Things I've Noticed: Where are all the robots on TV?

When I was a kid there were a bunch of robots on TV, Rosie from the Jetsons, The Six Million Dollar Man, heck, even all those lady-robots from the Star Trek episode "I, Mudd"

(A Quick side note - I'm not actually old enough to have seen any of these live - except the Six Million Dollar Man, I'm just Canadian and therefore grew up on American re-runs and episodes of The Littlest Hobo)

As a younger kid in the '80s there was KITT, Chip Carson, The Transformers, Data and Astroboy.

In the '90s as a young parent, at least I had the Noo Noo from Teletubbies, and for a large chunk of the last ten years I've had the comfort of the Cylons on Battlestar Galactica.

A week ago while talking to my BFF Mike about this very problem the only current robot we could come up with was DJ Roomba from Parks and Recreation (who is awesome by the way and one of the only TV robots I've ever seen as a ghost).

If television was to be belived I thought that we'd all have robot butlers by now but the closest thing I have is my daughter's old Tekno sitting in a box somewhere in our basement.

All I'm saying here is, where are all of my robots on TV?!?

Genre Character of the Week: Captain Etienne Navarre

One of the things I’m often asked by one of my friends is to justify why I like dramas and tragedies. From his point of view, escapist fiction and film should be light-hearted as there is already enough misery in the real world. From my point of view I think that scenes of loss and heartbreak can be stunningly beautiful and without their existence the human experience simply becomes flavourless mush.

Case in point: Thinking of how I could match a genre character I liked with sadness, I closed my eyes and tried to think of some of the most heartbreaking things I’ve seen in fantasy films (why fantasy – my last two genre characters were out of horror and Science Fiction), and then it struck me: Captain Etienne Navarre.

Initially coming across as a heartless jerk, openly claiming that he is only using our protagonist to aid his own murderous ends, Navarre eventually changes throughout the film into one of those “Still Waters Run Deep” male romantic leads that I like so much. I first saw Ladyhawke when it came out in theatres, and although I was actually there to see the wisecracking kid from Wargames fight with swords, the love story between the films two romantic leads, Navarre and Isabeau (played wonderfully by Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfeiffer) eventually won me over entirely (and as I was a nine-year-old boy at the time, the romance was the thing I was least interested in).

For me the film basically came down to one scene (spoiler warning) as the two leads had been cursed to be “always together, eternally apart,” specifically, he became a wolf at night and she a hawk at dawn, so although they each spent half the day in human form it was never with the other. Anyway, the comic relief of the film attempts to find a way to cheat the curse and the sequence wherein they actually see each other for the first time in year is probably one of the most beautiful/sad film memories from my childhood – and I wouldn’t trade it for anything, I love the fact that a collaboration of cast, crew, production company, local theatre and my mom willing to take me to the theatre could affect me so emotionally.

Movie Review: Never Sleep Again - the Elm Street Legacy

One of my favourite parts of my latest (and last) undergraduate University course is the subject matter. It's called Communications Studies 425: Film & Genre, and genre movies are exactly the focus. They have units devoted to Horror, Science Fiction, Comedy, and Suspense and I'm having a blast taking the course. My homework this weekend? In preparation for a paper I'm writing next week on the evolution of Horror in film is a documentary called Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy.

If I had to describe the film in one word it would be this: Comprehensive. Having 20 to 50 minute segments on every film in the series, the short-lived television series and the cultural influence overall, this movie goes behind the scenes on every film, talking to producers, writers, effects guys, actors, and anyone else involved in the series to give you a picture of how this franchise originated and grew.

Honestly, I was kind of expecting an hour or so of people being self-congratulatory, and in the end I got a four hour look at exactly how these movies came to be, the ideas behind the films and a look back at some of the scariest films of my childhood.

If you can find this movie - give it a look, seriously I can't think of a better examination of a film franchise than this one.

Movie Review: Your Highness

Yesterday my wife and I went to an advanced screening of the film Your Highness starring Danny McBride and James Franco, with our friends Mike and Ron. The movie was pretty great. We got to the theatre about an hour before the film started and ended up waaaaay back in line, so our seating options were limited, luckily we found four pretty good seats together and got to enjoy the movie.

First off – the movie is to Fantasy as Paul is to SF – meaning the better versed you are in Fantasy films and the Fantasy genre overall the better time you will have at the film, as you will get more of the in-jokes. Secondly, McBride, Franco and David Gordon Green (the director) had previously starred together in Pineapple Express, so if you’ve seen that one, you’ll have a pretty good idea at the sense of humour in the film.

Secondly – this movie is not for kids – not only are the references likely to go over their heads, but there is a lot of violence, nudity and references to various bodily fluids.

Finally – this movie is a lot of fun. Knowing I was going into a crude, rude send-up of the Fantasy genre, I can say I was totally impressed, and more than a few times a little surprised, and once shocked at what some people will do if you let them have a muppet in their film.

Genre Character of the Week: Ben

Last weekend my daughter Kaia and I watched the original Night of the Living Dead, you see, she's become a pretty big fan of horror comedies, and as she has her eye on Shaun of the Dead, I figured that she should actually see some of the movies that those guys were parodying.

Anyway, as we watched the movie I realized that I hadn't done many classic horror characters as genre characters so I thought I would look at the one I liked best from that film, Ben.

Here's the thing about the characters in the film, with the exception of Ben (who's last name we never learn) everyone is pretty much ruled by their emotions or in a state of shock. Understandable, yes, but useful in a zombie apocalypse scenario - not really. Ben shows up about 20 minutes into the movie and up to this point we've just had Barbara freaking out by all the zombies chasing her. Taking shelter in an old house, she meets Ben, who begins to systematically set up the place for a siege.

What I like about Ben, he's pretty no nonsense, he's clearly the best guy to put in charge and he's working to save everyone's life. Also I'm fairly certain that he was the inspiration for the character Greg Preston (my personal favourite character in the reboot of Survivors - also a pretty no-nonsense guy who makes sure his first stop after the end times come is a camping store).

Book Review: Infected

How far would you be willing to go to stop an alien invasion? What would you do to protect yourself and your loved ones? Before I read this book, I assumed I would do a lot - that when it came to a truly horrible situation, I would go farther than most people.

Then I read this book. The main character, Perry Dawes put me to shame. This guy does everything he can to stop an alien takeover, and I mean everything.

The book was a podcast originally - and to be fair, I wonder if I had experienced it radio-play-style, if it would have worked better for me.

The gist of the story is, alien microbes attack Earth, making the infected sick and strange triangle-shaped growths begin to cover their bodies. The majority of the story follows one infected man in his apartment dealing with this strange, horrific condition.

Although the book didn't work out great for me (I found the majority of secondary characters to be very two-dimensional), the core story, of Perry in his apartment, was visceral and effective.

In the end I don't feel I can recommend the book, but I would definitely give the podcast a try.

Things I've Noticed: See It Twice and it's twice as nice

Last night I went to the encore performance of the National Live Theatre's production of Frankenstein at my local theatre. Having seen this play two weeks ago and loving it (my review is here), I wasn't exactly sure how much of a difference having the two leads switch roles would bring to the production.

Put simply - it was a pretty big difference. The first time I saw the play, I was impressed by the level of intensity brought to the performance. This time, it was the level of sympathy that surprised me - even knowing everything the creature was going to get up to I found myself nervous about how exactly this creature would do things.

From a critical standpoint this time I got to watch how they did things rather than just what they did. The set was pretty incredible and the overall acting was superb.

If a DVD of this play comes out, I would love to purchase it, but even if the only way I get to experience this show was the way I did, I'm glad I saw it both times. It was a really, really great show.