So, I just watched The Raid, and now have a new benchmark for delightfully over the top violence. It's just ninety minutes of people getting punched, kicked, stabbed, bludgeoned, shot, impaled, thrown down stairwells, blowed up real good, and sliced with machetes.

It also features probably the most honourable and fair-minded psychopathic death machine ever seen on screen, a weaponised refrigerator, and (in a wonderfully straightforward plot) a twist that I did not see coming.

So, Shameless is back, and Frank is truly one of the vilest characters ever to appear on screen. ( SpoilersCollapse )

Arrow is also back, and clearly Diggle has spent the hiatus working out. After that shirtless scene, ( Small spoilerCollapse ) Tommy has lost all chance of becoming the main slash pairing for the show.

Meanwhile, Thea was having an Awesome Thea episode, as opposed to the Annoying Thea episodes. By this show's standards, her ( SpoilerCollapse ) was unusually subtle writing.

Still really enjoying this show. Also, Laurel is pretty (although you may not have noticed her in between all the chiselled dudes).

Today I took advantage of HMV's looming insolvency to pick up The Raid, the Coen Brothers' True Grit, and The Hudsucker Proxy (which I have somehow never seen) ultra-cheap. Despite which I am now watching something called Two-headed Shark Attack. It has Brooke Hogan in it.

Why do I do this to myself?

Strictly Come Dancing (the paradigm from which the American show Dancing with the Stars, as parodied beautifully on Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23 - seriously, check it out just for James Van Der Beek and Dean Cain’s ultra-competitive dancing) is down to five contestants, which means I can now actually remember the difference between them. Interestingly, four out of five are female, and there will be no boyband members in the final. Which is unusual.

Anyway, the five contestants are, in alphabetical order:

( Read more...Collapse )

I still say Colin Salmon was robbed, though.

(And, sidebar: I would pay extremely good money for an Arrow spin-off about Colin Salmon and Emily Bett Rickards investigating corporate malfeasance, simply because you could call it Smoak and Steele)

... And just as I was about to post, Denise Van Outen started doing the Tango to Roxanne. It ill never be as awesome as the single best scene in Moulin Rouge, but it's a nice idea.

Some people are fuckheads. Don’t waste time trying to understand them. Don’t listen to their excuses. Pick up the pieces, mourn the dead, and forget the killers' names.

Michael Shannon's face is to acting as Tom Waits's voice is to music.

It's perfectly possible to achieve true greatness -- to reach the pinnacle of the art form -- without it. But adding it will make anything more interesting.

Seriously, consider recent Boardwalk Empire. First there's the Michael Shannon crazyface when he ( spoilerCollapse ). And then there's the Michael Shannon hilariously deadpan face, when he ( spoilerCollapse ). And then there's the Michael Shannon bulging eye of ( spoilerCollapse ).

Seriously, with recent events Boardwalk is running short of things worth watching. I'm mostly down to Richard Harrow, and Michael Shannon's facial expressions.

It is worrying the lengths I will sometimes go to for a bad joke.

Case in point: Yesterday at work.

Colleague: (Examining a picture of a dog with crazy eyes) "Still, it's just a Pomeranian. How much damage can it do?"
Me: "You wouldn't say that if... hang on, give me a minute."

(Five minutes of Wikipedia-ing ensue)

Me: "That's what they said about Hans Langsdorff before the Battle of the River Plate!"
Colleague: "..."
Me: "Because he was from Pomerania..."
Colleague: "..."
Me: "Yeah, I know. Sorry."

( Read more...Collapse )

On, and Diggle is still awesome.

1) Justified
( Read more...Collapse )

2) Castle
( Read more...Collapse )

3) Sons of Anarchy
( Read more...Collapse )

4) The Walking Dead
( Read more...Collapse )

5) Parks and Recreation
( Read more...Collapse )

6) Continuum
( Read more...Collapse )

7) Arrow
( Read more...Collapse )

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Richard Harrow dancing < Daryl Dixon feeding a baby.

Also, the most recent episode of Castle was hilarious.