A remake of a classic 1974 film opens in December, written and directed by one of The X-Files‘ regular writers. In the tradition of such remakes, and in light of some reviews, I don’t hold out hope of it being particularly good, but I did enjoy the trailer I caught at the cinema last night:

Following a wine-fuelled work quiz night on Friday which was good fun (my team lost on the tie-break and didn’t dispute too many answers…), I was up just after 5am on Saturday morning to get to the airport. I flew to City Airport for the first time, which is not only more convenient for central London than “London” Luton or “London Stansted”, but, because it was a smaller flight and a less busy airport, my checked baggage emerged very quickly (and in the right city too).

From there, a cheapish DLR journey took me to Greenwich, from where I took a stroll (more uphill than I’d remembered – grr) to Blackheath (and the obligatory second-hand bookshop browsing) and Lewisham. In the afternoon, I delivered some leaflets before heading back to Blackheath to see funny comedian Jeff Green. One joke I particularly remember was the bar happily selling us large drinks before the show without mentioning that we couldn’t take them in. All was not lost, though – the bar staff popped them in the fridge for us during the first half. Green himself was very funny, compensating for a quiet audience, low lights and a groin injury with spot on jokes about Blackheath, a good gag about Anne Frank merchandise and several naughty words.

After a lazy day including lunch in Greenwich, hired the 2005 film of The Producers to watch last night. It’s worth a look for plenty of funny bits (including my favourite shot from the original film), although becoming a musical in its own right does seem to have slown the film down a bit. For example, an early song and dance routine which illustrates Matthew Broderick’s motivation for joining Nathan Lane’s scam, while fun is lengthy and holds up the plot. Uma Thurman is good as a bad actress (a role she also played in The Avengers 😉 ), while Lane does well in the Zero Mostel role.

The best scenes are the introduction of Will Ferrell’s OTT German playwright, the indefatigibly camp Keep It Gay, and the opening sequence of Springtime for Hitler itself, in which a bleached blond, Nazi-uniformed John Barrowman off of Doctor Who and Torchwood (yes, and Live & Kicking) sings the title number. One or two of the new songs seemed a bit obviously lyrically, but the good elements make the whole film worth a look.

Well, I had all sorts of plans for last week, scuppered by a cold that left me without the energy for blogging (all that typing, it’s hard). I caught an episode of Commander in Chief on one of my days off – oh dear, oh dear. It’s not exactly The West Wing, is it? Or, more precisely, it absolutely isn’t. Everything that’s great about the latter – rounded, interesting characters, top notch dialogue, excellent direction, thoughtful stories – was notable by it’s absence. Commander in Chief – now axed, I believe – seemed more like a soap in which the lead happened to be a female president than a serious drama.

On Saturday, as my cold was finally waving goodbye, I went to the cinema to see Severance. Its writer, James Moran, has a blog, which I mention only to add that I don’t usually like to criticise other bloggers.

Severance pitches itself as a comedy horror film, but is neither funnier enough to class as a comedy, scary enough to be horror, nor surprising enough to be a decent thriller. There’s plenty of violence, most of which seems to be about grossing out the audience – not gratuitious exactly, but it lends little to the story, such that it is. This involves a group of (fairly unlikeable) characters becoming stranded in a forest in Eastern Europe and getting butchered – not exactly the most original concept in the canon of modern horror. The cast – which include Tim McInnerny off of Blackadder and Toby Stephens – are little more than OK, with the overpromoted Danny Dyer being a particularly noticeable detraction.

There are one or two good moments (an escort girl with a machine gun; a small twist just when you think the leads have won the day), but nothing that was worth the admission price and the expensive popcorn (and having to put up with a handful of idiots in the audience). The use of the pre-titles sequence was a little innovative, but really this was the most disappointing film I’ve seen at the cinema for some time (although there’s always The Wicker Man to look forward to).

I like to offer you a different view, so here’s an alternative take from David Bishop.

Update: Here’s another review, from Alan.

Last week’s story about Aaron Kosminski piqued my interest and so at the weekend I watched Jack the Ripper, a three hour long 1980s TV adaptation of the story, starring Michael Caine. While taking care in places to feature lots of detail from the time, for the sake of drama it also takes some significant liberties with the truth and, like most dramatisations, has to identify a culprit (whose identity was somewhat given away by the order in which the cast was billed). Caine does well enough, but it can’t be said his protrayal of Frederick Abberline is any more realistic than Johnny Depp’s.

The biggest problem with this adaptation, though, is that it’s badly made. The music is repetitive, the script is lazy, and the acting is, in too many cases, plain rubbish. Jonathan Moore has to be singled out for particular criticism because his journalist character, Benjamin Bates, appears regularly throughout the film, undermining every scene in which he is present. Thumbs down.

Last night I watched What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? Despite having seen a French & Saunders spoof, I knew relatively little about the film. It was a little lengthy but entertaining, mostly for Bette Davis’s stomping around like a washed up old drag queen. Some plot elements were frustrating (Joan Crawford’s character seems, for no good reason, unable to shout to her neighbour for help) but it’s certainly worth a look.