Jean-Luc Godard - Pierrot le Fou

This week I've been reprinting the reviews I wrote back in 2016 of the bluray boxed set of movies by the late, great, and legendary director, Jean-Luc Godard. The fourth film in the set, and the fourth movie in my reviews, is for 1965's 'Pierrot le Fou'.

(review originally published in January 2016)

On the 1st February 2016, STUDIOCANAL is releasing a new boxed set of films of the legendary director Jean-Luc Godard on blu-ray. Over the last few weeks I’ve reviewed the first three discs in the set - now it’s time to look at 1965’s “Pierrot le Fou”.

After the attempt at a big budget “Hollywood” movie with “Contempt”, Godard returns to his simpler roots with a familiar tale of a criminal couple on the run, discussing the meaning of life and art, while on an unstoppable course for self-destruction.

Jean-Paul Belmondo, one of Godard’s regulars, plays Ferdinand Griffon, a former TV writer whose marriage to a wealthy Italian wife bores him. At a party designed to introduce him to a potential employer, he realises he is surrounded by idiots. The party-goers dialogue sounds like fake television commercials and everyone is so dull, compared to Ferdinand who spends his time reading, looking at art, and thinking about life.

He leaves the party early, and runs off with his babysitter - a former lover, Marianne, played by another Godard favourite (and wife at the time), Anna Karina. At her apartment filled with guns and a dead man killed with a pair of scissors, he discovers she is gun running and being chased by gangsters involved in the Algerian war. They steal the dead man’s car and drive off to the country.

Marianne quickly gets bored of hiding in the idilic countryside, and the gangsters soon catch up with them, but it will eventually be their own self destruction that will end their relationship.

Pierrot le Fou is typical Godard. Beautifully filmed, with striking colours, with a feel of “make it up as we go along” that has become so synonymous with his movies. Sequences are shown out of chronological order, and characters break the fourth wall repeatedly - there is a great moment where the leads are driving, and Ferdinand turns to the camera to talk over his shoulder. Marianne asks who he’s talking to - “The audience!” is his reply. Obviously! 

Continuing the feel of Contempt, this one is not a cheery film. It has its moments of surreality and humour, and even a couple of almost musical numbers. But in the end, the feel is that of loss, betrayal and dislocation. Of wanting more from life, to truly experience one’s feelings, but finding a lack of sense. 

It also hammers home some political messages in a less than subtle way - not in the least when they put on a “play” to raise money from tourists that depicts the Vietnam war.

A moving and cerebral film that will stick with you long after the dramatic ending.

The blu-ray is suitably gorgeous, as you can imagine, bringing out all of Godard’s colour use beautifully. The audio is clean and cool as well. 

Extras include a 50+ minute documentary (Godard, Love and Poetry), and introduction by Colin McCabe, a subtitled “commentary” of the entire film by Jean-Bernard Pouy analysing the film, and an interview with Anna Karina.

Godard: The Essential Collection Blu Ray is released on the 1st February 2016, and I’ll be reviewing the final disc in the set, Alphaville, next week.

Jean-Luc Godard - Contempt

Continuing my week of reposting the reviews I did of the late Jean-Luc Godard's movies for the old Geekologists blog, the third movie in the bluray boxed set I was sent to review thanks to the lovely folk at STUDIOCANAL is 'Contempt'.

(Originally published January 2016)

On the 1st February 2016, STUDIOCANAL is releasing a boxed set of films by the legendary director Jean-Luc Godard on blu-ray. Over the last few weeks I’ve been reviewing the disks one at a time, and this week I turn my attentions to the third movie in the set, 1963’s “Le Mépris”, aka “Contempt”.

The previous film, “A Woman is a Woman” was Godard embracing colour and cinemascope in a tale of woman wanting a child, and the conflict with her partner over that.

In stark contrast, “Contempt” tackles another couple falling out, but instead of the playful fun of the previous film, we’re presented with the harsh frustrations of a couple failing to communicate. Failed playwright Paul (Michel Piccoli) is hired to rewrite a movie of The Odyssey, currently being filmed by the one and only Fritz Lang (played by himself). Paul brings his wife, former typist Camille (the legendary Brigitte Bardot), who catches the eye of the film’s producer, Prokosch (Jack Palance). 

Prokosch wants to make the movie more of an action Hollywood movie, but Lang wants to make an art film. However, when Paul allows Prokosch to drive his wife home, Camille changes. Thinking Paul has offered her up as some form of payment to get his job on the film, she finds Paul utterly contemptible (hence the title of the film) and their relationship breaks down.

The whole film can be read on many levels. It could be that the lead characters are mirroring the Odyssey, with Paul and Prokosch as Odysseus and Poseidon, and it can also be taken as a mirror of real life (with Paul as Godard, Camille as Godard’s wife, Anna Karina). The parallels between the movie and the making of the movie is also seen in the way that the producers want a big budget Hollywood movie, demanding more action and nudity, when Godard wanted to make art. The opening shot of Brigitte Bardot’s naked (but not explicit) body was not in the version Godard wanted to make, but the producers insisted, claiming he couldn’t make a film with Bardot without a nude scene.

