Was this year an exciting way to say goodbye to the decade? Here’s a reminder of what happened on planet Hampo this year (part 2, hopefully, follows tomorrow):-
January started out with one of my favourite shows being revived. Despite being up against EastEnders and being hosted by Ben Shepherd, the Krypton Factor did well enough to be recommissioned for a second series. We found out Who would replace David Tennant, and a year later we still haven’t actually seen him in the role. ITV’s latest attempt to ape the success of Doctor Who was Demons which failed spectacularly; the only creative thing about it being the number of different excuses the writers found for Christian Cooke to remove clothing.
Halfway through the new Star Trek film, I started getting anxious. How do the events of the movie fit into established continuity? Did the people in charge of the film read the Star Trek Chronology and Encyclopedia to ensure that there could be no contradictions of established lore? What would Seven of Nine think of all this?
Then I realised that this film really wanted to get away from the fanwankery that plagued the franchise in its later years, and so I forgot all about that and enjoyed it. Yes, it’s good.
Milk is on my big list headed “Films I wanted to see but missed while they were on at my local cinema so now I need to wait for the DVD” (as you can imagine, the font size of the heading is quite small).
Here’s the Oscar acceptance speech made by Milk‘s writer Dustin Lance Black, 1 minute and 38 seconds of wonderful eloquence:
Kudos also to ITV Granada, who, managed to dedicate a significant section of Granada Reports to the Oscars, simply because Danny Boyle is from Radcliffe. Much better than covering any actual local news!
As I emerged from Odeon’s new 500-screen (approximately) multiplex at Liverpool One the other night, I pondered how small cinemas like the one in Allerton manage to survive.
So I dial up the BBC News web site to see what’s happening, and there’s a headline on the front page that I have to read three or four times to make sure I have it right. Even then, there was still a part of me thinking, “surely not that Heath Ledger?”
A damn shame, in any case. Brokeback Mountain is one of a select few films to move me to tears, thanks in no small part to his performance.
Presenting the RHMeUK Review of the Year 2006! Just start here and keep clicking through to the next page until you get back here. It’s like The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, but without Jimmy Carr — so it’s actually much better than The Big Fat Quiz of the Year.
Anyway, my New Year’s resolution for 2007 is to write lots of interesting, compelling blog entries and not keep falling back on embedded YouTube videos. However, there’s a few hours of 2006 left, so here’s my current favourite song (Century Plant) from my current favourite film (Camp).
