotten until 2003 when somehow Eli Roth got hold of a copy, loved it and sent it to Spielberg. Spielberg also loved it and contacted the now grown up boys to congratulate them, saying he’d watched it twice on the trot and felt deeply inspired by what they had done all those years ago. The film has since gone on to have a few limited screenings at festivals around the world and made international news when Paramount and producer Scott Rudin purchased the rights to the boys story.

So what of the film itself?

As I said earlier, this is almost a shot for shot remake. It’s shot on 80’s video so the overall picture quality is not great (fuzzy image, picture rolls now and again). But that by no means detracts from the sheer fun and charm of the whole enterprise. Yes, some of the kids look ridiculous in their roles (Toht and Sallah spring to mind) and the long overall filming time means actors often look older/younger/different hair etc. from scene to scene. But their enthusiasm shines through and more than compensates. Also the kids playing Indy, Marion and Belloq are actually pretty good. As Indy Chris Strompolos has some presence and gives some good Harrison; as Marion Angela Rodriguez delivers some of the same two-fisted spunk as Karen Allen; and as Belloq Eric Zala manages to be nicely slimy with added French accent.

Technically the film is also quite the wonder – especially being made in an age long before desktop computer effects were available. For starters the lighting is often a remarkably good match to that of Douglas Slocombe’s. And the recreated sets are either eerily similar to those of the original (Belloq’s tent, the Cairo café) or they are smaller yet still wonderfully accurate versions (South American idol temple, Marion’s bar, Well of Souls). Of the location work, the kids skilfully utilised local alleyways for the Cairo market/basket chase, and what seems to be a huge quarry/sandpit for the desert stuff and end island sequence. And most impressively, they used a real ship and a real WW2 submarine for Captain Katanga’s ship and the Nazi sub.

All the way through watching Raiders: The Adaptation, I was wondering, “How the hell are they gonna do…?” re. upcoming scenes and sequences. But virtually every Raiders sequence is recreated as accurately as humanly possible. The only major sequence sadly missing is the Indy/German mechanic fight at the flying wing. Guess they couldn’t find/recreate a giant flying wing. Still, everything else the kids managed to recreate is nothing short of spectacular. Don’t believe me? See their version of the truck chase. They obviously couldn’t get a horse so Indy just leaps on to the truck from up high. But the rest of the sequence is identical – even Indy going under the truck and being dragged along behind it! This and the earlier fire gags in the Tibetan bar fight looked so incredibly dangerous. I’m amazed their parents let them do it. But then maybe they didn’t know. Probably the latter. Heh.

The film culminates, as does as the original, with the opening of the Ark on the island. Here, the kids even managed some basic visual effects combined with plenty of dry ice and simple camera tricks to portray the whispy spirits and the angel of death as they appear and then attack the bad guys. We even have soldiers being shot through with lightening, melting Nazi’s and an exploding Belloq head!

Now, I just love stuff like this! I love it where fans, driven by nothing more than passion, go out and make something for no other reason than their love of the original material and with nothing to help them except their own boundless enthusiasm and honest creativity. It’s how the likes of Spielberg, Lucas, Abrams et al got started - making their own home movies inspired by others. So huge respect to those three then lads and their friends from Mississippi who went out there and managed this epic feat. What they set out to do and what they achieved is in perfect keeping with that same spirit of ‘just get out there and do it’ adventure epitomised by Indy himself.

Indy: “I don't know, I'm making this up as I go.”

A short tribute vid

Dark Phoenix and Tabby Boom Boom shake the room

2011-08-05T18:17:00.000-07:00

Dark Phoenix Vs. Evanescence

Thanks to the greatness of X-Men: First Class I’ve gone on a bit of an X-Men binge of late.

To start with, I went and bought Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s classic Dark Phoenix Saga first published in the late 1970’s. I haven’t read this bad boy since I was a kid when it first came out. And reading it now I’m sure back then a lot of it must have gone way over my childish head. Claremont’s writing is brilliant. It’s mature, intelligent, full of depth, thematic resonance and great, great character arcs. His style is lush, creative, emotional and rather poetic. One moment the story is a sweeping galaxy spanning epic, and then, in an eye blink, it is a small, emotional and intimate story about family, love and loss. What I love is that Claremont clearly wasn’t afraid to write what is basically a comic book for kids as if he were writing a deadly serious, character driven tragedy that deals with some pretty weighty themes. The story of Jean Grey and her tragic and seemingly unavoidable destiny is truly the stuff of classic mythology and Claremont and Byrne treat their tale with due seriousness and respect.

Oh, and as a related point of interest, the Dark Phoenix Saga is also the story that introduced the character of Kitty Pryde - the smart, capable fifteen year old girl who suddenly discovers she has special powers and must come to terms with her own destiny. Now, as any decent Whedonite worth their salt will know, Kitty is much loved by Joss and was a major inspiration behind his creation of Buffy Summers, who in turn served as inspiration to the creators of the X-Men: Evolution animated series, which featured prominently none other than Kitty Pryde. And then, just to complete the circle, Joss went on to write the highly acclaimed Astonishing X-Men comic featuring prominently none other than – yep, you guessed it - Kitty Pryde. Such perfect creative synchronicity in action.

And after that short interlude its back now to our regularly scheduled programming.

So, yeah, the Dark Phoenix Saga is excellent stuff. Reading it makes you realise just how lame the third X-Men film actually was. They tried to do the whole Jean Grey/Phoenix thing only to screw it up well and truly. One day someone should just film Claremont & Byrne’s story. Mind you, it is so epic, spanning galaxies, warring aliens and the destruction of entire civilisations, that it would probably cost an absolute fortune to make. Still, one can but dream.

And still on my X-Men trip…

Tabby ‘Boom Boom’ Smith Vs. Green Day

As well as rereading classic X-Men comics I’ve also been watching the aforementioned cartoon series X-Men: Evolution (2000 – 2003). I know someone who’s a big fan of this show and they thought I’d also like it being the huge Buffy fan that I am. And they were right. X-Men: Evolution is a great show, taking the X-Men back to their original comic book teen roots, only in a contemporary setting. In Evolution, Xavier, Wolverine and Storm are the parental figures running what is essentially a home for troubled (i.e. mutant) kids. Some are orphans, like Scott (Cyclops) Summers; others, like Kurt (Nightcrawler) Wagner, Kitty (Shadowcat) Pryde and Jean Grey have all been sent there by their families. Then there are the ones like dour Goth girl Rogue, who have been actively sought out by Xavier and co. and given a home. Living at the mansion, the kids learn to accept and control their abilities, not letting their abilities control them. They also attend the local high school so as to learn how better to relate to ‘normal’ people in an everyday setting.

For an animated kids show the writing on X-Men: Evolution has remarkable depth. The characters are distinct, well written, likeable and with real character journeys to go on. It also has a nice line in wit and can be pretty darn funny at times. One of my favourite characters in the show is the fun-loving, trouble-loving Tabby 'Boom Boom' Smith (see video above). In one memorable episode Tabby is being trained by the X-Men but she isn’t taking any of it remotely seriously and keeps on calling Wolverine “Badger” much to his extreme annoyance. I did laugh rather hard at that. Poor Wolvie. Being emasculated by a teenage girl.

In Evolution, as in Buffy, everyday troubles faced by both the kids and the adults in the show are often given the ol’ metaphor treatment. Whereas Buffy used vampires, demons and other assorted supernatural nasties as the walking metaphors for the big bad of growing up and of life in general, so Evolution uses bad mutants, human prejudice and the kids’ own abilities as problems and obstacles to confront and overcome. At the time the producers and writers of Evolution freely admitted to being huge Buffy fans and of borrowing quite a bit from Joss’s little myth. And that’s great as Joss did exactly the same with the X-Men when creating the Buffster. I’ve gotta say I’m enjoying X-Men: Evolution quite a bit. It lasted four seasons and I’m currently half way through season 2 and it’s only getting better. Also on the X-Men front, I’ve gone and bought the latest X-Men cartoon series -Wolverine and the X-Men. It’s on TV every Saturday morning over here and, just like Evolution, it is pretty darn good. Not surprising as it comes from the same team who made Evolution, though it is not a sequel and finds the X-Men in their usual adult versions.

So, yeah, gotta love those troubled mutants.

That’s all for now, bub.

‘Snikt’

Karl Pilkington Vs. Organ Donation

2011-07-15T11:21:00.000-07:00

I've been catching the odd episode of HBO's The Ricky Gervais Show over the past couple of weeks.

I was never a huge fan of Gervais or The Office and stumbled on this by complete accident. Basically Gervais, Stephen Merchant and thier friend and colleague, the spectacularly odd (and slightly dense) Karl Pilkington sit around a table and discuss various topics, usually focussing in on Karl's attitudes and ideas about life, the universe and everything. The conversations are then animated in a Hanna Barbera style.

And bloody funny it is too.

It is Pilkington who makes the show. His low key, slightly drowsy, dopey delivery is hilarious, as are the many strange, offbeat anecdotes and ill conceived thoughts on the world he comes out with. What makes it doubly funny is Gervais and Merchant poking vicious holes in almost everything he comes out with using nothing more than common sense and logic. The funniest one I saw was when Karl is explaining why he didn't tick the box for eyes on an organ donor form but ticked the boxes for everything else. It is pure insane genius covering everything from ghostly rectal exams to meteorite strikes. Watch it below. I was laughing so hard I couldn't breath the first time I saw it. Karl is fab.

BUFFY: 3.22 ‘GRADUATION DAY – PART 2’

2011-06-30T12:47:00.000-07:00

Short WB promo

WRITER: Joss Whedon
DIRECTOR: Joss Whedon

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

With Faith gone all hope for curing Angel seems lost.

Because of this, and without telling her friends, Buffy makes a potentially deadly decision. She goes to Angel and forces him to drink from her.

A now cured Angel rushes an unconscious Buffy to the hospital where she undergoes an emergency blood transfusion. At the same time in a neighbouring hospital cubicle the Mayor is watching over a comatose Faith when he overhears talk of another young girl having been brought in. He goes and finds Buffy lying unconscious. Losing control he tries to smother her. Angel appears and stops him just in time, forcing him to leave. While unconscious, Buffy shares a dream with Faith who seems to give Buffy some vital but cryptic information about the future. Buffy wakes up. Feeling revitalised and knowing that the Mayor is to be the keynote speaker at their graduation ceremony, she lays out her plan to the gang, and to Wesley who turns up offering to help. There are tasks for everyone and time is short.

A few hours later and as the class of 1999 gather outside Sunnydale High for what should be an important right of passage, the Mayor begins delivering his inspiring keynote speech. But he is soon interrupted when the sun goes suddenly dark, thus signalling the beginning of his ascension. In front of the horrified gathering, the Mayor begins his long planned transformation in to a huge snake-like demon, his gang of vampires arriving under cover of the new darkness to keep the gathered students (needed as demon food for the Mayor) from escaping.

This is the moment Buffy’s plan goes in to action.

The scoobies have forewarned and forearmed all of the students against what the Mayor has planned for them. Xander takes immediate control, turning the Class of 1999 in to an instant army complete with hidden flame-throwers, swords, axes and flaming arrows. The students valiantly and successfully fight off the vamps with the help of Angel, while Buffy taunts the now fully demon Mayor in to chasing her deep in to the school. They crash through walls and doors, until they eventually reach the library. Buffy then leaps through a window, escaping, just as the demon Mayor notices explosives packed everywhere. As Buffy leaps clear we see Giles push down on a plunger…

And Sunnydale High School explodes in a huge fireball. It is destroyed utterly, killing the Mayor in the same way the demon from long ago was killed under the volcano.

Later, as the emergency services put out the fires and tend to the wounded, Buffy spies Angel. For a time the vampire and slayer just look at each other in silence. Eventually Angel turns and disappears in to the smoke, leaving behind Buffy and Sunnydale for pastures new.

Exhausted, the gang (minus Angel) reunites outside the smouldering wreckage that once was their school. Together they take a moment to savour the fact that they survived, as Oz points out, not just the ascension, but high school itself. Moment over, they wander off chatting and joking.

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

Same as in part 1. It’s all about moving on, graduating, and ascending to new levels in life. Angel literally moves on, away from Buffy and Sunnydale, while the Mayor also moves on, just not quite how he’d hoped. And, of course, the gang and the entire class of 1999 move on from high school for pastures new. And they do it the only way they could in the Buffyverse: they destroy the school thus putting the past firmly behind them, literally burning their bridges to childhood. The future awaits them. Life awaits them. The adventure continues.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

The Mayor (human and demon) and a bunch of nasty vamps

WHY IT ROCKS

All the same reasons that part 1 rocks, plus you get the epic pay off with a big school-based students vs. vamps smackdown and a huge snake demon eating people left right and centre. What’s not to love?

A lot happens. As with part 1 there is a lot of story being crammed in here. But it works and nothing feels rushed or extraneous. It all fits seamlessly together to bring our characters to where they all need to be for the big actual and thematic showdown. Joss is the grand master of this. His season finales burst with intelligent drama, action and humour, all underpinned by real thematic foundations.

Sex. There are two sex scenes in this episode, both played very differently. First, we see Buffy and Angel go at it. Well, not really. When Buffy forces Angel to drink from her in what is a beautifully directed sequence, it is played as if Angel is making intense love to her, lying on top of her, her legs spread with him between, Buffy moaning, reaching out to crush a fallen jug in ecstasy/pain. Of course this ‘sex’ almost kills her, thus highlighting how impossible and dangerous their relationship really is. It is all based upon pain, suffering and death. The second sex scene is an implied one between Willow and Oz who get it on together in Oz’s van right before the graduation ceremony. They are so happy together that they can’t help but make love in the face of likely death and destruction. Their relationship is based entirely on comfort and mutual support and adoration. It is all good and healthy, unlike the doomed relationship between Buffy and Angel.

Wesley and Cordy realising they are not meant to be together after sharing one of the most awkward and funny screen kisses ever put on film.

The Mayor and Faith. The Mayor grieving for Faith at the hospital and then his subsequent attempt to kill Buffy is brilliant. It adds depth to the already wonderful character. He truly loves Faith and like any father would, he wants to lash out at the person who hurt his ‘daughter’.