The film itself is gorgeous as you’d expect. Filled with colour, beauty and lush cinematography. In fact, the cinemascopic widescreen is utilised in true Godard fashion for a protracted argument scene. In “A Woman is a Woman”, and to some extent, “Breathless” before it, Godard had a lengthy apartment scene, letting the characters communicate their feelings, their motivations, and argue. In “A Woman is a Woman” this argument was fun, witty and clever, with a humorous take by using book titles to express their words when they were not talking to each other. In “Contempt” words are the characters downfall, and the widescreen pans slowly between the characters, often in different rooms, emphasising the distance growing between them. 

Like “A Woman is a Woman”, I’d not seen this one before, and it is heralded as a masterpiece of cinema. The film is gorgeous, looks fantastic, and is beautifully made. But the film isn’t a happy watch, filled with frustrations, lack of communications that ultimately ends in tragedy. Godard was making a big budget Hollywood-esque film, with most of the budget being spent on one of the biggest actresses at the time. Godard was intrigued about making a big budget movie, and this really wasn’t one he enjoyed. After this, he’d go back to the movies he enjoyed making.

The blu-ray is simply gorgeous, with a marvellous and pristine presentation, keeping the beautiful colour. Included on the disk is an introduction, as well as two hour long documentaries (“Once upon a time there was… Contempt” and “The dinosaurs and the baby” - a discussion between Godard and Fritz Lang) and a half hour making-off “Contempt-Tenderly”, as well as a conversation with Fritz Lang and a trailer (that blows the ending of the film, so don’t watch it first!)

Definitely worth watching, but not as much fun as “A Woman is a Woman”. 

Jean-Luc Godard - A Woman Is a Woman

Yesterday I posted a review of Breathless I wrote back when STUDIOCANAL released a five movie bluray set of Jean-Luc Godard's work, as the news had just hit of the legendary director's passing. 

Today, I'm continuing the reposting of those reviews from the long gone blog, this one of the movie "A Woman Is A Woman".

(Originally posted Jan 2016)

On the 1st February 2016, STUDIOCANAL is releasing a boxed set of films by the legendary director Jean-Luc Godard on blu-ray. Last week, I had a look at the first film in the box, the stunning and ultra-cool “Breathless” (À Bout De Souffle). This week, I turn my attentions to Godard’s first work in Cinemascope and colour, “A Woman is a Woman” (Une femme est une femme).

Still oozing in cool, Godard embraces colour and cinemascope and feels like it is paying tribute to the big budget, colour musicals of Hollywood. But it still retains its originality, its playfulness with the medium and film language, to make it unmistakably Godard’s, and genuinely wonderful.

I’d not seen the film before, but reading the synopsis it sounds horribly dark. Angela, an exotic dancer in a strip club is in a relationship with Émile. She wants to have a baby, but he doesn’t, fearing it’ll tie him down and stop his chauvinistic galavanting. She turns to his friend Alfred, who is in love with her, and threatens to sleep with him to get what she wants.

It could be seen as a dark, and slightly depressing story of a love that has gone cold. A relationship coming to an end, and Angela’s desperation to have a child. But it’s not. Far, far from it. 

Instead the film is bright, colourful, filled with humour and music that feels more like a modern independent romantic comedy, like “(500) Days of Summer”. It’s no surprise that “A Woman is a Woman” is one of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s favourite films. 

Anna Karina plays Angela with such vibrancy and humour, she is absolutely mesmerising. You wonder why the cold Émile, played by Jean-Claude Brialy, isn’t worshipping the ground under her feet. They have a strange relationship, and most of the film they are arguing, but not in a horrible way. There have been films where couples argue or hate each other (“War of the Roses”, “The Breakup”) which I have absolutely hated, coming out of the film feeling depressed. This, the arguing is sweet and amusing. There are segments where they refuse to talk to each other, highlighting words from book covers to insult each other. But in between her arguing and telling Émile that she hates him, she looks to the camera, breaks the fourth wall, and tells the audience that she really loves him.

The other man in her life, Alfred, is played by Breathless superstar Jean-Paul Belmondo. Playing it cool and rogue-like again, but in a more subtle way that before, and showing a real affection for Angela. 

I won’t tell you how the film is resolved, it seriously should be seen. It has lovely quirks - like Angela going to answer a phonecall, throwing a frying egg up into the air, answering the call, coming back to catch the egg - and plays with Godard’s signature jump-cuts perfectly - one of Angela’s dancer friends changes clothes by simply walking behind a post. Add fourth wall breaking, cycling around an apartment, and captions on screen to add to the mix, and you’re presented with a wonderful treat that has already become a favourite in my books.

The blu-ray is suitably gorgeous, though the music track seemed a lot louder than the rest of the film (probably more a problem with my TV set up than the film). Extras on the disc include an introduction, and an interview with Anna Karina. 

