dont watch morse whatever ya do, subbesy

quite enjoyed gormenghast, even tho its absurd and stupid. john sessions is ecellent in it & i never thought i'd ever say that about john sessions in anything.

it's boring but good. ambient background nonsense with pretty colours

"ecellent" is a new word i have invented, the meaning of which is exactly the same as "excellent"

Personally I found it massively disappointing.
Didn't feel any warmth toward any of the characters (some of whom were introduced for absolutely no reason what-so-ever, and then got rid of), Christopher Lee was at a career low, and those bloody twins made me want to shit.
An attmept to force too many remarkable actors in led to several weak performances, in my opinion, and whilst there were some treasurable moments (Eric Sykes), all in all I felt let down.

I really hated it. Alot.

I don't know John Sessions from anything - not the name, anyway. I have a good memory for faces & characters, prompting such outbursts as "it's him! That one who played Third Bankrobber From The Left in last weeks Lifetime Movie!"

BBC America also has the endearing habit of filling up the gaps (caused by having to fit 27 minutes of material into a slot that's only 15 minutes after ad. breaks are taken into consideration, so to hell with that, let's make it all 45 minutes long) in the schedule with "spotlight on..." and most of the time this is either Parkinson or Ghormenghast. The excerpt I saw was quite impossible to follow, and I'm a little worried the rest of it will be like that.


So yes, I'll probably end up paying more attention to the pretty lights & colours than the plot. ...anyway, I quite like Morse, especially the one where he dies in a horrible horrible way, then rises from the dead to claim his revenge. Erm.

> those bloody twins made me want to shit.

I'm sure I've seen that in an article about The Shining, though maybe in a different context entirely.

Do you have to pay to get BBC America? It seems hypocriticl that the BBC would trash their name with obnoxious american adverts just so the programmes the liscence payer here payed for could be screened on a shitty cable package along with porn and endless arrogant chat shows.

And they make money by splattering adverts on beeb.com. I think the BBC are closet capitalists.

Speaking of America, am I the only one who thought their universal panning of films like The Cable Guy were totally stupid? I even saw a joke on the Simpsons where Homer sees the Cable Guy scripts and tries to burn it and yells about how Jim Carrey could of been so stupid as to accept it. I thought it was a wonderful movie, and was upset after it got critically panned and Carrey and the newly returned Broderick lost favour. Yet Carreys later film Liar Liar got to number 1 and was acclaimed as a good comedy, I thought it was very weak and uninteresting. Christ, some Americans.. the Matrix is probably one of the most overated movies ever.. hailed as the most amazing movie ever, apprently incredibly original. Yes it's quite good, but it's just like 1000 other movies.. mostly chinese/japanese where some lowly person under oppression trains and becomes a great warrior and after a few overly choreographed action sequences of fighting wins against the odds. The Matrix is just this, with special effects. You can hardly rate it for the script of Keanu Reeves' acting talents. GRR...

I think your query can be answered easily: Americans Are Stupid.

Rather, they're predictable. the Canble Guy (though I've never seen it) had too many wierd undertones, i think.

>Do you have to pay to get BBC America?

Yep. For 2-week old Eastenders, endless infomercials about "miraculous cleaning products" and "Elvis sings country", the same episode of HARDtalk (it's abysmal, don't ask) every half-hoiur from 9:00 till 15:00, Hippies and occasional Ground Force. I have a suspicion that it's purely for the ex-patriots to watch, since no-one else would get half of the things. They show Blackadder (Goes Flaccid, at the moment), GGM and series 2 of TLoG, giving a wonderful view of British comedy. Not a whiff of the Goodies, before anyone asks.


> It seems hypocriticl that the BBC would trash their name with obnoxious american adverts just so the programmes the liscence payer here payed for could be screened on a shitty cable package along with porn and endless arrogant chat shows.

It does, doesn't it? We're paying through the nose, those of us who want to see people talking with proper accents like what we use.

There's also a lot of advertising for TheBritBeat.com (BBC America teams up with Virgin megastores to try and be another Towerrecords.com, but with the standard BBC ineptitude); BBC America.com stores, where you can buy - gosh! Libery teatowels and Hobnobs; and of course, the inevitable ghorman-bloody-ghast and Blackadder video sets. I hardly watch any more.

Three things:
1) Watch Morse. Every time - even if it's one of the later ones it knocks 'Gormenghast' into an extremely large cocked hat.
2) The Cable Guy - flop in the UK. The Matrix - huge hit in the UK. So who's more foolish etc. etc.
3) OK it does seem the BBC are whoring themselves around, but overseas sales, merchandising etc. are now a substantial part of what keeps the BBC going. For what it's worth.