The Buffy and Faith dream. While both slayers are unconscious in hospital together they share a dream where Faith imparts some cryptic words to Buffy, trying to tell her things. At the time this was a huge deal amongst the fans, wondering what it was al about. It turned out that Joss was layering in elements for future seasons with major clues being given to major developments two years after this episode aired. Way to go Joss. Now THAT’S forward planning.

Principle Snyder. This is the last time we see Snyder. And Armin Shimerman is typically brilliant. His opening remarks to the gathered students at the graduation are most amusing. Shame he has to go and get eaten by a giant demon. We’ll miss him. Farewell Principle Snyder, it was fun.

The final battle. This is a pretty big scale fight involving a couple of hundred people using flame throwers, swords, bows and arrows and numerous other weapons. It also includes Buffy leading the demon Mayor through the school, knocking down walls and causing mass destruction before trapping him in the library then blowing the whole place up. It’s big. It’s exciting. And it’s so very cool.

Angel leaves. The last we see of Angel is perfect. Across a smoke filled parking lot, crowded by emergency vehicles, he and Buffy share a silent goodbye before he turns and disappears in to the smoke.

WHY IT SUCKS

The big snake demon the Mayor turns in to is not all that impressive. It’s big, sure, but is it really that powerful and scary? Also the CGI is a bit lacking.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

The beautifully directed sequence where Angel drinks from Buffy. Deeply erotic and kinda scary.

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Oz: “Any change?”
Willow: “He’s delirious. He thought I was Buffy.”
Oz: “You too, huh?”

Buffy:” I’m gonna need every single on of you on board. Especially you, Xander. You’re sorta the key figure here.”
Xander: “Key? Me? Okay, pride. Humility. And here’s the mind numbing fear.”

Cordelia: “Well, that was the most fun you could have without having any fun.”

Giles: "There is a certain dramatic irony attached to all this. A synchronicity that borders on predestination, one might say."
Buffy (exhausted): "Fire bad. Tree pretty."

AND ANOTHER THING

The original US airing of this season finale was delayed by almost two months due to ongoing worries about recent violence in US high schools (the fact that students blow up their own school here being the main problem). Eventually Graduation Day – Part 2 aired mid-July 1999 in the US, though it had aired much earlier in Canada prompting mass bootlegging across the border between fans. Joss, hating the US delay, openly encouraged this practice much to the dismay of the WB.

The Sunnydale Class of 1999 yearbook has the phrase “The Future is Ours” on it’s front. This was the same slogan used by Nazi Germany. Also the logo accompanying it is remarkably similar to Nazi symbolism. Not sure what Joss was trying to say here. Maybe because Snyder acts as a bit of a fascist and had been called a Nazi by Cordy it was thought he’d use some Nazi terms and iconography for his big school event. Dunno. But it is kinda odd.

For the third time (see "Becoming, Part Two" and "Amends"), we get a special "Grr...argh" at the end of the credits. This time the little monster is wearing a graduation cap.

HOW MANY STAKES?

Buffy graduates with honours. 5 (out of 5)

And thus sees the end of my Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3 review. I’ll move on to season 4 sometime soon. But in the meantime, stay “Five by Five.”

BUFFY: 3.21 ‘GRADUATION DAY – PART 1’

2011-06-28T14:41:00.000-07:00

The last 5 mins of this episode inc. the Buffy/Faith fight.

WRITER: Joss Whedon
DIRECTOR: Joss Whedon

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

Buffy is investigating the murder by Faith of a seemingly innocuous vulcanolgist. Both she and Giles are suspicious of why the Mayor would order the rogue slayer to do such a thing. What is the secret the Mayor needs to keep hidden? In the process of her investigations Buffy runs in to Angel. The pair, now uneasy around each other, soon begins to argue - an argument that is shockingly interrupted when from up on a nearby rooftop Faith shoots Angel with a poisoned arrow, sending the vamp in to a slow and painful demise. As Willow and Oz look in desperation for a cure for Angel, Giles and Xander discover what the Mayor was trying to hide: the unsuspecting vulcanolgist had found remains of an ancient demon killed long ago by a volcanic eruption. This gives the gang the clue they need as to how to kill the Mayor should he ascend. Giles also discovers the type of demon the Mayor will become…something very, very big. Wesley is unable to get any help from the Watcher’s Council to help cure Angel. This prompts a furious Buffy to take a stand and formally quit the Watchers. Then, just as all hope for Angel seems lost, Willow discovers the one and only cure: draining the blood of a slayer. Her mission clear, Buffy takes Faith’s knife and heads to the dark slayer’s apartment, literally out for blood, the only blood that can cure Angel. Arriving at Faith’s, the two slayers face off and engage in one heck of a vicious and bloody battle; a battle that wrecks the apartment and ends up out on the roof. After much violence is done, Buffy gets the upper hand and stabs Faith in the gut with her own knife. But Faith, bleeding to death and knowing she’s done, still won’t let Buffy win. And so she throws herself off of the roof, landing in a truck that drives her away from Buffy, taking away a horrified Buffy’s one and only hope for curing Angel.

To be continued.

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

Again, it’s all in the title. It’s all about growing up, moving on to the next stage in life, taking on responsibility. Buffy and the gang are graduating, not just from school, but from being kids; they are starting to take charge of their own lives, their own destinies. Willow and Oz move on to the next stage of their relationship, and the Mayor hopes to move on as well with his Ascension. But the theme is shown most poignantly perhaps in the tremendous scene in which Buffy tells Wesley in no uncertain terms that she quits the Council and that he needs to pack up and go home. He calls it mutiny. She says she prefers the term graduation.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

The Mayor and Faith

WHY IT ROCKS

Those magic words ‘Written and Directed by Joss Whedon’

The script. This is essentially the set-up for the big payoff in part 2. And so much occurs here. Not just big Ascension related stuff either but wonderful character stuff too. As always Joss has an almost supernatural grasp of his characters, of what makes them tick, and how to use them perfectly to tell a layered story that blends subtle depth, high drama, big laughs, tender emotion and some kick-ass action that leaves the audience desperate for more. Three scenes here are season highlights:

1. Oz and Willow finally making love: a wonderfully sweet, typically dry and witty way for the taciturn werewolf to finally make his move.

2. The Mayor confronting Buffy and the gang on their own turf: a chilling and intense scene perfectly sold by Harry Groener and by Tony Head who gets very angry with a sword.

3. Buffy quitting the Council: our girl faces down Wesley and tells it like it is. She’s had enough. And they can all go to hell.

Faith and the Mayor. As if we didn’t think these two were great enough, Joss gives us a lovely scene in which the Mayor gets Faith to try on a pretty dress for the Ascension and then listens to her with such great affection as she tells him about something that happened to her when she was a kid. The bond between these two is tangible and powerful. They are the bad guys but we don’t wanna lose them.

Anya. The brilliant Emma Caulfield as Anya has been playing a bigger part over the last few episodes. It is clear she is becoming a regular and will likely provide the plain speaking replacement for Cordy after she leaves for Angel. And thank heavens for Anya. What a great character she is, expertly played by Emma. Blunt, rude, hostile, but also naïve and charmingly cute. Xander’s gonna have his hands full. Lucky guy.

Eliza Dushku. She’s been a powerful, memorable presence since first arriving in Sunnydale back in 3.3 ‘Faith, Hope and Trick’. Her character journey has been fascinating, providing the essential core to this entire season, making this my personal favourite of all Buffy’s seven seasons. And here, in what is pretty much her final appearance of the season, she is wonderful. She’s both vulnerable and sympathetic as well as an evil kick-ass bitch from hell.

Slayer vs. Slayer…to the death (or not): the epic fight between Buffy and Faith at Faith’s apartment is a thing of brutal beauty. The choreography is fast, agile, creative and bone crunching and the direction and editing is perfect. Joss pulls the camera back and just lets them go at it.

WHY IT SUCKS

It doesn’t

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

It has to be that fight. So damn cool.

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Xander (to Anya): "Yes, Men like sports. Men watch the action movie. They eat of the beef and enjoy to look at the bosoms. A thousand years of avenging our wrongs and that's all you've learned?"

Joyce: "You know, Buffy, looking back at everything that's happened, maybe I should have sent you to a different school."

Buffy (to Joyce): "I wish I could be a lot of things for you. A great student, a star athlete ... remotely normal. I'm not. But there is something I do that I can do better than anybody else in the world."

Angel: "Are you mad at me for being around too much or for not being around enough?"
Buffy: "Duh, yes!"

Cordelia: “What's her saga?”
Xander: “She's freaking.”
Cordelia: “About what?”
Xander: “The Mayor's gonna kill us all during graduation.”
Cordelia: “Oh. Are you gonna go to fifth period?”
Xander: “I'm thinking I might skip it.”
Cordelia: “Yeah, me too.”

Wesley: “This is mutiny.”
Buffy: “I like to think of it as graduation.”

Xander (seeing a picture of the huge demon the Mayor will become): “We’re gonna need a bigger boat!”

AND ANOTHER THING

Recently I caught a bit of a TV show here in the UK where actress/celeb Amanda Holden tries out some of her dream jobs. In the episode I saw she wanted to be a stuntwoman so she went to Hollywood and hooked up with Sophia Crawford who was SMG’s stunt/fight double on Buffy for the first four seasons. Sophia is actually English and is married to Jeff Pruitt who was the stunt co-ordinator on the show. Anyway, after training Holden up, Sophia and Jeff re-staged the ‘Graduation Day – Part 1’ Faith vs. Buffy fight move for move with Holden as Faith and Sophia as Buffy. They even dressed up in similar outfits. And it looked really cool. A great and totally unexpected geekout moment for me.

HOW MANY STAKES?

Blood, Faith and tears. 5 (out of 5)

BUFFY: 3.20 ‘THE PROM’

2011-06-26T06:08:00.000-07:00

Short promo

WRITER: Marti Noxon
DIRECTOR: David Solomon

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

Buffy and the gang are looking forward to their school prom. However this being Sunnydale nothing is going to go smoothly. Firstly Angel has heartbreaking news for poor Buff. He breaks up with her, as he knows they have no future together. He also tells her that after the Ascension he will be leaving Sunnydale to make things easier (plus he has his own TV series to get to in LA). As well as Buffy’s personal pain there is also the small matter of a bunch of vicious and human-brain-hungry hellhounds to deal with. They’ve been bred by a disaffected student and trained to kill anyone in formal wear. Determined that her friends will get their perfect high school prom, Buffy takes it upon herself to single-handedly hunt down and kill the beasts before they can start their high school student brain feast.

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

Hmm, nothing too obvious. The hellhound stuff is just a daft action-orientated hook to hang this episode’s important end of season story points on e.g. Angel’s decision to leave and Buffy being recognised and trusted by her fellow students as ‘Class Protector’.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

Nasty student Tucker Wells and his vicious hellhounds. And possibly Angel for being pretty darn insensitive to poor Buff with his timing.

WHY IT ROCKS

The script. Marti Noxon wrote a deeply emotional and beautifully affecting script. Sure, the A story is silly hellhounds looking to chomp on formal attired students, but the really important stuff is what is happening with Buffy and Angel and with the rest of the gang. Angel’s realisation and decision is a long time coming, taking Joyce’s intervention as well as The Mayor’s earlier words to finally push him to act. After all he is the responsible adult. Buffy, as her mom points out, for all her smarts, strength and power, is a young girl in love, blinded by her love and by her lack of life experience. So it’s left up to Angel to make the responsible decision.

The acting. All are great here but once again SMG brings her big game. She runs the gamut in this episode from childlike glee to utter heartbreak and devastation to tough and stoic warrior. Sarah really does encapsulate the full character of Buffy Summers here. Sure, she is smart, hugely tough and quick with a witty quip or three but deep down she remains an emotionally inexperienced and fragile child. Something her mom knows very well and something others (Angel especially) easily forget.

Anya’s hilariously blunt, rude and inept way of asking Xander to be her date for the Prom.

Tucker Wells’ use of various famous high school movies to train the hellhounds to attack Sunnydale High Prom goers.

Angel’s disturbing dream of his and Buffy’s wedding day. The effects used to show Buffy burning to ash in the sun are horribly effective. But prior to her human torching Sarah does look truly beautiful in Buffy’s wedding dress. As she does later on in her prom dress.

Xander, Cordy and Cordy’s prom dress.

Giles’s exasperation with Wesley over Cordelia.

The awards ceremony at the Prom and Buffy being given her unexpected ‘Class Protector’ award by the Prom Committee – as represented by Jonathan. This could so easily have been extremely corny and daft. But luckily it is written, performed and directed with restraint and with genuine heart and doesn’t for a moment go in for needless sentimentality. It is simply a beautifully poigniant and perfectly charming scene. And it works because we all know that Buffy has truly earned this. And also it plays a major role in allowing to happen what needs to happen in the season finale. It’s emotional and character driven but also plot driven as well.

Buffy gets her one perfect high school moment right at the end, though it is tinged with sadness with the knowledge that all things – school, relationships, (favourite TV shows) etc. - come to an end.

WHY IT SUCKS

The hellhound plot serves as nothing but a functional element to add some action and monster mayhem to the story, though you could argue it hammers home the award Buffy gets and that people have noticed her and do appreciate her.

The hellhounds look rubbish. Just guys in silly rubber costumes prancing around on all fours.

For a guy who’s been around 240-plus years Angel sure can be a thoughtless inept tool at times. His timing for dumping Buffy is truly terrible. Couldn’t he have at least waited until after the Ascension as odds on they’d all die anyway so problem solved? Yeah, I know this wouldn’t have worked well dramatically or plot-wise seeing as how it has to be set up that Angel is leaving for his own series. But still, you can’t help but curse the guy for doing what he does when he does.

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

Buffy becomes ‘Class Protector’ in one of the series’ most perfect scenes.

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Anya (asking Xander to the Prom): “Men are evil. Will you go with me?”
Xander: “One of us is very confused, and I honestly don't know which.”
Anya: "Look, I know you find me attractive; I've seen you looking at my breasts."
Xander: "Nothing personal, but when a guy does that, it just means his eyes are open."