Jean-Luc Godard - Breathless

Many moons ago I used to write movie reviews and go to press conferences and all those exciting things. I was in the room with 95% of the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the cast of Antman, and more. When doing those movie reviews, I was given the opportunity to review a new BluRay set of Jean-Luc Godard movies that came out in 2016, and I leapt at the chance.

I have fond memories of my A-level Film Studies class, being told how Godard filmed almost ad-lib and composed the story in edits. How the iconic jump-cuts worked, and the super-hip style of the movies. I was mesmerised. It was like a whole new door of movies was opened to me, and I eagerly watched as many movies of his as I could. 

With his passing this week, I thought I'd republish the reviews of that boxed set as the site they were written for has long since gone, starting with the first Godard movie I saw - Breathless.

(Review from 2016)

On the 1st February 2016, STUDIOCANAL is releasing a new boxed set of films of the legendary director Jean-Luc Godard on blu-ray. When the lovely people at STUDIOCANAL offered to send an advanced review copy of the set, my thoughts flew back to my dim and distant youth - sat in my film studies class and being shown Breathless (À Bout De Souffle) for the first time, mesmerised by the freedom, the cool and the style.

The chance to see it again and review it? I couldn’t pass it up.

Breathless is simple, underground, and the very height of cool. Made in 1959, using new lightweight cameras, Godard went out into the streets of Paris to film without the baggage of a huge film crew, or even permission to film. Writing the script usually on the morning of each day’s filming, the movie is a true guerrilla film-maker’s dream. 

The story follows relative newcomer Jean Paul Belmondo as Michel Poiccard, a gangster and criminal who returns to Paris after shooting a cop. There he reunites with a beautiful young American, Patricia Franchini (played by the wonderful Jean Seberg), and he tries to convince her to run away with him to Italy. He just needs to get the money owed to him before the police track him down.

A simple plot that frames a love story that is so beautifully played with such natural ease, you cannot help but be mesmerised by the performances. 

Breathless is often heralded as the birth of the French New Wave, the “Nouvelle Vague” movement of the 60’s. Movies were created with little or no script, sometimes completely redubbed with new dialogue to make a plot in editing. The jump-cuts quickly feel natural and while an audience brought up with purely Hollywood movies will be shocked at the sudden cuts and odd continuity, the freedom this style brings infused cinema with a fresh breath of creativity and cool that remains just as smooth today.

The blu-ray has been lovingly restored, overseen by the film’s cinematographer, Raoul Coutard, and given a gorgeous enhancement that retains the grain of the original film. While it may not be the super-crisp picture you’re used to with modern movies, this looks just like the film was intended and how it would have looked when first shown. (Though there are some missing frames that could not be restored).

The disc also includes a host of extras, including an introduction to the film, a 50min documentary about Godard’s influence on American directors, an 80min documentary (Room 12: Hotel de suede) looking at the making of the film, as well as a feature on Godard and one on Jean Seberg. 

All I can say is it’s incredibly cool, and I’ve still got four discs to review! It may not be your average geekdom for this site, but it’s well worth checking out if you’re interested in film.

Order in the (Marvel) Universe (Part VI)

Months ago, we started a marathon watch/rewatch of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe (the MCU) in chronological order of events (rather than release). We've seen the formation of the Avengers, the Defenders, SHIELD, and realms and universes beyond.

When I last wrote a blogpost about this marathon, we'd just finished the one and only season of Inhumans. 

Next up was the surprise spin-off of the various Netflix series - The Punisher. I have no idea if The Punisher was planned with the other Netflix 'Defenders' series but it really feels like they saw reactions to his appearance in season two of Daredevil and decided to run with it. Like I said when we watched Daredevil, I initially had that problem of the casting because I hated Shane so much in The Walking Dead. A testament to Jon Bernthal's acting I guess! And he's really good again in this season. But, man, is this series brutal. Super-violent, and you have to wonder how half of the characters stay alive through it all. Castle seems to stagger around with a body full of shrapnel and bullets. 

In complete contrast, next on the watch list is season one of Runaways. 

Runaways was one I was looking forward to the moment the announced it, and I was not disappointed. A big fan of the comics, this was a really good adaptation. The only thing missing was Molly punching Wolverine. Really good casting, and a very interesting way of doing the first couple of episodes - following the kids in the first episode, then replaying the same timeframe in episode two but from the parents' perspective. A new mentions of other names in the MCU, but setting it in LA means the major events in New York are not so prevalent. 

Considering the limited budget of a TV series like this (originally on Hulu, though you can see it now on Disney+) they did a great job of 'Old Lace', Gert's telepathically connected velociraptor. And it's not happened yet, but there's a great connection to Kaecilius's cool cracking around the eyes in Doctor Strange as Nico is lured to use darker magic from the Darkhold (see Agents of SHIELD and Wandavision). All great stuff, really enjoyed watching this one again.

Speaking of Agents of SHIELD, following season one of Runaways, it's back to Agents of SHIELD, with the start of season five. 

