In 1940s China, British ex-pat child James Graham (Christian Bale) is a spoiled, entitled little brat, until World War II arrives with an invasion from Japan, separating him from his parents and leaving him to fend for himself in his abandoned home before eventually becoming interned in a prisoner-of-war camp.
My Twin Peaks first-time watch continues! I’m still happy I’m watching and, as predicted, this episode poses far more questions than it offers solutions, but then we’re only two episodes in, so I wasn’t exactly expecting the loose ends to be tied up any time soon. Here are my thoughts:
And so it begins, my journey into Twin Peaks! At this point in time I’m not sure exactly how I’m going to tackle this – I don’t intend to do a full play-by-play episode breakdown, more just talking about my thoughts as we go, and making any predictions based on what I’ve seen. These posts will not be spoiler free, but I’ll only be covering spoilers up to the episode I’m discussing, as I won’t have seen anything beyond it! As such, please refrain from any future spoilers in your comments, thanks!
So full disclosure, I have seen this episode once before, however I wasn’t really paying attention to it and literally all I remembered was that a girl was found dead. As for what I know about future episodes (based mainly on interactions with the French Toast Sunday crew who are mostly massive Twin Peaks fans, even having been to a special Twin Peaks-themed event when they visited London 10 years ago), I was aware of Kyle MacLachlan showing up as a detective of some kind and having an affinity for pie and coffee, and that there would be a lady carrying a log, for reasons that I assume will never be explained (I believe Lindsay from FTS dressed up as this so-called Log Lady for a party one year). I was thrilled to meet said Log Lady in the first episode, and I look forward to future bizarre interactions with her.
Continue readingJeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) returns from university to his smalltown home of Lumberton to look after the family hardware store when his father is hospitalised from a heart attack. After visiting the hospital, Jeffrey discovers a severed human ear in the woods, and begins investigating into its origin, leading him to team up with policeman’s daughter Sandy (Laura Dern) and lounge singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) who seems connected in some way. Also connected is local gas-huffing psychopath crime lord Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) and his crew of cronies, but how deep is Jeffrey going to delve into the seedy world beneath the perfect veneer of suburbia?
Okay folks, strap in. Six days after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the United States of America was concerned about another attack on US soil. 1941 follows a bunch of people in and around California over the course of one day, including:
– The crew of a Japanese submarine searching for something honourable to destroy, commanded by Akiro Mitamura (Toshiro Mifune) alongside German officer Wolfgang von Kleinschmidt (Christopher Lee), and eventually kidnapping Christmas tree salesman Hollis P. Wood (Slim Pickens).
– US Air Force captain “Wild” Bill Kelso (John Belushi) apparently chasing Japanese aircraft in his Warhawk.
– Captain Loomis Birkhead (Tim Matheson) attempting to seduce old girlfriend Donna Stratton (Nancy Allen), now the secretary of General Stillwell (Robert Stack), complicated by the fact that Stratton can only become aroused in a flying airplane, and Birkhead is not a qualified pilot.
– Civilian couple Ward and Joan Douglas (Ned Beatty and Lorraine Gary) are presented with an anti-aircraft gun due to the coastal location of their home.
– The Douglas’ daughter, Betty (Dianne Kay), wants to go to the jitterbug dance with newly-unemployed former-dishwasher Wally (Bobby Di Cicco), which becomes a problem when the dance becomes only available to enlisted men, much to the joy of the aggressive Corporal Sitarski (Treat Williams), who has eyes for Betty, whilst Betty’s friend Maxine (Wendie Jo Sperber) very much has the hots for Sitarski.
– Two members of the Ground Observer Corps (Murray Hamilton and Eddie Deezen) are posted atop a Ferris wheel, keeping watch for any approaching enemy forces.
– And finally, devoid of any real through-plot, there’s a tank crew comprised of Sergeant Tree (Dan Aykroyd) and Privates Foley (John Candy), Reese (Mickey Rourke), Henshaw (Walter Olkewicz) and new addition Jones (Frank McRae).
With only four months left on her husband’s prison sentence, Lou Jean Poplin (Goldie Hawn) near-spontaneously springs Clovis (William Atherton) from imminent release and the two set out to retrieve their fostered child Langston from his new parents. Things inevitably go awry, leading to the couple taking Patrolman Slide (Michael Sacks) hostage in his patrol car and lead one of the slowest, and silliest, car chases across Texas.
Here it is, my annual ranking of all the films I saw from the previous year. As always this is based on UK release dates, and I gave myself until the end of January to circle back on some of the films I wasn’t able to see first time around. There’s a list at the bottom for films I’ve still not seen but would like to, and feel free to leave more suggestions in the comments.
Continue readingThey say it’s a bad idea to compare yourself to others, especially the lives others share on social media, but I don’t think that’s entirely true. For reasons I won’t go into just yet, I could describe my 2024 as having been pretty terrible, but when I put it into perspective against the year some of my friends have had, it starts to look not all that bad. What do you mean you’ve had a year filled with hospital trips and chemotherapy? You’re living in an active war zone? Too many of your weekends were spent attending family funerals? My current living situation is temporarily a little uncomfortable and now I have to take a tablet if I want to eat cheese!
So yes, my year could have been better, but it also could’ve been a whole lot worse, and I’m grateful for just how bad a year some of my friends had, so mine may appear better in comparison. So, how did my year go? If you’re new to these annual posts, I’ll be taking a look back at the plans and resolutions I made this time last year, laugh raucously at how few of them I accomplished, and then make some more wildly implausible plans for the coming twelve months. Let’s get to it!
Continue readingRemember when I’d have this list and my new year’s resolution post published on the first few days of the month? What blissful days they were, sat up typing on New Year’s Eve with my wife scrolling Instagram next to me, Interstellar playing in the background turned up loud so the dogs wouldn’t get terrified by the surrounding fireworks. Alas, things change and time marches on, but it brings with it a whole load of new films every year. Here’s my ranking of all the 2023 new releases I’ve seen so far (a significant selection have been watched in 2024). As always, as I’m in the UK I’m only counting films that were released in the UK in 2023, hence why some of these films might count for earlier years for some of you and, whilst I have seen the likes of Poor Things, American Fiction and The Holdovers, they weren’t released here until 2024, so you’ll find their placements around this time next year. Let’s go!
Continue readingI’m still here! And so are you! That’s awesome, welcome back. To give you an idea of time, I’m starting writing this on Sunday 7th January, fully a week into the new year. It’s unlikely I’ll finish it today, and with the aim of posting this as soon as possible (before February would be great) I’m going to keep things comparatively brief this year. As years go, 2023 wasn’t the best. In my personal life there were some massive dips (the only grandfather I’ve ever known passed in February, the first truly significant death I’ve experienced in well over two decades) and I don’t think my year ever fully recovered, but we’ve all kept going, life goes on, and the rest of the year saw us take some wonderful trips back to Scotland, see some shows (Back to the Future and Groundhog Day are both excellent) and welcome a new nephew into the family. None of this sounds like it has anything to do with the resolutions I set this time last year, or my plans for the future, so let’s curtail this and move things along, shall we?
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Life Vs Film 