Giles (to Buffy regarding her break-up with Angel): "I understand this sort of thing requires ice cream of some kind."

Giles (to Wesley, regarding Cordelia): "For God's sake, man, she's eighteen. And you have the emotional maturity of a blueberry scone. Just have at it, would you? And stop fluttering about."

Buffy (to the gang, determined): “I'm gonna give you all a nice, fun, normal evening if I have to kill every person on the face of the Earth to do it.”
Xander (looking worried): “Yay?”

Jonathan: “We have one more award to give out. Is Buffy Summers here tonight? Did she....um...This is actually a new category. First time ever. I guess there were a lot of write in ballots and the prom committee asked me to read this. "We're not good friends. Most of us never found the time to get to know you. But that doesn't mean we haven't noticed you. We don't talk about it much, but it's no secret that Sunnydale High isn't really like other high schools. A lot of weird stuff happens here."”
Student: “Zombies!”
Student: “Hyena people!”
Student: “Snyder”
Jonathan (continuing): "But whenever there was a problem or something creepy happened, you seemed to show up and stop it. Most of the people here have been saved by you. Or helped by you at one time or another. We're proud to say that the class of '99 has the lowest mortality rate of any graduating class in Sunnydale history. And we know that at least part of that is because of you. So the senior class offers its thanks and gives you, uh... this." It's from all of us. And it has written here, Buffy Summers — Class Protector.”

AND ANOTHER THING

The movies that Tucker used to train the hellhounds were: Prom Night, Pump Up the Volume (which Seth Green and Juliet Landau were in), Prom Night IV, Pretty in Pink, The Club, and Carrie.

Buffy's wedding dress in Angel’s dream was designed by famous fashion designer Vera Wang.

Sarah didn't actually get to go to her own prom. She was at the Emmy Awards instead.

The lovely song that Buffy and Angel dance to at the end is called Wild Horses and is performed by The Sundays (available on the first Buffy the Vampire Slayer soundtrack). It is actually a cover of a song by The Rolling Stones.

HOW MANY STAKES?

It’s all very PROMising for the big finale. 3.5 (out of 5)

MOVIES: COOL MUTANTS, PSYCHO MOTHERS, KILLER KIDS AND A DETECTIVE DOG

2011-06-24T15:39:00.000-07:00

HANNA

Saoirse Ronan is Hanna, the teenage super assassin raised in a forest who's eventually unleashed in to the world by her rogue spy daddy Eric Bana so that she can learn the truth about her dead mother, herself and life in general. Joe (Atonement) Wright crafts a strange yet compelling fairytale/action thriller /coming of age story following Hanna as she makes friends, busts heads and tries to avoid cruel and cold-hearted Cate Blanchett as a wicked stepmother type who wants Hanna dead in order to keep certain secrets buried. Blanchett and Bana are great as always but with her white hair and pale skin, Ronan is just superb as the deceptively delicate, wonderfully odd, viciously brutal, yet vulnerable and sweetly innocent Hanna. The pulsing Chemical Brothers score is also immensely effective. An original spin on a familiar tale. 4 (out of 5)

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS
Mathew (Kick-Ass) Vaughn directs this utterly brilliant 1960’s set prequel to Bryan Singer’s fantastic X-Men and X2 with James McAvoy as a young Prof. X meeting up with Michael Fassbender’s Nazi hunting Magneto to stop evil Kevin Bacon from starting World War 3. Rich in story and character, X-Men: First Class is a slick and exciting superhero action adventure with genuine heart and soul as well as some pulse quickening action and mighty fine spectacle. The entire cast is great but the never better Fassbender is the real star here. The A list awaits him. So, forget the barely adequate X-Men: The Last Stand and the godawful X-Men origins: Wolverine, this one’s the real X deal. 5 (out of 5)

MOTHER’S DAY
Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw 2, 3, 4) directs this decidedly nasty, violent, sadistic remake of a dodgy 80’s horror flick. Rebecca DeMornay is the psycho mother who along with her three sons and one daughter invade the home of a young couple in search of a stash of hidden money. Murder and bloody torture follow as mother is convinced the homeowners are holding out on her and her nutty, nasty brood. Mother’s Day is a well-made film and quite a gruelling watch. It has a good cast (especially DeMornay) and explores familiar themes of family, loyalty and the extremes people can go to given the right circumstances. It’s a bit too long and a bit too torture porn for my tastes but overall Mother’s Day is an intense and reasonably interesting affair. 3 (out of 5)

DYLAN DOG: DEAD OF NIGHT

Brandon Routh is Dylan Dog, a private detective secretly charged with keeping the supernatural denizens of New Orleans in check. When a young woman hires Dylan to find out what killed her father and why, he is drawn in to a supernatural conspiracy which could mean the end for all human kind. Based upon a popular comic book from Italy, Dylan Dog: Dead of Night is, according to the book’s fans, a total travesty. Now I’ve never read the comic so I can’t judge. What I can say is that this movie is a very cheap, very silly, monster movie romp. I found it to be perfectly acceptable, good natured fun - thanks mostly to its goofy tone, the easy low key charm of Routh (who should still be Superman) and the evocative New Orleans location. Okay, so the effects are often laughably poor, the overall story utterly predictable and by the numbers, and Sam Huntingdon as Dylan’s recently zombiefied friend intensely annoying. Stop SHOUTING! But you know what? I enjoyed it. Sue me. It's a cheap, cheesy, silly, B movie monster mash-up. Don’t put this Dog down just yet. 3 (out of 5)

GREEN LANTERN
Martin Campbell’s mega budget space opera/superhero adventure stars Ryan Reynolds as the power ring wielding intergalactic peacekeeper in glowy green tights. Now, this is a great looking movie for sure. It’s glossy as all hell. Problem is the script is clunky and muddled and stuffed to the gills with bad dialogue. The structure and pacing is also totally off with the film feeling as if important chunks are missing while other often dull and unimportant stuff just grinds on and on. The action works well for the most part (love the dogfight near the start) and the space-set stuff is actuallly pretty darn cool. Also Reynolds is a great leading man. He brims with likeable charisma even when he's being a cocky git. It’s just a shame more care wasn’t taken in the writing. Not as awful as most critics would have us believe, Green Lantern is a solidly watchable effort with real flashes of greatness that are sadly overshadowed by quite a bit of shoddiness. A shame. 3 (out of 5)

EDEN LAKE
Michael Fassbender (him again) takes his sweet primary school teacher girlfriend Kelly Reilly to a remote beauty spot for a weekend of camping in order to propose. Unfortunately they run in to a gang of thuggish and thoroughly despicable local teenagers who, after an unfortunate run in with Fassbender, take it upon themselves to hunt down and torture the nice young middle class couple. Eden Lake is a nasty little film. Like Mother’s Day it is a bit too much torture porn for my tastes. But also like Mother’s Day it is well made and has some interesting observations and points to make about society and its attitudes towards children. It also helps that Fassbender is good even if his character does some well stupid things. But cute Kelly Reilly is even better. She gives a very strong and affecting performance as the initially sweet and caring Jenny who’s eventually driven to become the thing she hates most. 3 (out of 5)

BUFFY: 3.19 'CHOICES'

2011-06-21T14:43:00.000-07:00

Short promo for the episode

WRITER: David Fury
DIRECTOR: James A. Contner

WHAT'S THE SITCH?

Buffy gets good news about her choice of potential colleges. She has been accepted to several including some really good ones and desperately wants to leave town if /when she graduates. Unfortunately new Watcher Wesley is having none of this and tells Buffy she must stay and guard the Hellmouth. If she can stop the coming ascension Buffy believes that she can still go away to school and leave Giles and co to keep the common or garden vamps at bay until she comes back in her college breaks. So with this in mind Buffy becomes proactive and takes the fight to the Mayor. She, Angel and Willow steal from the Mayor the mystical Box of Gavrok, which forms an integral part of his ascension. Problem is Willow goes and gets captured by Faith before she can escape. And so Buffy proposes a swap – the box of Gavrok for Willow. The Mayor accepts. And so the scene is set for a night time covert exchange – a witch for a box. But as the two parties gather at Sunnydale High the box accidentally lets loose a whole bunch of creepy nasties on the gathered foes.

WHAT'S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

As with a lot of Buffy episodes the theme is right there in the title. In this episode Buffy and the gang are making decisions about their futures, about where life will take them when school finishes…providing they survive graduation of course. It’s about growing up and moving on. For Buffy and Willow this is all about where to go to college, about them breaking free of their old life. Meanwhile Xander is also limited by not being the academic type. He seems destined for the open road, for the University of Life. And at the same time Angel is starting to wrestle with the huge choice he is soon going to make; a choice brilliantly vocalised by the Mayor when he spells out to both vampire and slayer the hard truth about their relationship.

WHO'S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

The Mayor, Faith, and billions of horrid spider things contained in the Box of Gavrok.

WHY IT ROCKS

The theme of choices. It’s an important one especially in this stage of a young person’s life. What they now do when school days are over; where they go; what they try to become; what path to choose in life. For Buffy that path seems set in stone, and though she tries valiantly to take another, she remains firmly on the path marked Sunnydale slayer.

The Mayor. Once again Harry Groener shows us why he is the best Buffy big bad ever. The guy isn’t just plain evil. He has depth and is a complex guy who just can’t help offering fatherly advice and guidance to young people…even ones he intends to kill horribly. And his advice is sound.

Stealing the Box of Gavrok. Buffy goes all Mission: Impossible by being lowered in a harness to snatch the box without setting off alarms. But being Buffy it all goes wrong and some witty fisticuffs soon become needed.

Willow. Willow is great in this episode. She stands up to Faith beautifully, telling her some hard home truths. Also gotta love her using her floaty pencil trick to dust a vamp. Heh.

Faith and her new knife.

Snyder. Armin Shimerman is fab as Principle Snyder. He’s on a drug busting crusade, convinced all his students are using or selling drugs but only finding innocent packed lunches much to his annoyance. Then when he finds Buffy and the gang late at night in the school he thinks he’s hit pay dirt. Unfortunately evil spiders escaping a magical box quickly prove him wrong.

Oz’s reaction to the debate about whether or not to bargain for Willow’s release.

WHY IT SUCKS

Thematically it works fine but the overall story concerning the Box of Gavrok is nothing too special.

IT'S BUFFTASTIC

Willow standing up to Faith.

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Willow: “Hey, I eat danger for breakfast.”
Xander: “But, oddly enough, she panics in the face of breakfast foods.”

Buffy: “Faith's turn to the dark side of the Force pretty much put the proverbial kibosh on any away plans for me.”

Buffy (about Oxford): "That's where they make Gileses."

Buffy: “Unfortunately that's all I could get out of my informant before his aggressive tendencies forced me to introduce him to Mr. Pointy.”

Willow (to Faith): "I know you had a tough life. I know that some people think you had a lot of bad breaks. Well, boo hoo! Poor you."

Principal Snyder (to Buffy and the gang): "You! All of you. Why couldn't you be dealing drugs like normal people?"

AND ANOTHER THING

The City Hall rooftop is the same set used for the library rooftop in season 1 finale ‘Prophecy Girl’.

HOW MANY STAKES?

I choose 3 (out of 5)

Buffy 3.18 'Earshot'

2011-06-12T12:36:00.000-07:00

Short episode promo

WRITER: Jane Espenson
DIRECTOR: Regis Kimble

WHAT'S THE SITCH?

Buffy is out slaying when in the midst of battle with a pair of demons one of them scratches her hand right before it feels the business end of Mr Pointy. Its demon buddy escapes leaving Buff with a really itchy hand. As it turns out Buffy was scratched by a demon that can pass on one of its traits – the so-called Aspect of the Demon. Hearing this from Giles, Buffy starts worrying that she is gonna grow horns or, as Willow points out, if it was a boy demon something more, er, boyish! Buffy quickly discovers that her aspect gained is the ability to hear what everyone around her is thinking. At first this is exciting and fun but it soon becomes painful and debilitating and will lead to eventual insanity unless Giles, Angel and the gang can find a cure. To make matters worse Buffy heard the thoughts of someone at school planning a massacre at Sunnydale High. So the race is on to save Buff from insanity and to identify and stop a potential mass killer.

WHAT'S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

Nobody in their right mind would want to be able to know others inner most thoughts. However this episode by the great Jane Espenson tells us that if we could then we’d discover that everyone else is in just as much pain and is just as insecure and messed up as we are. That people ignore others pain is because they are far too busy dealing with their own pain. Of course this is all a bit touchy feely and perhaps over dramatic but it just tells us to not think that other seemingly well adjusted and happy people don’t have their own major issues to deal with. Sure, some more than others. But in the end we’re all human and we all hurt. It’s as simple as that.

WHO'S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

An unknown (‘til the very end) potential killer.

WHY IT ROCKS

The concept. It’s a simple and brilliant concept. What would we do and how would life be if we could hear everyone’s inner most thoughts? Sounds fab and really useful. But there would also be a terrible price to pay. Would we really want to know what everyone really thought of us?

The great Jane Espenson ™. This is one of Jane’s best scripts and is typically brilliant work from the lady. Earshot balances smart, tender, thoughtful musings on identity, loneliness and pain with sly social satire and some big laugh out loud comedy.

It’s a mystery. The identity of the potential mass killer is kept secret right to the very end with lots of red herrings thrown in. Early on Xander accidentally identifies the real culprit in a throwaway gag that nobody takes notice of. See? The Xan-man often speaks unwitting truth in jest.

Sarah Michelle Gellar. SMG does a bang up job in this episode. She goes from nervous worry while waiting for her Aspect of the Demon, to gleeful excitement when she realises all the possibilities of her new ‘gift’, to caring thoughtfulness when dealing with a deeply troubled student. And her comedy instincts are great too – witness her hearing the thoughts of boys lusting after her and see how she changes her stance while subtly preening herself. Most amusing.

The funny. Being a Jane Espenson episode Earshot is very, very funny. I totally forgot about the classic scene in the library as Buffy tells her friends about her being able to hear all their thoughts. Of course almost everything Xander thinks about is sex, causing Buffy to look at him with disgust and Xander to then run away in shame. LOL

Cordy. Out of everyone it is Cordy who is least affected by Buffy’s new ability. Simply, everything Cordy thinks she says. She has no internal filter from brain to mouth. Which leads to some big funny.