Everyone's been abducted and taken forwards in time to a future where the Earth has been mostly destroyed. The agents are enslaved by the Kree, under the tentative control of Kasius, and Fitz gets to be super-cool, taking the long way around to the future. We get about halfway through the series, just as Coulson has managed to get his team (with rock-telekinetic Inhuman, Flint) to reconstruct the monolith that can return everyone to the present. Fantastic stuff as always, but hit that pause at the end of episode ten!

We head back to the Netflix Defenders series briefly after episode ten of SHIELD, to take in the whole of season two of Jessica Jones. Jessica's great again, though I wasn't as keen on the villain this time around. Hard to top the absolute creepiness of Killgrave from the first season. Her 'sister' becomes more obsessed with gaining superpowers, and 'Due South Cylon' makes a welcome appearance. Good to see this again as well, but looking forward to seeing season three as I've never found the time to watch that one.

Anyway, after season two of Jessica Jones it's back to Agents of SHIELD. The agents are back in the present, set up shop in the Lighthouse - the base that was part of the remains of the Earth in the future. Daisy is determined not to become the "Destroyer of Worlds", but the last remnants of HYDRA are trying to create (with the ever dangerous Gravitonium) the Destroyer in the form of Ruby Hale, daughter of HYDRA leader General Hale. 

It was never going to end well for Ruby, and Talbot's reprogramming by HYDRA was just evil. Bigger things are coming. That's going to have to wait! Stop watching at the end of episode 18, as we're heading to New Orleans! 

Due to some annoying exclusivity deal, Cloak & Dagger is stuck on Amazon Prime in the UK whereas most places it's moved to Disney+. Hello free Amazon Prime trial! 

I LOVED Cloak & Dagger as comics. I read loads and loads of them. Especially in Strange Tales where it was partnered with Doctor Strange. I was excited to see them make it onto screen, and I think they did a really good job of it! Sure, they changed their origin story a bit, but I think it's a nice swap of their social standings, and tying everything into the pesky Roxxon corporation. And Cloak's harnessing of the Darkforce power alludes to stuff that was going on in Agent Carter and early Agents of SHIELD. 

Again, another bit of brilliant casting for the leads, and they thankfully got rid of Dagger's rather extreme outfit from the comics, but they do some excellent stuff in the dark dimension, wandering through people's hopes, fears, and memories. Excellent! 

Luckily, both seasons of Cloak & Dagger fit here chronologically, with the last scene leading into their appearance in a future season of Runaways. 

And that's where I'm up to at the moment. 

If you want to catch up and keep up with the rewatch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we've been following the order that DigitalSpy produced a little while ago. If you want to join in, here's the list we've worked through so far...

1 - Captain America: The First Avenger

2 - Agent Carter (Season One)

3 - Agent Carter (Season Two)

4 - Agent Carter (Marvel One-Shot - on Iron Man 3 bluray)

5 - Captain Marvel

6 - Iron Man

7 - Iron Man 2

8 - The Incredible Hulk (on Netflix)

9 - The Consultant (Marvel One-Shot - on the Thor bluray)

10 - A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to Thor's Hammer (Marvel One-Shot - on the Captain America: The First Avenger bluray)

11 - Thor: The Mighty Avenger

12 - Avengers Assemble (the first Avengers movie)

13 - Item 47 (Marvel One-Shot - on the Avengers bluray)

14 - Iron Man 3

15 - All Hail The King (Marvel One-Shot on the Thor: The Dark World bluray)

16 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 1-7)

17 - Thor: The Dark World

18 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 8-16)

19 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

20 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 17-22)

21 - Guardians of the Galaxy

22 - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2

23 - Daredevil (Season One)

24 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 1-10)

25 - Jessica Jones (Season One)

26 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 11-19)

27 - Avengers: Age of Ultron

28 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 20-22)

29 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 1-4)

30 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 1-4)

31 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 5-11)

32 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 5-8)

33 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 12-13)

34 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 9-13)

35 - Ant-Man

36 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Three, Episodes 1-10)

37 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Three, Episodes 11-19)

38 - Iron Fist (Season One)

39 - Captain America: Civil War

40 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Three, Episodes 20-22)

41 - The Defenders

42 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Four, Episodes 1-6)

43 - Doctor Strange

44 - Black Panther

45 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Four, Episodes 7-8)

46 - Agents of SHIELD: Slingshot (Episodes 1-6)

47 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Four, Episodes 9-22)

48 - Spider-man: Homecoming

49 - Thor: Ragnarok

50 - Inhumans (Season One)

51 - The Punisher (Season One)

52 - Runaways (Season One)

53 - Agents of SHIELD (Season 5, Episodes 1-10)

54 - Jessica Jones (Season Two)

55 - Agents of SHIELD (Season 5, Episodes 11-18)

56 - Cloak and Dagger (Season One)

57 - Cloak and Dagger (Season Two)

Next on the list is:

58 - Luke Cage (Season Two)  <-- We are here!

59 - Iron Fist (Season Two)

60 - Daredevil (Season Three)

61 - Runaways (Season Two)

62 - The Punisher (Season Two)

63 - Jessica Jones (Season Three)

Order in the (Marvel) Universe (Part IV)

While furloughed from my previous job (I still can't get over the idea that I've quit) I was distracting myself by rewatching the whole the of Marvel Cinematic Universe in chronological order of events, including the TV Series. 