>3) OK it does seem the BBC are whoring themselves around, but overseas sales, merchandising etc. are now a substantial part of what keeps the BBC going. For what it's worth.

Not just whoring. $10 crack whoring.

subbes, I told you ... oh, er, nothing

Nonono, *I'm* not the one $10 crack whoring.

> 2) The Cable Guy - flop in the UK. The
> Matrix - huge hit in the UK. So who's more > foolish etc. etc.

Yeah, but how do you think the films chances in American effected its chances overseas, specifically here? I mean we hear all about the films about 3 months before they're released and they talk about where it is in the film charts and what the reviews are like, in which case both were bad. And the fact that if it flops in America.. they have no money, and so can't advertise it on TV/Radio etc etc over here so basically they're fucked. I happen to think it's one of the best US movies over here for the last 5 years. And the above applies exactly the opposite for the Matrix, so aaah, check your prejudice in.

Prejudice scmedjudice. Just coz I won't join in with another round of Yank bashing...Why is it that Mike Hodges film 'Croupier' still doesn't have a UK release AFTER TWO YEARS when it's currently a huge hit in the US?

Anyway - does it really matter if a film does well at the box office? I loved the Coen Brothers 'Hudsucker Proxy' which didn't do a light here or in the States. I still saw it, I still got it on video, the Coens went on to do Fargo which is even better... Where's the problem?

The media tells us what to think. If the Media isn't happy with it, they won't plug it, and it'll sink without trace. I'm a big sucker for recieved opinion without bothering to check with myself as to whether I like it or not, which is why I didn't see The Cable Guy. Also the minor fact that the adverts scared the FUCK out of me.

Sometimes it's better to trust your instincts.
Hollow, Soulless Effects Movie, more like.
Having said that, I did learn the expression "let's get the monkey on the table"; although it was said in the sense of "let's dissect this invisible gorilla", I have corrupted it to mean "let's get going". Everybody can use this phrase for free, especially in front of wankers who say things like "let's get all our ducks in a row" and "let's make sure we're all on the same page" (meant figuratively).

Sorry Dr H. - what film are we talking about here?
(genuine question - confused Al - no sarcasm - etc, etc)

Probably the Cable Guy, hmm, I dunno, I just really like it for some reason, the humour isn't really as apparent as Carrey's other work. It's just very dark and funny, certainly funnier than anything Carrey has done since. And I'm not bashing America, I'm bashing the idiotic media, but of course, since most industries are primarily in America, as in they are the most influential, so whatever America thinks, the rest of the world are forced upon with that opinion. I mean, the media over here is equally crap..

Carrey's best film - 'The Truman Show' - without a doubt. My wife HATES Carrey and even she loved it.

Monkey? Table?

Gormlesscast lacked consistency. The director couldn't decide whether it was to be played as a pantomime or as a dark comedy. Some parts were terribly miscast, Dot Cotton for one. I wish I could single out Stephen Fry for abuse but he didn't have much of a part to ruin. The BBC were just giving the dear some holiday money. I thought Jonathan Rhy Meyers' (Steerpike) performance was absolutely marvelous. The director really let Meyers down badly.

Hollow Man!
Hollow, Soulless Effects Movie, more like, geddit?

Sorry, I was probably the only one stupid enough to actually pay to see it. Still, it was 'undemanding', luckily.

And it saved you from having to go out in the sunshine.

Well, i didn't see Gormlesscast. I forget why.

Cable Guy was probably too dark for the Yanks, and didn't have a 'happy ending'. The recent film 'Stigmata' originally ended with the protagonist dying from her wounds, but the director was told to dramatically alter the ending, so that the character lived, because her dying at the end was not optimistic enough. It's all bollocks. Fortunately the UK release was different from the US one (video and cinema release) and the region 2 DVD release contains the film with the alternate (original) ending.

but it had Sean Hughes in it - so surely it had to be good?

>but it had Sean Hughes in it - so surely it had to be good?


No. It was shit.

Sam D - just come back from seeing the lovely Sean in ART at the Wyndham's - very good! I have to say.... and he's so damned cute!

Oh, all right then, it was brilliant!

Hold on...

I'm holding on......

Okay, you can stop holding on now.

...........arghhh............

....

..

.

*falls*

Bastard!

They always fall for that one!
Golly, I'm so evil!