Giles and the tree. The episode’s final moments sees Buffy revealing to Giles that she now knows he and her mom had sex, on top of a police car, twice. This causes a shocked Giles to walk in to a tree. Heh.

WHY IT SUCKS

The two mouthless demons are particularly rubbery looking monsters. They are okay, but just a bit too rubbery for my tastes.

IT'S BUFFTASTIC

The library mind reading scene. Brilliance of story, theme, character and major league funny coming together as a seamless whole.

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Xander (thinking, panicking): What am I gonna do? I think about sex all the time. Sex. Help! Four times five is thirty. Five times six is thirty-two. Naked girls. Naked women. Naked Buffy. Oh, stop me!
Buffy: “God Xander! Is that all you think about?”
Xander: “Actually...bye!”

Xander (watching the Cheerleaders cheering): “They really are very good.”
Oz: “Their spellings improved.”

Cordelia: “I still have knee marks on my back...[get some looks] from the pyramid.”

Buffy (to Giles): "Sure, we can work out after school. You know, if you're not too busy having sex with my mother!"
Giles (walking into a tree): "Ugh!"

AND ANOTHER THING...

The main plot line of Earshot is about the potential mass killing of students at a U.S. High School by another student. It was a brave subject for Joss and co. to tackle, taking on the possible reasons for such things happening. Unfortunately it was on April 20th 1999 that the awful events at Columbine High School occurred…less than one week before Earshot was due to air. As a result, Joss and the WB pulled the episode out of respect. It was finally aired as a one-off in Sept 1999. There is controversy over whether the ep should have been pulled at all. Apparently the WB were reluctant to ever show it. But cool heads won out and Earshot did eventually get aired. Personally I think the right decision was made. It should have been pulled at the time out of respect. But the episode has something to say about why such terrible events occur and so should indeed be seen by audiences. Luckily there is nothing in the episode to harm the flow of the main season arc so its being pulled in April 99 didn’t effect the overall story of season 3.

How many stakes?

Read my mind… 4.5 (out of 5)

Stake Land: Horror With Bite

2011-06-05T10:34:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this was quite the surprise.

It's the near future and the world has been ravaged by feral vampires. In North America humanity is reduced to pockets of small isolated communities struggling to survive against the blood hungry night walkers as well as against bands of roving religious extremists – basically racists, rapists and other assorted sickos using their own twisted take on religion to justify what they do. Amongst it all, a lone man rescues a boy from a vampire attack that kills his parents, trains him to fight, and takes him on a journey up north, heading for the promised New Eden (i.e. Canada). Along the way, the pair hook up with (and lose) various people, clash with nutters and vamps, and generally try to survive long enough to reach the fabled place of peace.

Before I started watching it I didn’t know what to expect of Stake Land. I hadn't seen the trailer. I just thought it would be some kind of pulpy action/horror flick, like Underworld or John Carpenter’s Vampires.

Not at all.

It turns out that Stake Land has far more in common with the likes of Frank Darabont’s The Mist and The Walking Dead, classic Romero, The Road, Winter’s Bone and the recent Monsters.

Like the best horror or genre films, Stake Land is all about people. It's a slow burn tale whose primary themes are of family, parenting, and the dangers of religious extremism, but also of faith and sacrifice. Though critical of religion, faith is still very much at the heart of this story with the whole journey north being one baased on pure faith. After all, the destination is called New Eden. But this feels more like a faith in people and humanity than in any supernatural force.

The film's direction by Jim Mickle is gritty and naturalistic. Great use is made of the rugged, desolate and worn-down locations (very Winter’s Bone) with the photography equally effective being drained of almost all colour and warmth. The tone of the piece is deadly serious, unrelentingly grim and uncomfortably chilly. Dialogue is sparse with long stretches of silence. The emphasis here is on mood and on theme.

The cast, all very good, includes an almost unrecognisable Kelly McGillis as an ageing nun, and cute Danielle Harris from the Halloween remake as a pregnant girl the man and boy hook up with.

Though this is an arty, serious genre film, there is still some quality vamp slaying action to be had. Much of the action comes often in short, sharp, violent bursts with my personal fave being the religious nutters using helicopters to drop live vamps in to the midst of a small community’s night-time party, thus causing utter bloody mayhem.

In short, if you like your horror films to be smart and more than just monsters and mayhem, then give Stake Land a go. It's not perfect and may be too dour and fun-free for many, but I was completely hooked. 4 (out of 5)

Movies: From Anime to Foos to Fairytales

2011-06-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

SUMMER WARS

Summer Wars is a 2009 Japanese anime film directed by Mamoru Hosoda who previously made the critically acclaimed The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

Kenji is a school kid and math genius who is taken by fellow student Natsuki to stay at her huge family home miles from the city to celebrate her grandmother's 90th birthday. However, while there, Kenji is falsely implicated in the hacking of a virtual world called Oz by an artificial intelligence. Oz is the biggest single media environment on the planet, a place where billions of people have accounts and avatars, where governments and businesses have as much a presence as they do in the real world. As the AI gradually takes over Oz, causing world-wide chaos, Kenji joins forces with Natsuki’s extended and connected family to repair the damage done and to find a way to stop the artificial intelligence before it ruins the entire world, both virtual and real.

Summer Wars is an odd film. Being anime that’s kind of a given, I know. But I’ve never before seen a movie that is part smart and affecting family drama, part high school comedy/romance, part virtual reality cyber actioner, part global apocalypse, part conspiracy thriller. But Summer Wars melds all of these competing genres in to a sweet, smart, watchable and winning whole. The animation is great with the beautiful rural backdrops of the family home merging seamlessly with the weird and manga-ish styles of Oz. But what really makes this work is that amidst all the weirdness and cyber action, Summer Wars is at heart a story about family and how families band together in times of need. The story may be bonkers but the characters and their motivations are all down to earth and relatable. You can’t help but cheer Kenji on in his fight as well as feel a longing to be part of a family like the Jinnouchi family, one so big, yet so close and loyal, and governed over by the wise and strong as steel grandma.

Being a tad too long and probably a bit too odd for most western movie watchers, Summer Wars remains a smart, fun and sweetly human slice of Japanese sci fi. 4 (out of 5)

RED RIDING HOOD

Twilight director Catherine Hardwick delivers a good looking film with a good cast including Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Virginia Madsen, Billy Burke and Julie Christie. But ultimately the film fails because all it is is just another dull teenage love triangle thing with the only interesting plot thread being Amanda trying to figure out the identity of the werewolf terrorising her village. But even that mystery is, sadly, not very mysterious or interesting. Plus the film is not scary at all with the werewolf itself just a large and utterly unconvincing CGI blob.

Now, I love classic fairytales. And I love seeing them reinterpreted. Joss Whedon did some great stuff on Buffy. More recently Steven Moffat has done a great job turning Doctor Who in to a modern fairytale. Unfortunately this particular telling of Red Riding Hood is far more concerned with being a Twilight-esque teen love story than it is with exploring the themes and meanings behind classic fairytales. It just made me want to go watch Neil Jordan's brilliant The Company of Wolves again, a film based on the works of Angela Carter that explored the meanings behind this old story, making it weird, sexually enticing and nightmarishly beautiful.

In the end, Catherine Hardwick's Red Riding Hood is mildly diverting tosh, if only for pretty Amanda and the pretty set designs and photography. But ultimately it's a pointless, toothess, hollow, slice of teen pap that does nothing with its fairytale aspirations. A shame. 2.5 (out of 5)

FOO FIGHTERS: BACK AND FORTH

It’s easy to forget just what an awesome band the Foo's are, largely thanks to the ridiculously talented, charismatic, down to earth Dave Grohl. Before watching this I didn't know much about the actual band itself, other than it was Grohl who founded it post-Nirvana. I didn't know, for instance, that the first album was the same tape of songs Dave had written and then recorded all by himself before the band had even been formed. He just called the tape 'Foo Fighters' so people wouldn't know it was him. Then when the band was formed and it came time to release and album he just put out the very same tape. Job done. My fave moment in the doc was seeing Grohl on stage at Wembley in 2008 fighting back tears of amazement at how far they'd come as a band. Great stuff. 4 (out of 5)

UNKNOWN

Liam Neeson goes to Berlin with his wife, has an accident, recovers, but nobody then recognises him to be who he says he is. An impostor is now with his wife, who also swears she doesn’t know him. What’s going on? Cue lots of running around Berlin, car chases and general mystery and mayhem as Liam fights to discover the truth of his identity.

Unknown reminded me of quite a few movies I've seen before. I knew a twist was coming and having seen lots of films like this I managed to work it our pretty quickly, though some of the nuances of what else was going on thankfully remained a surprise. Neeson is great in the lead, and as his unwilling helper, Diane Kruger is pretty good too. As Neeson’s wife, January Jones is lovely and icy (you can see why she was cast as Emma Frost) and veteran actor Bruno Ganz does a great job as an old, world-weary ex-Stazi agent.

Slickly directed with that Euro thriller feel, Warner Bros. and Joel Silver have managed a good impression of a Luc Besson/Europacorp thriller. All in all this is well-made and reasonably compelling tosh. 3 (out of 5)

PRIEST

Post apocalyptic vampire slaying action with Paul Bettany as a rogue warrior priest who heads out of his huge Mega-City, in to the Cursed Earth to rescue his kidnapped niece from a pack of marauding vamps before going on to save his short sighted city from potential vampire destruction. Priest is essentially The Searchers meets Judge Dredd with vampires by way of a Paul (Resident Evil) Anderson film. This is low brow pulp sci fi/horror (nothing wrong with that) adapted from a graphic novel that I’ve never read. The set-up is fine and quite interesting if highly derivative. The FX are pretty good, and the cast, including Bettany, Karl Urban and Maggie Q, all do their bit. This is brainless harmless fun but like Paul Anderson films it tries too hard to be ‘stylish’ (i.e. lots of needless slo mo, editing farts, CGI) instead of being at least a tiny bit smart. Still, it’s miles better than Anderson’s last cinematic abortion Resident Evil: Afterlife and Priest’s director’s own previous effort, the tiresome angel vs. angel flick Legion. 3 (out of 5)

Buffy: 3.17 ‘Enemies’

2011-05-28T09:20:00.000-07:00

Writer: Doug Petrie
Director: David Grossman

What's the sitch?

A demon approaches Buffy and Faith offering to sell them the Books of Ascension which will tell the gang everything they need to know about the Mayor’s plans. Secretly working for the Mayor, Faith goes back, kills the demon and takes the books. Faith is also making nice to Angel pretending she needs his help to deal with what she’s done. Really she is conspiring with the Mayor to turn Angel back to Angelus so as to be her perfect partner in evil. Her plan to seduce Angel and give him a happy in order to take his soul doesn’t work so the Mayor contacts a powerful sorcerer who, in front of Faith, appears to remove Angel’s soul thus bringing back Angelus. After a brief tussle the bad pair makes a truce and head off to see the Mayor, who, much to Angelus’s delight, instructs them to find, torture and kill Buffy. Faith and Angelus lure Buffy to the mansion where Faith then reveals her true evil colours to her sister slayer. Buffy, horrified at Faith and the return of Angelus, is knocked out. She awakens chained up, with Faith about to begin torturing her with lots of very sharp implements, Angelus looking on gleefully.

What's the sitch beneath the sitch?

The nurture vs. nature aspect of Buffy and Faith comes to a head here as Faith reveals her true colours to everyone. She is an immature child who is so full of rage because of the dreadful life she’s had. And that rage is only made the worse when seeing all that Buffy has – family, friends, love, a sense of normality and stability (though Buff would probably disagree with those last two). This just seems to rub Faith’s nose in her own short comings and makes her focus all of that inner rage of hers entirely on Buffy. Of course this is utterly unfair to our girl. Faith’s problems go back way further than Sunnydale and slaying. She’s lacked the unconditional love and support and role model of a strong parental figure her entire life. And that’s something she still very much needs and craves, which is why she latches on so hard to the Mayor, an apparently loving and supportive father figure. Plus when Faith first arrived in Sunnydale Buffy was rather threatened by her and seemed to want to keep Faith out of her circle of friends. This reaction only stored up even more enmity in the dark slayer towards Buffy. So while Buffy isn’t responsible for Faith’s behaviour and actions she didn’t exactly contribute to improving Faith’s chances for a better life.

Who's giving us the wiggins this week?

Faith, Angelus, The Mayor, and a freaky glowy eyed sorcerer.

Why it rocks

The script. ‘Enemies’ is a well constructed script by ace Faith writer Doug Petrie. It simultaneously delves deeper in to Faith’s character and her deep-seated troubles, explores the continually fracturing relationship between Buffy and Angel, and pushes the season’s main arc plot in to the beginning of its epic final act.

Eliza Dushku. As always Eliza is great as Faith. Here she gets to let rip and be the full-on nasty psycho Faith we know she truly is. Her vitriolic outburst to Buffy about why she hates her so much is wonderfully delivered. You can almost feel the waves of hate radiating. Her jealousy of Buffy and Angel is also very well played, as is her dangerous seduction technique with Angelus. And speaking of…

Angelus. Always good to see Boreanaz getting to have a ball as Angelus. The actor knows nothing of subtlety in this role…but then neither does Angelus, a monster that is gleeful in causing pain and suffering, so it works out fine.

Buffy and Angel exiting the movie theatre at the start, confused and shocked by the sexually explicit art house film they’ve just seen.

The sorcerer. He is one weird and creepy dude with his blue face and glowy eyes all wrapped up in black robes.

The reveal.

Giles the supernatural matchmaker. lol

Why it sucks

Buffy’s overreaction to what Angel did at her request regarding Faith feels a tad too much. Get over it Buff.

Why didn’t Giles and Buffy fill everyone else in on their plan especially poor Xander?

Well, Faith is officially playing for the bad guys now. Not suckage, just a bit of heart sinkage for the dark slayer cuz you know it ain’t gonna end well for her. :(

It's Buftastic

The moment when trickery is revealed:
Faith (to chained up Buffy): “What can I say, I'm the world's best actor.”
Angel (to Faith): “Second best.”