Which brings me to Part IV. It's been nearly a month, and we've still been working our way through it. Last blog post about this we'd just finished Season 2 of Agents of SHIELD, and were heading back into Hell's Kitchen again...

Daredevil Season 2 promotional image - 
Matt Murdock gets a bit chained up by the Punisher

Next up on the rewatch is Daredevil Season Two. I remember the first time I watched this I had a couple of problems with it - one was Elektra's accent, and the other was the casting of Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle (aka, The Punisher). Elektra was one of my favourites as a teen, and one of the comics that got me back into reading comics after a break thanks to Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz's 'Elektra: Assassin'. I'd read that so many time, so in my head I knew Elektra's background as being Greek, so her rather upper-class British accent sounded a bit weird at the time. However, on the rewatch, it didn't bother me for some reason. Maybe because I knew it was coming.

Jon Bernthal's casting as Frank Castle only really bothered me the first time around because the only thing I'd really seen him in was The Walking Dead, and I really didn't like Shane in that series. Time has passed, and I stopped watching Walking Dead a long time ago (#JusticeForGlenn - my favourite TWD character). Now time as passed and Shane is a distant memory, I could really appreciate Bernthal's portrayal of Frank Castle. He's deeply troubled, mentally scarred, and feels he cannot be redeemed. Vengeance is all he can see. Honestly brilliant.

And Season Two really ups 'The Hand' and their influence on things - and the sequence where they are escaping in Stick's car, and The Hand are firing arrows into it from the rooftops, is so Frank Miller it's genius. Needless to say, loved it. 

But, of course, we weren't JUST watching Daredevil Season Two. The timeline meant we were watching both Daredevil Season Two AND Luke Cage Season One. 

They needed to be watched in a special order - 

29 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 1-4)

30 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 1-4)

31 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 5-11)

32 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 5-8)

33 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 12-13)

34 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 9-13)

Anyway, Luke Cage Season One was great again. Brilliant cast, Simone Missick is fantastic as Misty Knight, and another one of my favourite actors - Mahershala Ali - who (let's face it) is flipping brilliant in anything he's in, just look at the last season of True Detective, as Cornell Stokes.

Promo image for Season One of Luke Cage

Another beautifully directed series, with gorgeous lighting that gives everything an iconic yellow tint (much like Daredevil has a red hue, and Jessica Jones is blue). And that soundtrack. Absolutely stunning. The only thing I thought that let Season One down was the departure of Cornell (don't call him Cottonmouth) Stokes, and bringing in Diamondback as the big-bad of the season. He was good, but he didn't ooze the charisma of Ali. I guess I should also mention multiple award winning Alfre Woodard as Mariah Dillard, who you just hate from the outset. You know she's up to evil things, and she portrays that power-hungry frenzy with a passion. 

The timeline didn't really have too much of an impact until you get to episode 11 of Daredevil, and Clare Temple survives an attack by The Hand at the hospital, and for her safety she leaves Hell's Kitchen. The next thing you watch is Episode 5 of Luke Cage and there's Clare Temple, arriving in Harlem. Really nice to watch it like this.

After the double-bill of Daredevil and Luke Cage, it's back to the movies and back onto Disney+ for Ant-Man. 

Promotional image for Marvel Studio's Ant-Man

Ant-Man is one that I was really excited for when it was announced, as initially it was going to be directed by one of my favourite movie directors - Edgar Wright. Unfortunately, he and Marvel parted ways, but his fingerprints are all over this heist tale. I managed to go to the press screening for this when it was released, and to the press conference with director Peyton Reed, and stars Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, and Michael Peña. 

Have to say, I do love this movie. It's a brilliantly heartwarming tale of families, wrapped up in a crazy action movie, with a heck of a lot of comedy. 

Then it was back to Agents of SHIELD to start Season Three. 

Promo image of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD Season Three

They really turned up the emotions in Season Three didn't they? Simmons is trapped on an alien planet, falls for a stranded 'sacrificial' Will Daniels, and is rescued in time to see the departure of Bobby and Hunter (such a sad episode, not a dry eye in the house - why did they cancel their spin-off series "Marvel's Most Wanted"?????? Arrrrg!!!). There's a mission to rescue Will from the alien planet, they discover HYDRA's origins, and have to face a new threat in the form of Hive. Really doesn't let up that season. It's brilliant as always, but...

You have to stop at episode 19.

Small pause in the action, just as things are getting really hectic in Agents of SHIELD while we take some time out to watch Iron Fist Season One.

Promotional image for Season One of Netflix's Iron Fist

I know Iron Fist gets a lot of hate, and I don't know why. Sure, Danny Rand is a bit of a naive plum, wandering around New York without shoes, expecting to just walk straight into his old life and become the billionaire he's born to be, and Finn Jones does a great job of this innocence. But the series is really made by the co-stars. Jessica Henwick is brilliant as Colleen Wing, and don't get me started on the Meachums. Ward and Harold Meachum (Tom Pelphrey and David Wenham) are just the perfect level of psychotic and messed up. 