Dialogue to die for

Giles: “Demons after money. Whatever happened to the still-beating heart of a virgin? No one has any standards anymore.”

Buffy (on Faith's apparent intimacy with Angel): "You're right. Faith would never do that."
Willow: "Faith would totally do that. Faith was built to do that. She's the 'do that' girl!"

Xander: “And on the day the words flimsy excuse were redefined, we stood in awe and watched.”

Xander: “Yes. I feel so much better knowing that he broke my face in a good way. It's a good bruise.”

And another thing

The sexually explicit art house movie Angel and Buffy see is called "Le Banquet d Amelia." Don’t go looking for it. It’s not a real movie.

Oz's ever-changing hair colour is back to being blond again.

How many stakes?

The truth hurts. 4 (out of 5)

Movie Update: From Genius Ghibli To Silly Ghosts

2011-05-22T11:20:00.000-07:00

Grave of the Fireflies

Trailer

Made in 1988, Grave of the Fireflies was written and directed by Isao Takahata who hired Studio Ghibli to do the animation. The film, set in Japan towards the end of World War 2, tells the story of teenage Seita and his little sister Setsuko who survive the firebombing of Kobe, though their mother sadly doesn’t. With their father away in the navy, homeless and parentless, the two children take to the road in order to survive. But Japan is now a broken and devastated country, still not having surrendered. Food is scarce. Kindness even scarcer. Living rough, Seita does his best to care for his little sister but things just go from bad to worse for the pair until their story finally reaches its horribly inescapable conclusion. Grave of the Fireflies is a devastating watch being all about the cruelty of war and the price paid by its most innocent of victims. The animation is horribly beautiful, as is the symbolism of the fireflies, which plays throughout the film - little creatures burning so brightly but dying far too soon. This is one of those films that should and does get to you. But while you can fully appreciate it for its greatness, it is also a film you simply couldn’t watch very often. It’s just too darn hard, packing a hugely painful emotional gut punch. It reminded me of Spielberg’s Schindler’s List that way. Film critic Roger Ebert considers Grave of the Fireflies to be one of the most powerful anti-war movies ever made. He’s not wrong. Devastating stuff. 5 (out of 5)

Laputa: Castle in the Sky

Hayao Miyazaki’s 1986 fantasy adventure was the first film made and released by Studio Ghibli. It tells of a young girl called Sheeta who falls from an airship and somehow lands safely in the caring hands of a young miner called Pazu. Pirates and shadowy military types are chasing Sheeta as the girl apparently holds the key to finding the mythical Laputa - a huge flying castle lost for centuries that once housed a great and highly advanced people. As to be expected this is a great movie that plays host to many of Miyazaki’s favourite themes – a love of flying, the horrors of war, respect for nature and the environment, female empowerment. It’s essentially the hero’s journey myth as young Sheeta escapes her many pursuers and on the way discovers who she really is and what she can do, all the while being ably assisted by her loyal friend Pazu. As always with Ghibli the film looks gorgeous and is crammed with wonderfully inventive design and ideas. Charming, exciting and thoughtful, Laputa: Castle in the Sky is another Ghibli movie not to be missed. 4.5 (out of 5)

Whisper of the Heart

Made in 1995, this was the first theatrical Studio Ghibli feature to be directed by someone other than Miyazaki or Takahata, and the only film to be directed by Yoshifumi Kondō, who died in 1998 aged just 47. It’s a simple, gentle, positive tale of two young people who find each other through their shared love of creativity and go on to inspire each other to do better in their art. Shizuku is a junior high school girl who loves writing – mostly lyrics for songs. Seiji is a boy of the same age who makes and plays violins. He wants to make violins for a living and would love to go to Italy to train properly. The two become close friends but Seiji soon heads off to Italy to undertake a short trail period at a famous violin making school. While he’s away, Shizuku is inspired to concentrate on her own art by writing a novel which tells the magical story of The Baron, a cat statue in Seiji’s grandfather’s antiques shop. Shizuku sets herself the deadline to finish her book as being Seiji’s return in a few weeks time. She is determined to be as talented in her own field as he is in his and dedicates herself to finishing her story no matter what. Whisper of the Heart is a delightful film that celebrates the joy to be found in creative and artistic expression for its own sake as well as how the right person can inspire you to achieve your dreams. 4 (out of 5)

Thor

Kenneth Branagh does a bang up job in bringing Marvel’s take on the Norse God of Thunder to the big screen. This was always going to be the trickiest of heroes for Marvel to translate as it has to deal with an overtly fantasy based concept of gods and mystical realms etc. But they manage it very well and make a thoroughly entertaining, fun, funny and good looking film anchored by Chris Hemsworth in the title role. A star in the making, the guy has presence, charisma and is a deft hand at comedy. And he sure swings a mean hammer. Thor fits nicely in the upper strata of Marvel films and makes me all the more excited for this summer’s Captain America: The First Avenger and next summer’s Joss Whedon written and directed The Avengers. Make mine Marvel. 4 (out of 5)

Attack the Block

Joe Cornish writes and directs this British scifi/action/comedy/thriller as invading aliens attack a block on a council estate in London. And the only defence against the savage feral alien fiends is the savage feral British youth who when not taking drugs or mugging people are up for some serious alien bashing. Poor aliens, they never stood a chance. Despite the annoying youth speak, Attack the Block is a great movie aping the antihero based siege films of John Carpenter but with the witty, slightly tongue in cheek, down to earth feel of Neil Marshall’s awesome Dog Soldiers. The film looks great, is nicely tense and properly exciting and the young cast are superb. Kudos to all involved. Respect. Innit. 4 (out of 5)

Source Code

Duncan Jones’s follow up to his excellent debut Moon is a sci fi tale that plays like an extended episode of The Outer Limits mixed with a hefty dose of classic 90’s TV series Quantum Leap. And that’s a good thing. Jake Gyllenhaal is the soldier who’s mind keeps being sent back in to the body of a man on a train for the final 8 minutes of his life until a bomb goes off. Jake’s mission is to identify the train bomber in order to help prevent a future attack, nothing more. For some reason his superiors tell him he can’t alter the outcome of this train attack and to just stick to the mission he’s been given. But the presence of ultra-cute and sweet Michelle Monaghan on the seat opposite who’s destined to die in the explosion makes Jake determined to try and stop the inevitable no matter what his orders are. Source Code is a lot of fun. Most of that fun comes from trying to work out the truth of Jake’s situation and why he apparently can’t save the train. Also his relationship with Michelle Monaghan helps make the film. She’s lovely and you can fully understand why he’d do anything to save her. A quality scifi thriller with an emotional core, Source Code is good stuff and another feather in the cap for Mr Jones. 4 (out of 5)

Insidious

Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne move in to a new house with their three kids. Almost immediately ghostly goings on kick off and one of their kids falls in to a coma. So, as Eddie Murphy once wisely suggested about haunted houses in his stand up routine, the family quickly relocates to a new home, away from the spooks. But like those annoying relatives you just can’t ditch, the ghosties only go and follow them to their new home. Doh! So when this kinda spooky thing happens, who you gonna call? Ghostbusters? Nope. Lin Shaye apparently. Um, okay. Now, to be fair, there is some good stuff in Insidious. Saw director James Wan handles the early set-up pretty well making it nicely tense and subtly creepy with some good jump scares thrown in. It’s solidly relatable too as spooky things start happening to apparently normal people in a normal home. But once nutty psychic Lin Shaye and her two goofy tech guys enter the fray to provide wildly bizarre information dumps, it all gets monstrously silly. Up till now Insidious has been a fun and reasonably effective little spookfest that played like a low budget Poltergeist meets Paranormal Activity with a smidge of The Exorcist. But suddenly it goes totally bonkers with Lin Shaye in a gas mask (?), crap CGI, and Patrick Wilson astral travelling to another dimension. Poor Nite Owl. Looking like he wants to fire his agent, Patrick wanders around in slow motion through 80’s dry ice while dodging stupid looking ghosts and a hoofed demon who looks like Darth Maul and Freddy Kreuger’s love child. C’mon, Dave Grohl was scarier in Tenacious D’s Greatest Song in the World video. As you can probably guess, this film had totally lost me. I was laughing way too hard. It was Lin Shaye in her gas mask that set me off. Plus there’s the cheesy ghosts and the hoofy demon looking utter pants, only being effective in the quick glimpses we get of them earlier on. Insidious ends up like some silly mash-up of Poltergeist, Paranormal Activity and crap homage to Argento/Fulci surrealism. If they’d retooled the third act and dumped the stupid astral travelling/dry ice stuff this could have been an effective little spookfest – a half-decent Paranormal Activity meets Poltergeist job. As it is, it’s just a very silly film that I found unintentionally hilarious. Still, points for making me laugh. And for Rose Byrne being very cute in her PJs. 2.5 (out of 5)

Buffy: 3.16 ‘Doppelgangland’

2011-05-21T18:18:00.000-07:00

Writer: Joss Whedon
Director: Joss Whedon

What's the sitch?

Anya, the ex-vengeance demon last seen in 3.9 ‘The Wish’, embarks on a mission to get her mystical necklace back so as to restore her power. She tricks Willow in to helping her with a spell to reclaim the necklace from a point in time before it was destroyed. Willow, feeling put upon and taken for granted by everyone including loathsome Principle Snyder, Giles and her friends, agrees to help Anya, being eager to experiment more with the black arts. But the spell goes wrong and WiIlow takes off leaving behind an angry and despondent Anya. However, unbeknown to them both the spell did actually work…kinda. Only instead of Anya’s necklace, it brought in to our world the deliciously slinky and evil Vampire Willow from the alternative reality last seen in ‘The Wish’. Buffy and Xander run in to the newly arrived Vampire Willow at the Bronze thinking she is their Willow but soon discovering to their horror that she is actually a vampire. Assuming their Wilow is dead, the two shocked friends head back to the library to tell Giles the awful news. Meanwhile, confused and upset by this new world full of many happy humans and not so many evil vamps, Vampire Willow decides to recruit a vampire army from those she can find, who are all currently working for The Mayor, in order to start taking back the night for vampire kind, beginning with attacking the human crowded Bronze. A potential mass slaughter awaits unless Buffy and co. can work out what's happened and ccme up with a plan to save the day.

What's the sitch beneath the sitch?

Don’t be a pushover. Get in touch with your inner badass and stand up for yourself. In this utterly brilliant episode good old reliable Willow, that so very smart, eager and kind teenager, is finally and justifiably feeling put upon and taken for granted by her friends and pretty much everyone else around her. People constantly expect and demand stuff from her be it knowledge, expertise, remembering things they’ve been too lazy to remember or to do themselves. And the girl has had enough. Bringing back the wonderful Vampire Willow doppelganger from ‘The Wish’ lets us and the world see a whole other side to the very sweet Ms Rosenberg – a tough, sexy, confident and devilishly playful side that won’t take crap from anyone be they obnoxious high school jocks or unthinking best friends. Willow sees in her evil doppelganger things to fear and to loathe, but she also more importantly sees things to admire and to emulate in her own life. Just not the killing and the S&M wear.

Who's giving us the wiggins this week?

Vampire Willow, Anya and assorted vampire goons.

Why it rocks

Joss at his best. Doppelgangland is utter perfection on every single level – character, drama, theme, acting and bringing the major league funny. If you wanted a Buffy novice to know why Joss’s little myth garnered such love and widespread acclaim (despite the goofy title and premise) then you’d simply show them ‘Doppelgangland’ along with a few other choice episodes – probably ‘The Body’, ‘Hush’, ‘Once More With Feeling’ and ‘Becoming 1&2’. The script here is so well written by Joss who always starts with character and theme and then builds his story up from there. And what a story it is. Through Vampire Willow we see the Willow we know and love in a whole new light. Especially when Buffy tells her to remember that a vampire’s personality has nothing to do with the human they were before and Angel almost contradicts her for he knows that simply isn’t true.

Alyson Hannigan. The entire cast is wonderful but Ally Hannigan is the shining star here. Playing the dual roles of sweet, meek, put-upon Willow and sleek, sexy, deadly Vampire Willow, the girl just stuns.

Vampire Willow. An instant smash with the fans when she first appeared in ‘The Wish’, Joss obviously loved her too because here she is in all of her slinky, sexy, evil, and kinda gay glory. Vamp Willow is scary and sexy but she is also drop dead funny. Her deadpan reaction to seeing ‘our’ Willow is priceless: “Look at me. I’m all fuzzy.” As is her exasperation while locked in the book cage, trying to convince an unsuspecting Cordelia to let her out. “What?” asks vain Cordy, frowning at Vampire Willow who’s staring at her hungrily. “Do I have something on my neck?” “Not yet,” is the dryly-muttered answer.

The entire old reliable vs. Old Faithful vs. Old Yeller exchange and Willow’s subsequent attempt to storm off.

Thinking his cross is not working properly after aiming it mistakenly at our Willow, Xander shakes it as you might a faulty flashlight. LOL

Giles’ reaction when he sees that our Willow is not in fact dead.

Angel’s confusion at seeing our Willow alive. “Hey Willow. Wait a sec…”

Wesley’s girly scream when Cordy surprises him.

Willow, surprised, noticing her own cleavage while wearing Vampire Willow’s low cut getup. “Gosh, look at those.”

Cordy lecturing a caged Vampire Willow on the ethics of boyfriend stealing thinking she's talking to our Willow.

Willow impersonating Vamp Willow at the Bronze.

Willow’s signal (a scream)

Buffy’s end fight at the Bronze and her cool use of a pool cue as a weapon.

Vampire Willow’s reaction as she arrives back in her world and is promptly staked.

Why it sucks

Nothing. Zero. Nada. No suckage here.

It's Buftastic

The entire scene of our Willow impersonating Vampire Willow at the Bronze – especially the little hidden wave she gives Oz to let him know its her. Wonderful.

Dialogue to die for

Oh God, I could quote the entire script but I’ll try and keep it down to a few choice cuts. Here goes...

Willow: "Buff. I'm storming off. It doesn't really work if you come with me."

Willow (confused after Buffy, Xander and Giles crush her in a big hug): "It's really nice that you guys missed me. Say! You all didn't happen to do a bunch of drugs, did ya?"

Vampire Willow (meeting the real Willow): "Well, look at me. I'm all fuzzy."

Willow: "That's me as a vampire? I'm so evil. And skanky. And I think I'm kinda gay!"

Willow (looking down at her cleavage): "Gosh, look at those!"

Willow: “No, it's fine. I'm 'Old Reliable'.”
Xander: “She just means, you know, the geyser. You're like a geyser of fun that goes off at regular intervals.”
Willow: “That's Old Faithful.”
Xander: “Isn't that the dog that, that the guy had to shoot...”
Willow: (angrily now) “That's Old Yeller.”
Buffy: “Xander, I beg you not to help me.”

Xander: “Uh... Will, this is verging on naughty touching here. Don't wanna fall back on bad habits. HANDS! Hands in new places!”

Buffy (to Xander): “Aren't you gonna introduce me to your...Holy *God*, you're Willow.”

Angel(rushes in): “Buffy, I…something's happened. Willow's dead.”
He glances over and sees Willow. She waves at him.
Angel(casualy): “Hey, Willow."
He does a double take.
Angel: "Wait a second…”
Xander: “We're right there with you, buddy.”

Willow: “This girl has a history of mental problems dating back to early childhood. (desperately) I'm a blood-sucking fiend! Look at my outfit!”
Vampire: “A human. I should have smelled it right away.”
Willow: “A human? Oh, yeah? Could a human do this?”
She screams at the top of her lungs.
Anya: “Sure. Yeah. Humans do that. Yeah. (shrugs)”
Vampire: (concurring) “Yeah. Yeah, I think, yeah.”

And another thing

In the Bronze when Willow is pretending to be Vampire Willow, she runs her hand through a girl's hair. Some fans thought that girl was Amber Benson (who played Tara in later seasons). Nope, it's not her.

How many stakes?

Double trouble means twice the greatness. 5+ (out of 5)

Buffy: 3.15 ‘Consequences’

2011-05-20T06:26:00.000-07:00

Writer: Marti Noxon
Director: Michael Gershman

What's the sitch?

Following on from the events of the last episode, Buffy is keeping quiet about what happened - namely Faith killing a human being – though doing so is eating her up inside. She wants to tell Giles but Faith won’t hear of it. The dark slayer is acting as if nothing happened, as if what she did had no effect on her at all. But the man Faith killed was the Deputy Mayor and the police are intent on nailing his killer. Clues eventually lead them to questioning Buffy and Faith separately with both girls claiming to know nothing. But it’s all too much for Buffy and she breaks down to Willow telling her friend what happened. Willow tells Buffy she has to go to Giles, which she does…only to find Faith already there having told the ex-watcher that it was Buffy who killed the Deputy Mayor. Giles pretends to believe her but after Faith has gone he reveals to Buffy he knows Faith is the real culprit. Giles thinks she first has to admit what she’s done before she can be helped and he doesn’t intend to tell the Watchers Council. Unfortunately new Watcher Wesley secretly overhears this and heads off to make his own plans for Faith. Meanwhile Buffy has asked Angel to intervene, to try and reach Faith. Angel captures Faith and takes her to his mansion in a kind of forced intervention…only to have Wesley and some Watchers Council goons interrupt and snatch Faith away in order to take her to England for a tribunal. But Faith goes and escapes from the hapless Council goons and heads to the docks to catch a freighter out of the country. Buffy finds her there just in time only for Mr Trick and some vamp heavies working for the Mayor to attack and try to kill both slayers. As the battle starts going badly for Buffy, Faith is forced to make a choice – flee and let Buffy die at the fangs of evil vamps or stay and saver her sister slayer. Luckily Faith saves our girl and Mr Trick, that coolest of cool cat vamps, is dusted. Later, Buffy and Giles confer and Buffy says she thinks Faith may have a chance at being helped and that she won’t give up on her. But at the same time, across town, Faith goes to see the Mayor, this season’s big bad, and offers him her services.

What's the sitch beneath the sitch?

It’s all there in the title. All actions have consequences. To deny that only serves to make things worse. Faith’s selfish code of “Want. Take. Have” has all of its own unforeseen consequences and is not a sustainable way to live. It’s a very teenage thing. Live in the moment, do what you want, forget about what might come. Life is forever and you are invincible. Only age and experience counters this. And experience if not age is something Buffy has over Faith. Buffy dallied with Faith’s philosophy for a bit. It seemed exciting, freeing. It wasn’t. Quite the opposite. Actions and their consequences are a running theme in Buffy forming the basis for Angel’s character arc as well as Faith’s throughout the rest of Buffy and in to Angel and beyond.

Who's giving us the wiggins this week?

Faith, Mr Trick and his vamp goons

Why it rocks

It’s an effective part 2 to what began in the previous episode and nicely draws the distinction between the sort of slayers that Buffy and Faith are.

Buffy is put through the emotional wringer. You can feel the huge weight on her tiny little shoulders, her big eyes full of fear and pain all the way through. When she finally breaks down to Willow it is a well-earned release and you feel real sympathy for her. SMG does a great job.

Eliza Dushku. As always Eliza is great as Faith. She is effectively bullying Buffy all through this, forcing our girl to keep quiet and tow the line. She is also clearly coming unhinged. The scene where she almost kills Xander after he comes to offer her help, first forcing herself on him sexually, then throttling him, is pretty chilling stuff. And she really does sell it. She’s gorgeous and sexy but she is also one scary girl. Luckily Angel shows up just in time or the Xan man would have been history.

Harry Groener. As The Mayor Harry Groener is so much fun to watch and so darn good. He can do warm, funny, chilling, goofy, evil, all in the same scene, sometimes in the same line of dialogue. This is why he was and will always remain my favourite Big Bad of Buffy. He’s an evil monster, but you can’t help but love the guy.

Faith and The Mayor. This episode marks the very beginning of what is one of the best and sweetest relationships in the entire Buffyverse: Faith and The Mayor. Yes, they are the villains, but they also form such a close and caring father/daughter relationship mirroring that of Buffy and Giles that is genuinely charming and affecting. Not many shows will invest this much time and real sympathy in its villains.

Why it sucks

Where’s Oz?

Major continuity gaffs. The day after the Deputy Mayor’s murder (in the previous ep.), Buffy went to Faith's (in bright daylight and a clean outfit). This episode begins with Buffy in her pyjamas, waking up from a nightmare. She then goes to school meaning this is at least the second day since the murder. But the detective questioning the witness at the scene of the crime says, "You heard the man scream at about what time last night?" Later that night, Buffy says to Faith, "Less than 24 hours ago, you killed a man."

In the Dock fight it is fairly plain that it is SMG’s stunt double in a lot of the fight. The director didn’t hide the fact very well at all.

How did Wesley get the key to free Faith from Angel’s chains?

What exactly led the police detective to go question Buffy and Faith? It’s a bit of a dramatic leap. Sure, they found wooden shards in his wound but the cops don’t know about slayers. Or do they?

Mr Trick, that super cool vampire dude, goes out like a punk, staked in the back. What a waste of a great character. Boo!

It's Buftastic

It has to be the scene in Faith’s motel room where she molests and assaults poor Xander and almost kills him. Chilling.

Dialogue to die for

Willow: "I've been letting things fester. And I don't like it. I want to be fester-free."

Willow: "Oh, Buffy! Don't cry! I'm sorry. I was too hard on you. Sometimes I unleash, I don't know my own strength. It's bad. I'm bad. I'm a bad, bad, bad person!"

Buffy: "Oh."
Giles: "Oh!"
(They all look at Willow.)
Willow: "I don't need to say 'Oh.' I got it before. They slept together."

Cordelia (seeing Wesley): “Check out Giles: The Next Generation. What's your deal?”

And another thing

Kathleen Wilhoite, who sang the featured song in this episode, is also an actress. One of her notable roles was the recurring character Chloe Lewis on ER.

How many stakes?

Bad Faith is good. 3.5 (out of 5)

Buffy: 3.14 ‘Bad Girls’

2011-05-02T07:23:00.000-07:00

Cool vid of double slayer action mostly from this ep.

Writer: Doug Petrie
Director: Michael Lange

What's the sitch?

A vampire duellist cult called El Eliminati comes to town searching for a mystical amulet which is said to be able to heal their stricken demon master Balthazar. Meanwhile Buffy and Faith’s new Watcher – an arrogant and stuffy young chap called Wesley Wyndam-Price – has also arrived and is looking to take charge and directs Buffy and Faith to find the amulet first. Giles is quietly annoyed and wilfully unhelpful while Buffy is happy to play along with Wesley while teasing him continually. Faith, meanwhile, is having nothing to do with this new interloper. The two slayers go hunt for the amulet with Faith slowly convincing Buffy not to play by the rules, to be more like her and enjoy using her power, to let loose and do as she pleases. Unfortunately Faith’s responsibility-free philosophy of “Want. Take. Have.” soon leads to tragedy and makes Buffy realise she does indeed have a responsibility to use her power wisely and unselfishly. And also that Faith may not be playing with a full deck.

What's the sitch beneath the sitch?

The Seduction of Buffy. With great power comes great responsibility is what our girl learns first hand here. She is seduced by Faith’s free spirited, do as you please, act on impulse nature and experiments in being carefree and revelling in her power. And it eventually leads her to a very dark place indeed. Buffy’s seduction by Faith has also a rather obvious lesbian subtext, one which writer Doug Petrie openly admits to in his commentary. Faith is young, sexy, dangerous, care free, and Buffy is attracted to that. The scene where Faith tempts Buffy out of an exam at school is great. She turns up at the classroom window, breathes on a pane of glass and then draws a heart in the mist…before adding a stake. Buffy can’t resist her. Who could?

Who's giving us the wiggins this week?

El Eliminati – sword wielding duellist vampires.
Balthazar – a monstrously fat demon in a tub.
Faith – specifically in the episodes last scene.

Why it rocks

The seduction of Buffy. It’s a great idea and really highlights the differences between the two slayers. The lesbian subtext works well too, as Faith is a highly sexual creature (though no Faith on Buffy action is seen except for their sexy dance.)

Eliza Dushku. As always she is fab as Faith, really selling that sexy, impulsive, bad girl persona. Like I said earlier, the bit where she tempts Buffy out of class is great.

Xander’s twitch. Gotta laugh at Nicky Brendon’s nervous eye twitching every time Buffy mentions Faith's name to him (a call back to his sexual encounter with her last episode).

Alexis Denisof. Alexis makes his Buffy debut as new watcher Wesley Wyndam-Price. Essentially Wesley is like a younger Giles as he was in early season 1 only more inept and with more talk and less actual ability. Here he’s mostly comic relief in his stuffiness but Wesley will go on to join Angel in his own series and will become one of the most changed and best characters in the whole of the Buffyverse. Though it is hard to imagine that from this episode.

Fights. There’s some pretty cool fights in here and some nice stunts.

Fairytales. Another Buffy fairytale treat. This time it’s a blatant Alice in Wonderland riff with Buffy and Faith tumbling down a rabbit hole (or sewer pipe) in to the unknown.

Buffy’s sarcastic but immensely cute childlike reply to Wesley when he asks her if she’s not used to being given orders. “Whenever Giles sends me on a mission, he always says 'Please.' And afterwards I get a cookie."

The Mayor testing his new invulnerability then literally checking it off of his to do list. Heh.

Why it sucks

Balthazar the demon is a bit crap. He looks very similar to the uber-fat vampire Pearl from Blade but nowhere near as good.

Buffy’s seduction by Faith happens rather quickly.

The amulet and the El Eliminati are nothing but an obvious and rather dull plot device that goes nowhere.

Angel’s heroic entry to Balthazar’s lair is ultra cheesy.

Though the underlying theme is strong and individual bits are great the episode overall doesn’t hang together as an entirely satisfying affair.

It's Bufftastic

A tie between the delicious school exam seduction scene with Faith tempting Buffy out of class and the sexy slayer dance at The Bronze. Sorry, can’t help it. I’m a man.

Dialogue to die for

Xander: “Harvard... Yale... Wesleyan... Some German Polytechnical Institute whose name I, uh... I can't pronounce. Is anyone else intimidated? 'Cause I'm just expecting thin slips of paper with the words 'No Way' written in crayon.”
Oz: “They're typing those now.”

Wesley: “I didn't get this job because of my looks.”
Buffy: “I really, really believe that.”

Wesley: “Buffy, you will go to the Gleave's family crypt tonight and fetch the amulet.
Buffy: “I will?”
Wesley: “Are you not used to being given orders?”
Buffy: “Whenever Giles sends me on a mission, he always says "please." And afterwards I get a cookie.”

Buffy: “Faith, wait! Look, I know this new guy’s a dork, but… Well I have nothing to follow that. He’s pretty much just a dork.”

Buffy: “Okay, we got ten, maybe twelve bad guys, and one big demon in desperate need of a Stairmaster.”

And another thing

Anthony Stewart Head and Alexis Denisof both did guest appearances on the TV series "Highlander."

El Eliminati" is a fictional cult. But maybe Doug Petrie named it after the "Illuminati," which is supposedly a secret group whose primary goal is to have complete control of the entire world, destroying all religions and governments in the process.

How many stakes?

These bad girls could have been badder. 3 (out of 5)

More Films: Classic Ghibli, Insane Superheroes and a Ghostly Romance

2011-05-01T09:48:00.000-07:00

Just a few more to add to the list. I’ve recently embarked on a mission to watch all the Studio Ghibli films after seeing and loving Kiki’s Delivery Service last Christmas on TV and recently rewatching the brilliant Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. For those who don’t know, Studio Ghibli is an animation studio in Japan founded in 1985 and headed up by the legendary directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. The studio is synonymous with high quality traditional animation built around story, theme and character and of developing talent and creativity in a nurturing and supportive environment. Studio Ghibli is very much akin to Pixar in the USA. And though Pixar are CG animation based it is the same ethos, the same dedication to meaningful stories and characters with genuine heart and soul as well as to beautiful animation that makes both these studios great and their films some of the most successful ever in their field. In fact Pixar and Ghibli have a relationship with Pixar supervising dubbing and US releases for several Ghibli films.