There were a few criticisms that the martial arts in it seemed slow and badly choreographed, but I (personally) saw it as being fine - it kinda felt like Danny knew all the moves so much and had them ingrained into his head to the state that he could do them with little of the fury you'd expect from a fight. 

After Iron Fist Season One, (no, it's not back to SHIELD) it's onto the movies again for Captain America: Civil War. 

Promotional poster for Captain America: Civil War

This is my wife's least favourite Marvel movie, and I can understand why. The characters are all brilliant again, and it introduces two major players in the MCU - Black Panther and Spider-man. And the background plot of Zemo trying to destroy the Avengers from within, by making them turn on each other, revealing who killed Tony Stark's parents, is a great plot.

I know the movies are based on comics to a certain extent, and that all the characters are comic characters, but there's always that comic trope of heroes fighting each other. Who would win? (And before you ask, Wanda could take Superman) You know what? I don't care who would win. They are heroes. They fight villains who would cause the world harm. I love Tony Stark, though I love Steve Rogers more. I don't want to see them beat seven-hells out of each other. I want them joining together and fighting a bigger threat. The 'big fight' at an airport has its plus-sides (this is a great portrayal of Spider-man, and his witty remarks in a fight), but when you see Hawkeye and Black Widow fighting and you know they're pulling their punches you have that moment when you think - why are they actually fighting, and can they stop and get along now please?

Not so much a Captain America movie, but more Avengers 2.5, it's just good that they get over their differences in time for Thanos... but that's a way off yet...

But, it does introduce something major into the MCU timeline, something that will surface again very soon as we return to Agents of SHIELD Season Three for episodes 20-22. The Sokovia Accords. You can see why you watch Civil War between episodes 19 and 20, as episode 20: 'Emancipation' seems to say 'Sokovia Accords' a billion times in its first twenty minutes as the need to register and keep an eye on powered individuals is felt all over the MCU.

Season Three closes with the end of Hive, the end of Grant Ward, and the end of another Inhuman (spoilers for those who haven't seen it yet). It's emotional, but before you can rest there's the post credits sequence at the end of the last episode and we jump forward six months to realise Coulson's not the Director of SHIELD, Daisy has gone rogue, and it's all going to heck. 

Before moving onto Season Four (one of my favourites in Agents of SHIELD) we need to finish the big culmination of those Netflix series - everything in the four individual series have been building up to The Defenders. 

Marvels' Defenders promotional image

After some great first seasons in their own respective series, The Defenders resolves (most) of The Hand storyline mostly from Daredevil and Iron Fist, when we discover what they've been doing with that hole under the building in Manhattan, unlocking the key to immortality. Admittedly, it really starts very slow, but by episode three of the eight episode limited series they've all met in The Hand's offices (or rather a shiny room where Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver), one of the five fingers of The Hand, is meeting with her minions), and the cinematic punching begins. 

Sure, there are the Civil War problems where some of the characters just don't seem to get along, and there's a marked moment in one of the later episodes where they remember all the excellent supporting characters and Colleen, Clare, Karen, Misty, Foggy, and Trish, have a quick catch-up and get them involved again. It all ends with lots of punchy action again, and a lot of me shouting 'why haven't you powered up the fist?' repeatedly. 

And that brings us up to date (just about). Yesterday we started Season Four of Agents of SHIELD (as I mentioned, one of my favourite series of SHIELD - mostly as it did a brilliant job of Ghost Rider, had a great Life Model Decoy storyline, and then became "Agents of HYDRA" for a bit). 

For those of you who want to keep up, I'm using the order that DigitalSpy produced a little while ago. If you want to join in, here's the list we've worked through so far...

1 - Captain America: The First Avenger

2 - Agent Carter (Season One)

3 - Agent Carter (Season Two)

4 - Agent Carter (Marvel One-Shot - on Iron Man 3 bluray)

5 - Captain Marvel

6 - Iron Man

7 - Iron Man 2

8 - The Incredible Hulk (on Netflix)

9 - The Consultant (Marvel One-Shot - on the Thor bluray)

10 - A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to Thor's Hammer (Marvel One-Shot - on the Captain America: The First Avenger bluray)

11 - Thor: The Mighty Avenger

12 - Avengers Assemble (the first Avengers movie)

13 - Item 47 (Marvel One-Shot - on the Avengers bluray)

14 - Iron Man 3

15 - All Hail The King (Marvel One-Shot on the Thor: The Dark World bluray)

16 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 1-7)

17 - Thor: The Dark World

18 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 8-16)

19 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

20 - Agents of SHIELD (Season One, Episodes 17-22)

21 - Guardians of the Galaxy

22 - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2

23 - Daredevil (Season One)

24 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 1-10)

25 - Jessica Jones (Season One)

26 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 11-19)

27 - Avengers: Age of Ultron

28 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Two, Episodes 20-22)

29 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 1-4)

30 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 1-4)

31 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 5-11)

32 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 5-8)

33 - Daredevil (Season Two, Episodes 12-13)

34 - Luke Cage (Season One, Episodes 9-13)

35 - Ant-Man

36 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Three, Episodes 1-10)

37 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Three, Episodes 11-19)

38 - Iron Fist (Season One)

39 - Captain America: Civil War

40 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Three, Episodes 20-22)

41 - The Defenders

Next up on the list is:

42 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Four, Episodes 1-6) <-- We are here!!!