Anyway, here’s the update.

K-Pax

Iain Softley’s 2001 drama starring Kevin Spacey as the man claiming to be an alien from the planet K-Pax being treated by psychiatrist Jeff Bridges. This is a nicely made and mildly affecting drama about how tragedy affects people and how some people can positively affect others. Spacey is great, Bridges is fine. It’s a tad too mawkish and predictable at times but I still found it pleasantly watchable. 3 (out of 5)

Howl’s Moving Castle

Hayao Miyazaki’s 2004 animated tale concerning a young girl called Sophie who works as a hatter and gets cursed by a jealous witch and turned in to an old woman. Sophie’s only hope lies in the form of a handsome, vain and self-centred wizard called Howl and his magical moving castle. But Howl is also in trouble being as he is on the run from sinister dark forces while the world around looks about to erupt in to a devastating war. Howl’s Moving Castle is a beautifully animated fantasy adventure with real depth and some great characters. Many of Miyazaki’s familiar themes are at play – female empowerment, learning to take on responsibility, hatred of war and violence, respect/love for nature, truth found in dreams etc. Wonderful stuff. 4.5 (out of 5)

Wakewood

David Keating’s grim, bloody and pretty effective supernatural folk horror set in rural Ireland starring Aiden Gillen, Eva Birthistle and Timothy Spall. A couple moves to the small Irish village of Wakewood to try and recover from the recent loss of their young daughter only to discover some truly weird local goings on. Think The Wicker Man (original not the Nic Cage abortion) meets Stephen King’s Pet Cemetery with a hint of Nicholas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now. A very decent little chiller co-produced by the resurrected Hammer Films. 3.5 (out of 5)

Your Highness

The team (sans Seth Rogen) who made the excellent Pineapple Express come back with a foul-mouthed sword and sorcery comedy/adventure. Problem is it ain’t very funny (the gags work way better in the trailer) and James Franco is awful. Still, at least Natalie Portman looks hot and made me laugh out loud by mentioning the burning in her beaver. Disappointing and a little tiresome. 2 (out of 5)

Dragonwyck

Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s rather overripe 1946 gothic melodrama starring Gene Tierney, Walter Huston and Vincent Price. This was something I accidentally stumbled across on Film4 and just kept on watching…mostly because the late Gene Tierney struck me as being utterly gorgeous and quite a mesmerising screen presence. The story’s the same old guff about a young naive girl going to a be a governess at a big old house (the Dragonwyck of the title) where she then falls for the house’s master and local landowner only to latterly discover that he harbours a dark and deadly secret. Dragonwyck is a handsomely made and nicely shot film from back in the day. It’s those handsome production values and the strong performances by the lovely Tierney and the always fun to watch Price that elevate it above most of the other turgid melodramas of the period. As does its theme of 19th century America trying to throw off the old world shackles of titled landowners who by right of birth alone own not just the land but everything on it. Not great then, but watchable. 2.5 (out of 5)

The Ghost and Mrs Muir

I think Film4 must have been having a Gene Tierney season as this one was on a couple of days after Dragonwyck. The Ghost and Mrs Muir is a 1947 romantic fantasy also directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and based on a novel by Josephine Leslie. Set in 1900 England, the story follows young widow Lucy Muir who moves with her daughter to a cottage by the sea only to find it haunted by the ghost of its former occupant - a roguish sea captain played with great charm and gusto by Rex Harrison. After failing to scare the headstrong Lucy away, the ghost and the widow become reluctant friends and with Lucy battling money troubles they soon begin working together on a novel based on the captain’s colourful life. This is a cosily funny and pleasingly sweet story of loss, love and fighting to come to terms with the changing world around you. Once again, Tierney is lovely to look at and has an appealingly gentle, yet also strong and feisty take-no-crap persona. Harrison (as to be expected) is pure class and charisma as the rough, gruff ghost with a soft centre. Interesting to note it is Natalie Wood playing Lucy’s little daughter. This is a well-made and cute little tale with a bittersweet ending. But it’s probably not for all you hardened cynics out there. Call me an old softy. 4 (out of 5)

My Neighbour Totoro

Hayao Miyazaki’s delightful animated film set in 1958 tells of two young sisters Satsuki (10) and Mei (4) who move to a house in the country with their professor father while their mother recovers in hospital from an unnamed illness. While out exploring one day, Mei discovers friendly spirits living in the forest next to their house. One in particular – a big fluffy creature who sleeps in a giant Camphor Tree and calls himself Totoro – becomes her friend. Older sister Satsuki becomes jealous and wants to see Totoro too. She soon gets her wish in possibly the films greatest and most iconic sequence as Totoro comes to stand next to her at a bus stop while she and Mei are waiting in the rain for their dad to come home. This is a lovely and refreshingly innocent, fun and freespirited film. The story is simple. There are no bad guys or villains. Nobody dies or gets hurt and the two young sisters are great characters, full of life who charge everywhere at full speed eager to see and enjoy as much of the world as possible. It’s simply a great, positive tale of childhood imagination and exuberance filled with flights of creative genius and a warm beating heart. But underlying all of the fun is a childhood fear of losing parents, of being left alone in the world. The long mystery illness of the mother is always on both girls’ minds as they often fret that she might not come home to them as promised. And one evening when dad is not on the bus as he’s supposed to be on that fear of potential parental loss hits again. But this is all quite subtle and the overall feeling from the film is of upbeat and imaginative childish joy. A justified classic for kids and grownups alike that puts most Hollywood family films to shame. 5 (out of 5)

The Cat Returns

A Studio Ghibli film from 2002 directed by Hiroyuki Morita and a partial sequel to Ghibli’s 1995 film Whispers of the Heart. In The Cat Returns, Haru, a quiet, shy high school student, saves the life of a cat on a busy city street one day. Amazingly the cat speaks to her, thanking her for saving its life and promises a reward. Later, Haru receives a visit from the Cat King himself who showers her with gifts she doesn’t want (mice, cat nip etc.) and also says that as thanks she will be taken to the Cat Kingdom to marry his son the prince, the very same cat she saved. Horrified, Haru runs off and is guided by a mysterious voice to the Cat Bureau where she meets The Baron, a suave and kindly cat who promises to help her get out of the marriage. Soon, Haru is taken forcibly to the Cat Kingdom where as soon as she arrives she starts turning in to a cat. The Baron, together and his fat cat friend, Muta, travels to the Cat kingdom after Haru where he must somehow convince the King not to go through with the marriage and to return Haru home before she becomes a cat forever. The Cat Returns is another delightful fantasy adventure from Ghibli, this time being directed by first timer Hiroyuki Morita who does a great job. As with all Ghibli films it looks gorgeous and the story is full of charm and warmth. It’s not quite as rich in depth and scope as most other Ghibli films but The Cat Returns is still a great looking, fun and effortlessly charming affair. 4 (out of 5)

Super

James (Slither) Gunn’s violent, demented and blackly hilarious real world superhero film tells the story of a man called Frank losing his mind as he falls in to the pit of personal despair after his drug addict wife whom he loves dearly leaves him for her rich nasty dealer. Frank’s reaction to his trauma is to channel his righteous rage (inspired by a terrible TV Christian superhero) in to becoming The Crimson Bolt. Armed with a hefty wrench, Frank/Crimson Bolt goes out on the streets and beats to a pulp dealers, thieves and just about anyone who does anything he doesn’t like including obnoxious people who push in line in queues. However Frank’s ultimate mission is to rescue his wife from the clutches of her drug dealer. At the same time the cops as well as local criminals are looking to hunt down this troublesome new costumed vigilante ‘hero’, a hero who has also now managed to pick up a sidekick - a psychotic comic book nerd girl who calls herself Boltie. Super is a brilliantly sad, bleak, scary, funny satire on superheroes, religion, love, longing, and life in general. As Frank, Rainn Wilson is very good, but it’s cute little Ellen Page as scary psycho Boltie who steals the show. And now Boltie's following me on Twitter. Gulp! 4.5 (out of 5)

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Miyazaki’s 1984 classic is a visually arresting, exciting, thought provoking and emotionally engaging tale of environmental collapse and humans battling the threat of their own extinction from ever encroaching poisonous jungles whilst also fighting each other for control of dwindling land and resources. In the midst of all this is Nausicaa, a young princess from an isolated and peaceful valley who has a natural affinity for all animals and who may hold the key to the human race’s ultimate survival. The story of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is beautifully told, intricately structured and plotted, and the characters – especially the smart, kind, sensitive, determined Nausicaa - are immensely appealing. Wanton environmental damage and the pointless and self-defeating nature of war and violence are familiar Miyazaki themes that are all present here and will be further explored in the likes of Princess Mononoke. Primarily, though, this is a sci fi post apocalyptic tale and is not folklore/magic-based, as is Mononoke. Watching Nausicaa I was struck by how much it reminded me of Cameron’s Avatar with a dash of The Lord of the Rings. The imagery is very similar to Avatar – the big, multicoloured jungles filled with hostile beasts where you can’t breathe the air, as it’s poisonous to humans. Then there’s the young princess who has a natural affinity with nature. And the main jungle creatures, the Omes, huge insect things, even produce glowy tentacles, which they use to communicate and also to heal. Plus you also have the big, lumbering human warships flying over the jungles, looking to wreak havoc. I’m sure Cameron is a fan and used much of this for inspiration for Avatar. A shame then that he didn’t also use some of Miyazaki’s more complex and richer storytelling. Nausicaa from the Valley of the Wind is a great movie and one I’ll be watching many more times. It’s intelligent, exciting, emotionally engaging and looks beautiful. This was the film that effectively birthed Studio Ghibli being a huge hit and allowing Miyazaki and co. to go set up their own studio. If you like intelligent sci fi that’s actually about something then give it a go. 5 (out of 5)

Buffy and Machette Kill Romero Zombies Real Good.

2011-04-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

Oooh, now this is one of the coolest/weirdest/daftest/greatest things I've seen for a fair old while.

A wicked grindhouse style trailer for the new Call of Duty game expansion pack...

Ah, balls to it. Hey, look, I'm no gamer so I've no idea what the frak I'm talking about so i'll just leave it to the official blurb:

""Escalation", the second Call of Duty: Black Ops map pack, to play as the zombie-killing dream-team of Sarah Michelle Gellar, Robert Englund, Michael Rooker, and Danny Trejo against a new and unnerving zombie menace. Set in a mysterious, ice-covered, remote Siberian island and inspired by legendary writer and director George A. Romero, a group of four fearless explorers fight for their lives amidst an army of bloodthirsty Soviet zombies."

This is blatanly SMG doing Buffy with Danny Trejo doing Machette working together along with Michael Rooker and Robert Englund to slay a whole boat load of nasty zombies and with a cameo from the zombie daddy of them all - George A Romero. I don't know games but I know what makes me giggle like a geeked-out loon.

Go Buffy and Machette! Now there's one hell of a fucked up fan fiction crossover idea.

Goodbye Sarah Jane

2011-04-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

R.I.P. Elisabeth Sladen
1 February 1948 – 19 April 2011

The lovely and talented Elisabeth Sladen, who played Sarah Jane Smith in Doctor Who opposite Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker in the 1970’s and then again opposite David Tennant in 2006 before getting her own highly successful series The Sarah Jane Adventures, passed away today aged just 63. She’d apparently been fighting cancer for a while but had kept her illness a secret shared only with her family and a few close friends. She was due to make a fifth series of The Sarah Jane Adventures this year for CBBC.

Unfortunately I never had the opportunity to meet Elisabeth. Even so, the lady and I go way back.

You see, one of my earliest and most vivid of memories is being sat at home on a Saturday evening watching Jon Pertwee’s Doctor, together with the smart, beautiful and feisty Lis Sladen as Sarah Jane in a weird and scary adventure running around some creepy looking caves. Now I don’t remember the exact episode. I was only around four or five at the time. I just remember being glued to the TV, utterly mesmerised by what was going on.

And so I kept on watching.

Eventually Doctor Who left the air in 1989 after ratings and quality fell through the floor. But even after the latter shonky scripts and the even shonkier creative decisions, like many fans I kept the hope alive that one day the show would return and the quality would return, too.

And return it did in 2005 thanks to Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner at BBC Wales. And one of the best decisions Russell ever made was to bring back the beloved Sarah Jane Smith in the wonderful 2006 David Tennant episode ‘School Reunion’. It was like old times. Elisabeth had barely aged. She was still smart, still beautiful and still feisty. And still with that lovely smile of hers. She was still Sarah Jane Smith. And a whole new generation of fans soon fell for her just as we had done thirty years before. So much so that the BBC gave the lady her own series on CBBC – The Sarah Jane Adventures, which quickly became the channels biggest hit and stayed that way through four series with a fifth planned for this year.

Simply, Elisabeth Sladen made Sarah Jane Smith arguably the greatest and the best loved of all the Doctor’s many companions. Even people who don’t know much about Doctor Who will often still know who Sarah Jane Smith is. It was wonderful of Russell T Davies to have given Elisabeth the opportunity to reprise the role and to have (naturally) gone on to become beloved by a whole new generation of fans. I’m sure there will be children and parents and grandparents up and down the nation and all around the world who will be so incredibly sad to hear this awful news. Like I said, I never had the opportunity to meet her in person, but she is one of those figures who played such a big part in my childhood that I kinda feel like I’ve always known her. Those lucky enough to have met her over the years have said that she was a warm and thoughtful lady, a pleasure to know. I don’t doubt that for a second.

My thoughts and prayers go to Elisabeth’s family and friends at this sad time.

A fun little Sarah Jane tribute I found on YouTube

Movies I’ve Recently Seen

2011-04-12T16:04:00.000-07:00

Why all the boys (and the girls as it turns out) love Amber Heard, a top talent of 2011.

Being the lazy git that I am I’ve decided to forgo the usual longwinded reviews for films I’ve been watching. Mainly cuz for the really important ones my friend and co-blogger Rob over at http://robnolanrobrage.blogspot.com/ does a way better job than I. If you don’t believe me go check out his review for Sucker Punch which I wholeheartedly agree with. A blindingly good review. Anyway, here’s some of the better stuff I’ve seen recently, some old, most new, with a few random thoughts attached.