43 - Doctor Strange

44 - Black Panther

45 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Four, Episodes 7-8)

46 - Agents of SHIELD: Slingshot (Episodes 1-6)

47 - Agents of SHIELD (Season Four, Episodes 9-22)

[Roll Your Own Life] The Movies That Made Me (Part 12)

EVIL DEAD II (1987)

Okay, I've already stated on this run through of movies that I wasn't a fan of horror movies, and I really didn't have the stomach for gory films as a teen. I loved A Nightmare on Elm Street - it wasn't really gory and had a bizarre fantasy element. It opened my eyes to a lot of slasher movies, that, when I finally started watching them I realised were not as horrible as I thought they were going to be.

There was always a legendary movie that was so nasty that a lot of the video stores in my hometown refused to stock it - The Evil Dead. One little video rental place, that was mostly electrical goods with a sideline for VHS rentals, had a copy. A very battered and worn copy, but I never had the guts to rent it. It was like that copy of Stephen King's IT that stared at me in the bookstore. I was fascinated by it, but unlike IT I didn't give in to the curiosity...

Until the trailers started on TV for Evil Dead II. There were a few of them involving Sam Raimi and Jonathan Ross, but the trailer I remember the most had the classic sequence with the shakycam breaking through the cabin, picking Ash (the awesome Bruce Campbell) up and flinging him through the trees, before slamming into one, dropping him face first into a massive puddle. It just looked amazing, and completely unlike anything I'd ever seen before.

If my memory serves me well, Evil Dead II came out on VHS at the same time as it had a very limited cinema run. I remember renting the VHS the day it appeared on the shelf, first person to hire it from the video store. I loved it. It was crazy, weird, and above all - funny. I really wasn't expecting it to be a horror comedy, something I'd never really experienced before. But Sam Raimi's direction was totally out there doing weird things with the camera that even now I don't quite understand. The scene with Ash looking around the room as the objects taunt him - the way the image distorts and seems multileveled 2D. Amazing.

Bruce Campbell is a legend. How he managed to do that movie without majorly injuring himself I don't know.

I watched it multiple times, and felt that I really should muster the courage to finally see The Evil Dead. I rented it from that little video store - probably their only rental that week. It was not what I expected. It was dark, messy, and not funny in the slightest. It was okay, but I don't think I really appreciated it until (like many) I watched Jonathan Ross' TV series The Incredibly Strange Film Show. Ross was a bit of nerd, and his series spent an episode looking at the work of a particular director. The episode on Sam Raimi is reportedly the hour of TV that inspired Edgar Wright to make movies. It's highly recommended and you can find it on Youtube in parts.

That blew my mind - how they funded a low budget horror movie, and basically just went off and made it for peanuts.

I bought the soundtrack on vinyl for Evil Dead II, and eagerly awaited the promised sequel hinted at by the "Hail he, who has come from the sky, to deliver us from the terror of the Deadites!" final scene. The sequel was cool, but it was no Evil Dead II, and remains the only movie my wife has slept through at the cinema. (She was very tired).

Another recommendation in addition to that Incredibly Strange Film Show episode (and the David Lynch one from the sequel series) is to check out Bruce Campbell's books, especially "If Chins Could Kill" if you really want to see what went into the making of the first Evil Dead movie. A brilliant read.

Groovy.

[Footnote: Another recommendation is to check out the remake of the original Evil Dead, starring Jane Levy. Released in 2013, I was fortunate enough to be sent a review copy of the bluray and watched it twice in a row. It's brilliant, horrific, and messy, but well worth a watch - and keep watching to the end of the credits]

[Roll Your Own Life] The Movies That Made Me (Part 8)

BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985)

There's not really much to say about this one. Back to the Future. There are very few perfect movies in the world, and I personally think Back to the Future is one of them. It has everything. Action, comedy, music, romance, science fiction, nerdy references, time travel... heck, it's just perfect in my eyes.

I remember seeing the very cryptic trailer that gave absolutely nothing away. Just that car pulling up to a hitchhiker, and the guy from Family Ties (which I think everyone was watching) driving... and that "how far you going?" And then there was the cool Drew Struzan poster. Again, giving nothing away.

By this time I went to see anything that was remotely science fictiony, and this looked cool. I think I went opening weekend (or certainly early in its release).

I loved it, as you can guess. Just brilliant. First time watching it I really didn't know what was going to happen so it had me hooked from the very beginning. As always, with me, when I find something I really like, I get a little obsessed. I bought the novelisation, the soundtrack, the poster magazine, the behind the scenes magazine, and even collected the Panini stickers (managed to get the whole collection except for one sticker - even Panini ran out of it, as it was portrait pic of Michael J. Fox and those teens had sent off for extra copies of it).

Hell, even my Call of Cthulhu character at the time was based on George McFly.

When the VHS came out, I bought it and watched it over and over, convinced that a shadow I saw move in the car park of the mall at the beginning was the returning Marty at the end of the movie, not really comprehending how time travel worked.

But I was young and impressionable, and it was before the internet. Kept me quiet, and I loved that movie. Still do. Back then it was just cool, and wasn't violent (except for a few punches and a little gunfire - though those Libyans came to a sticky end don't they?). It was just fun, and for an awkward nerd like I was/am it was nice to see the nerd get the girl of his dreams in the end.

(Just realised that years later my first steady girlfriend would share the same first name as the object of George McFly's affections... how weird).

I did have that moment a while ago when I thought, "why isn't there an RPG of Back to the Future?" and then I realised I was just describing Rick and Morty.

[Roll Your Own Life] The Movies That Made Me (Part 6)

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984)

A bit of a departure from my usual movie selection came along in 1984. I was not a horror fan at all, still reeling from the Raiders of the Lost Ark experience, and then the terror of seeing ALIEN for the first time when it aired on UK TV in 1982, and The Omen - I have a memory of a friend of mine at school, Wally (he liked to be called), had recorded it off the TV and kept slowing down the gory bits to show how the special effects worked. It should have made it less sinister, but that bloody soundtrack! Talk about unsettling...

Anyway, I didn't watch a lot of horror really, I was more of an SF/Fantasy/Action person, but I have a very distinct memory of the trailers on TV for A Nightmare on Elm Street. We didn't get it in the UK until a lot later - August 1985 - and I seem to remember it getting an almost simultaneous release in the cinema and on VHS. It certainly was pretty close.

There was something about that first trailer. It was scary, but it was the dream element that really got me interested.

The idea that something could kill you in your dreams, and it happen in the waking world. That was brilliant. Especially as it came out just a year after Dreamscape - an awesome film I really loved as well about a psychic going into other peoples' dreams to help them escape their nightmares. You can see I was already getting really into dreams as a setting for fiction and games way back then.

I visited my local video rental stores constantly when I was a teenager. The moment we had a VHS recorder we had regular Friday Night movie nights, where the D&D group would come around and watch the latest releases. And weekends were usually spent with me renting a handful of movies, taking the VHS player into my room and having a movie marathon for most of the waking hours.

I'd just seen the trailers and then there the movie was on the shelves! Yes!

I seem to have a memory of watching it first time around at a friend's house during the day over a lunchtime/free period when I was in the 6th form.

Freddy was nasty, gross and sick, and that made him a brilliant villain. While some of the teenagers lined up to get the sharp end of Freddy's finger-knives were slightly annoying (Rod, I'm looking at you) you were on the kids' side.

But I have a distinct memory of the first moment when I thought Elm St was cool. There's the scene where Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) is taken to a sleep specialist and wired up. She has a nightmare and starts flailing about, and when they wake her she's grabbed Freddy's fedora off of his head in the dream, and pulled it into the waking world.

Hell yes. That was going beyond the horror movie tropes and heading right into SF/Fantasy domain. I loved it. Of course, I liked the sequels - though they did peak with 3: The Dream Warriors and 4: The Dream Master. Dream Warriors introduced the element that I loved from Dreamscape by introducing Kristen Parker (Patricia Arquette) who had the psychic ability to pull other people into her dreams. With multiple dreamers able to team up in the dreamrealms, Freddy didn't stand much of a chance. And it was great to have Nancy from the original movie back, along with her father (the legendary John Saxon).

The Dream Master built upon this, continuing Kristen's story (now played by the brilliantly named Tuesday Knight) before handing her dream ability over to a new character... and then the series kinda started losing its way. Freddy was becoming too big a character, almost a cartoon of himself. He wasn't sinister or evil anymore, despite his horrific backstory. He was becoming a wisecracking parody, and it wasn't until the incredibly clever and meta Wes Craven's New Nightmare that it became brilliant again. It foreshadowed the Scream movies, with Heather Langenkamp returning playing herself as an actress plagued with nightmares of the movies she was in - and the power of these nightmares to make Freddy real.

Clever stuff.

Anyway, that's getting off the topic. The first A Nightmare on Elm Street was great, and shortly after renting it on VHS I ended up buying it - I think it was fairly cheap straight away if I remember correctly. I even had the massive quad cinema posters for Elm St 2 and 3 on my ceiling, so you can tell I was more comfortable with horror movies by then and had got over my previous experiences.

Must give it another watch soon.


--

Before I finish this blogpost it has been pointed out to me that there are a few movies missing from my list that have had a real impact on me. I tried to keep it to twenty, but I may just up it to twenty four in order to get these essential movies included. Sorry!! I hope this doesn't bore you all too much.

Take care everyone, and stay safe.