The Social Network: David Fincher’s film from a script by the legend who be Aaron Sorkin is without doubt a smart and excellently made film. However I found it rather hard to get in to as I pretty much hated all the characters and what it is they were all trying to do. I couldn’t root for anyone and wished they’d all fail dismally. Still, I fully appreciate the film’s pedigree and quality. I just didn’t care about the story it was telling. Sorry. 3.5 (out of 5)

Enchanted: Utter romcom fluff with a rather uninspiring third act. But what it does have is one devastating weapon that more than makes up for any shortcomings: Amy Adams. As Giselle Amy is a true Disney princess come to life but played with genuine warmth and depth by someone you just know is a truly fine actress. Plus she looks so darn cute and can surely belt out those catchy Alan Menken/Stephen Schwartz songs. And good ol’ James Marsden is clearly having a ball as clueless Prince Edward. Predictable? Yes. Schmaltzy? Uh huh. Funny? Often. Charming? lots. 3 (out of 5)

The Green Hornet: Seth Rogen and Jay Chou in Michel Gondry’s oddball superhero bromance. The story is daft but Rogen and Chou make for a genuinely fab duo with Chou being especially great. Gondry directs with flair and a creative leftfield charm. The Britt Reid/Kato fight is a film highlight of the year and a definite homage to the classic Clouseau/Cato Pink Panther fights of old. Lots of Fun. 4 (out of 5)

Kiki’s Delivery Service: Hayao Miyazaki’s animated fantasy from 1989 about a young witch finding her place in the world is a sweet, fun, thematically rich coming of age fable adapted from a popular children’s book of the same name. Like all Studio Ghibli films (as with all Pixar films too) this is far too good for kids. Funny, engaging and uplifting. And a sarcastic talking cat too. What more do you want? 4.5 (out of 5)

The Fighter: Solid if unremarkable drama from David O’Russell that really only excels in the acting. Bale, Leo and Adams are all terrific with Bale and Leo winning well deserved Oscars. Apart from that it’s pretty run of the mill stuff. 3 (out of 5)

Bridge to Terabithia: A 2007 three hankie weepie from those Jesus lion botherers Walden Media, the overtly Christian production company trying to brainwash kids worldwide via talking CGI animals and the voice of Liam Neeson. Still, this one is at least a well made film with a strong cast and a rather touching story of the innocence of childhood, the escape of imagination and the power of deep and lasting friendship. 3 (out of 5)

The Ward: John Carpenter sees a welcome semi-return to form in this effective if rather familiar story of female rebellion in a haunted mental hospital. Amber Heard stars and does a great job. Carpenter directs with style and a steady hand. More please, John. 3.5 (out of 5)

The Troll Hunter: Norwegian mockumentary about a guy who goes around the country secretly hunting down rogue trolls to try and keep the public safe and in the dark of the creatures existence. It’s like Cloverfield but with a knowing sense of humour, a big dose of silliness, and a lot less budget. 3.5 (out of 5)

Rare Exports: Finnish Christmas movie with a difference. You’ll never think of Santa quite the same way again. Odd, black humoured, creative and creepy. A great export from Finland. 4 (out of 5)

Drive Angry 3D: Nic Cage complete with dodgy wig and Amber Heard complete with uber hotness star in a silly but pretty entertaining supernatural exploitationer. However its William Fichtner as the Accountant, the Devil’s right hand man, who steals the show. 3 (out of 5)

Jackass 3D: It’s Jackass. It’s in 3D. What more do you need to know? If you like Jackass you’ll laugh until you puke. If you don’t like Jackass you’ll just puke. 3 (out of 5)

Tangled: beautifully made, laugh out loud funny and immensely charming CG animation from Disney based upon the story of Rapunzel. The character animation is sublime and the script crackles with wit and warmth. Zachary Levi, Mandy Moore and Donna Murphy are pitch perfect in their voice roles. Almost as big a surprise as last years How to Train Your Dragon. Fab. 4.5 (out of 5)

The King’s Speech: Firth and Rush are both utterly brilliant in this well made and uplifting true story of the reluctant king forced to become his own man and to master his insecurities and deep seated issues in order to help inspire and encourage his nation in its darkest hour. A few historical liberties don’t subtract from a quality film and a well deserved box office smash and Oscar grab for Firth. God save the King. 4.5 (out of 5)

Paul: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kristen Wiig, Jason Bateman and Seth Rogen star in Greg Mottolla’s alien road movie and homage to Spielberg. Very funny and a genuine geek pleasure for fellow Spielbergologists and sci fi fans. 4 (out of 5)

127 Hours: Danny Boyle’s stylish, creative, energised, gruelling yet emotionally satisfying film with James Franco as the dude who lops off his own arm to survive. Masterful filmmaking. 4.5 (out of 5)

Burke and Hare: Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis star as the eponymous 19th century Edinbrough murderers in John Landis’s great looking, quirky and darkly amusing comedy/horror. Landis recaptures something of his old form and the cast is uniformly great. Oh, and Isla Fisher is the very definition of adorable. 3 (out of 5)

Rango: Johnny Depp is the lost lizard who becomes sheriff of a town called Dirt in Gore Verbinski’s arthouse animation that is far too good and deep and rich to be just for the kids. It’s gorgeously made and is deep in theme and subtext. Plus it’s a million times better than his two rubbish Pirates of the Caribbean sequels. 5 (out of 5)

Battle: LA: a very silly and overly corny U.S. military vs. invading alien scum movie. Independence Day meets Blackhawk Down with dialogue so awful it gives Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbour a run for its money. Still, it looks great and has some kick ass action. 3 (out of 5)

Disappearance on 7th Street: A nicely weird, creepy and ambiguous apocalyptic chiller from Brad (The Machinist) Anderson. Weirdly Hayden (I sucked in Star Wars) Christiensen, Thandie Newton and John Leguizamo are all actually rather good. 3.5 (out of 5)

Tamara Drewe: Stephen Frears' film is fairly standard romcom stuff but the setting is beautiful as is Gemma Arterton as Tamara. Quality character actor Roger Allam is fab as an obnoxious womanising writer but it’s young Jessica Barden as the obsessed, scheming and slightly bonkers local teen, Jody, who steals the show. 3 (out of 5)

Sucker Punch: Zack Snyder’s bloody great pop video/video game/musical/art house movie is a thematically rich and visually stunning delight featuring his usual bravura explosion of cutting edge and beyond filmmaking techniques. It’s like Inception meets Shawshank Redemption meets Girl, Interrupted by way of all sorts of hyper stylised video games and fevered fantasies. A feast for the eyes and for the brain if only the lazy and the thick could be bothered to dig a little deeper. Wicked stuff. 5 (out of 5)

Hobo with a Shotgun: Outrageously violent exploitation movie with grizzled ex-replicant and Guinness salesman Rutger Hauer as a vigilante hobo cleaning up the town one shot at a time. Guns, gore, sex, murder, blood, gore, guns, more gore, even more gore… But it is all done with its huge tongue firmly in its huge cheek. And for a no money exploitationer it’s extremely well made. The director is one to watch in the same way as Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson were. 3.5 (out of 5)

And Soon The Darkness: Lovely and talented Amber Heard misplaces her cute but skinny and intensely annoying friend Odette Yustman in rural Argentina. Pretty soon Dr McCoy, er, Karl Urban turns up and may or may not be a bad guy. A nice looking and solidly made if stubbornly dull and formulaic thriller adapted from an acclaimed 1970 British movie of the same name written by Brian Clements and Terry Nation. Amber Heard was a producer here. Why did she bother? S’pose she got a trip to Argentina out of it if nothing else. 2 (out of 5)

The Crow: A Future Remake to Ruffle Some Feathers

2011-04-10T10:19:00.000-07:00

The Crow: Descent (ft Foo Fighters) One of the best fan vids ever.

And so the new film adaptation of James O’Barr’s classic and much loved (by me and many, may others) graphic novel The Crow gets its new director after the last one, Stephen (Blade, LXG) Norrington, left over creative differences. The new megaphone wielder is 28 Weeks Later’s Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Now I’ve no idea what the rest of Fresnadillo’s work is like but I thought 28 Weeks Later was excellent and almost as good as Danny Boyle’s now iconic original. So consider me reasonably happy.

But what this turn of events has done is once again bring in to question the continuing and seemingly unstoppable trend of Hollywood remakes and reboots. Many are crying foul over this practice with much wailing and gnashing of teeth from rabid fans about what they see as soon to be bastardised ruination of their own individual beloved materials. I’m guilty of this too, mostly around the upcoming Buffy remake. I also initially cried foul over Matt Reeves’ remaking Let the Right One In being that the Swedish original is a movie I love dearly and feel a great deal of protectiveness towards, just as I do with Buffy. However I quickly realised that as far as LTROI goes I was just being silly. The new film wasn’t going to harm or take from me the original. In fact, if I were really lucky I might even get two slightly different but equally brilliant versions of the same story. And that’s almost exactly what happened. I still prefer LTROI but Matt Reeves’ film is a worthy take on John Ajvide Lindqvist’s excellent novel and a great film in its own right.

Buffy, however, is a different story.

Just to be clear I’m not morally opposed to a Buffy reboot/remake sometime down the line. After all, the classic TV show was itself a remake/reboot of the original crappy 1992 movie. No, what I object to about this particular planned reboot is that Buffy, as (re) established by her creator Joss Whedon after his original script was fecked up by the 1992 film’s inept producers and director, is still ongoing and still popular. Her story is still being told by Joss and co. in a highly successful comic book series. What also really grinds my gears is the lack of total and utter respect for Joss in all of this. He was never even consulted about the proposed new movie let alone invited to work on it. I realise I’m probably being precious and over protective here. In fact, I know that I am. I can’t help it.

Yikes! And now I’ve gone off on a complete tangent.

I wasn’t intending to babble on about the Buffster and the unfairness of it all, honestly! No, this was supposed to be primarily about The Crow, and how, oddly, I don’t find myself objecting to this planned new film version.

Right then, so, back to the main point of this blog.

The Crow is a movie I love a great deal and is one of my all time faves. It’s a simple, mythic, darkly violent and tragic fairytale…with a bloody great soundtrack and an iconic central performance. I also love J O’Barr’s original graphic novel, which is a fair bit different to the 1994 movie, though the darkly poetic mood, as well as the pain and fury that burns up every single page is perfectly captured in Alex Proyas’s film. But what Proyas’s film also has at its heart to help lessen the almost overpowering fury and despair of the book is a strong, positive celebration of love and a belief that darkness and evil will not win out in the end. That love will indeed prevail.

The biggest problem I foresee for any new adaptation of The Crow is that the character and story of Eric Draven is so intrinsically linked to the late great Brandon Lee and to the tragedy that befell him on set. I can see one gigantic crow-shaped shadow getting ready to swoop in over anyone else taking on that particular role and telling that particular story. But this is not an insurmountable obstacle. An uncomfortable one probably, but not insurmountable. Already there has been the short-lived 1998/99 TV series The Crow: Stairway to Heaven with Marc Decascos as Draven. And despite that show not working (losing the film’s hard, violent edge in exchange for safe TV heroics and replacing the dark, oppressive, stylish look with flat photography and bland Canadian locations) Decascos did do a good job as Eric. But because the show made little to no impact it is mostly forgotten now.

To say again I really, honestly don’t have a problem with someone else at least having a go at making their own adaptation of O’Barr’s book and putting their own spin on it just as Proyas did with his film. It’s a simple, great story, a mythic, human story. One that deserves to be retold as all great stories do so long as its soul and its meaning is kept intact. Hopefully this new version will be good (unlike the lousy sequels) and I and other fans will enjoy it the same way that we can happily enjoy the many film and/or TV adaptations of other classic books and stories that keep on getting made.

However there is a caveat. Don’t try and make it in to a continuing franchise with Eric as the ongoing hero. His story is simple and final. Come the end he gets his peace, he gets to be with Shelley.

But whatever happens, for me at least, the original film of The Crow with Brandon Lee’s perfomance as Eric Draven and Alex Proyas’ directorial vision will always remain the definitive depiction of the character and story outside of O’Barr’s book. It just has so much genuine power behind it through the way it is told and the events surrounding it. But where I part company with many other fans is that that should not stop others from being able to retell O’Barr’s tale in their own distinctive way, to hopefully let it connect with new and future generations.

The Crow should continue to fly.

Within Temptation: The Unforgiving

2011-04-06T16:05:00.000-07:00

So I just got the brand new album from one of my favourite bands, the Dutch symphonic rock band Within Temptation.

This latest one is a concept album called The Unforgiving and is based on a supernatural story of vengeance and redemption cooked up by the band. It’s kind of like The Crow with dead people being brought back to life to punish evil doers. But unlike The Crow, these reanimated souls also did bad things before they died and are now doing what they are doing in order to gain redemption. So I guess there’s a bit of Angel in there too. On a DVD that comes with the album is a prequel comic featuring the main character, Sinead, and three short films prefacing three music videos, the fir of which 'Mother Maiden/Faster' is above. The three films tell a loose story which is apparently going to be expanded in a proper ongoing comic book from the guy who did, amongst other things, Witchblade.

Anyway, the album itself is great. It’s kinda different to WT’s usual stuff being that it’s more pop and is very highly produced and with wider influences than their usual metal, Celtic and symphonic styles, with those latter two being noticeably lesser this time out. There are a few standout tracks on the album including the first single shown above called ‘Faster’. However I felt the song writing overall was slightly lacking. Not so many songs leapt out at me this time as in previous albums. Having said that they are all still good and I’m sure I’ll be appreciating them more and more over time. But this is something of an experiment for the band, pushing themselves in a slightly new direction, and mostly successfully. But I for one just hope they don’t abandon their old Celtic and symphonic tropes as that’s part of what I love most about them, that and Sharon’s gorgeous voice.

And speaking of the lovely Sharon - is it just me or does she look even more gorgeous than usual in this video? Those eyes, those lips, that voice... Hooboy!

I’ll be in my bunk.