June 20th, 2008
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As promised a few weeks ago, today is Horror Day on Mine Was Taller and, from around 12 Noon I, along with my friend Dipa, will be watching a selection of scary movies and blogging about them as we go.
The running order should be something like this –
12pm – The Wolf Man (1941)
1:45pm – Purana Mandir (1984)
4pm – Night of the Lepus (1972) followed by the short film Night of the Hell Hamsters (2006)
6pm – From Beyond the Grave (1973)
7:45pm – Brain Damage (1988)
9:30pm – Silence of the Lambs (1991)
12am – Inside (2007)
May 28th, 2008
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…or so the saying goes, and with that in mind I’m making a few alterations to Mine Was Taller. Since the start of the year I’ve been posting almost every day and, while it’s been fun, it’s starting to feel like a chore rather than a pleasure. With that in mind I’ve going to return to the original DVD Viewing Journal format, with brief opinions on each of the films I’ve watched on DVD. There will be links running through each week’s films, be it star, director, or a shared theme, and the first one will feature vigilante movies.
This will free me up to write some other pieces, both here and for the newly established Eurocritics Magazine,including reviews of the summer’s blockbuster cinema releases and the return of ‘Films I Want on DVD’ which I originally planned as a series back in July 2006 but never got past number one - Rituals, a film that’s since been released on DVD (although I doubt my article had anything to do with that).
The TV Tomb series of reviews of classic (or in some cases just old) television shows will continue, with the American WWII show Combat the next up followed be Fortier, a Canadian detective series (in French) that most of you probably haven’t heard of but which inspired/was ripped off by Tim Minear’s excellent 2005 FBI show, The Inside.
May 6th, 2008
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Where have I been this last ten days or so you may be wondering and the short answer is offline. Thanks, apparently, to a technical problem that coincided with Virgin Media moving all the old NTL customers to a new server, I’ve been without internet access since the 26th April, as they were unable to sort the problem until the migration was complete. Having been plunged back into the dark ages, before the wonders of the web, for over a week, I’ve realised how dependant I’ve become on it for everything from banking to looking up bus times or just finding the answer to a question. Anyway I finally got back online yesterday so here’s a round-up of what should have been on here the weekend before last –
The Friday Night Fright: The House on Sorority Row
Oh the joy of Music Zone and their 97p DVDs! I’ve got a high tolerance for crap movies, particularly horror, and I picked up some real stinkers from the now defunct Music Zone chain. This isn’t the worst of them, which is a shame as some were so appallingly bad they entertained for all the wrong reasons. No, The House on Sorority Row is just a very ordinary and cheap (so not even any decent gore) slasher flick from 1983.
April 20th, 2008
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I Spy: Thunderball
Literally Speaking: The Odessa File
Watching the Detectives: Shadow of the Thin Man
Comic Tales: Death Note - The Last Name
The Friday Night Fight: The House on Sorority Row
The Weekend Western: Posse
Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting: DOA - Dead or Alive
SF & Fantasy Sunday: Children of Men
April 13th, 2008
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I’ve decided to start posting a list of what’s in store for readers in the coming week, so without further ado here’s what you should be seeing in the next seven days:
I Spy: The Spy with My Face – The second of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. films, and the first in the Region 2 box set.
Literally Speaking: No Way Out – The film that, along with The Untouchables, made Kevin Costner a star.
Watching the Detectives: John Wayne is McQ
Comic Tales: Fantastic Four
The Friday Night Fright: The Eye – The Pang brothers original.
The Weekend Western: Yankee – Tito Brass directed spaghetti western.
Saturday’s Alright For Fighting: Zatoichi the Outlaw – Number 16 in the long running series.
SF & Fantasy Sunday: Tokyo the Last Megalopolis – Live action version of a classic anime.
March 20th, 2008
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I’ll keep this brief. Mine Was Taller is moving to a new host, WebFaction. This should improve the speed of the site, which has been a bit slow of late. Hopefully it will go smoothly and I’ll see you at the other end.
March 11th, 2008
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Regular readers may be wondering what’s been going on with Mine Was Taller of late. After starting the year with a post (almost) everyday things have dropped off to the point where I haven’t written anything for almost two weeks. In part this was because I needed a break, having overloaded on watching and writing about films at the start of the year, but I intended that break to come to an end when I posted a couple of reviews at the end of February.
Which brings us to the reason I’ve been AWOL for the past couple of weeks. With the end of the HD format war I decided it was time to say goodbye to my old Panasonic 32in CRT TV which had served me well since I got my first DVD player almost 10 years ago, and, after much contemplation, I decided on a 40in Samsung LCD with full 1080p capability as its replacement.
Last Wednesday it arrived and I’ve been basking in its glow for the better part of a week now. The same day I got a Home Theatre PC which does a nice job of upscaling SD DVDs, and I have plans to install a Blu-ray drive in it sometime in the next month or so.
For those who are yet to take the plunge it really is worth it, with DVDs (at least those with a decent transfer) looking better than they ever did on my old CRT set. In fact a simple rule of thumb seems to be that is something looked good before it will look better and if it looked bad before it will look absolutely dreadful.
January 1st, 2008
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It’s New Year, the perfect time for starting some new regular features on Mine Was Taller, and for making a few resolutions.
First up the resolutions:
1) Watch more DVDs than I buy. I seem to have become unable to pass up a bargain, and with the Bargain Forum so helpful in pointing them out it’s resulted in a large “To Watch” pile (actually pile is the wrong word, I wouldn’t want to think how high they’d go if stacked on top of each other but doing so is certainly unfeasible). I’m going to start passing up on some of those previously irresistible offers and also up the number of DVDs watched each week; time will tell how successful I’ll be.
2) Read more some books. Since moving up to the midlands several years ago I seem to have lost the ability to read books. I’ve never been what you’d call a speed reader but I’ve always had a book on the go, yet in the last few years I’ve only completed one book (Don Siegel’s very enjoyable autobiography). It’s not like I’ve completely ignored the written word, I’ve read magazines and continued to feed my childhood comic addiction but books have fallen by the wayside. Hopefully that will change and you’ll see some of the fruits of that change here, including a review of Anthony Holden’s biography of Laurence Olivier (thanks for the Christmas present Kevin!).
January 6th, 2007
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I’ve been neglecting the site for the past month or so but now I’m back and with some new ideas for the New Year. So what does the future hold for Mine Was Taller? Read on as I give you the skinny on what’s in store.
The Weekend Horror Double Bill - This will be my attempt to recapture the spirit of the old TV horror double bills of my youth (for more info on them read my “How I Learned To Love Being Scared” post). These will probably consist of one older film (30’s-60’s) and one more contemporary tale but there will be a link (however tenuous) between the two. Some I’ll have seen before, others I’ll be getting my first taste of. Hopefully this will clear some of my backlog of unwatched horror DVD’s. Will I be able to resist the urge to pair Don’t Answer The phone with When A Stranger Calls? You’ll have to wait and see.
Random Play - Having ripped most of my CD’s I figured why not do a regular feature spotlighting a randomly selected album from my collection? The plan is to celebrate a forgotten classic or two, although given some of the things in there it may end up more of a confessional. Random Play is a working title, if you can think of a better one let me know.
July 15th, 2006
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What will I find within these pages? I hear you ask. Or is that just the voice in my head again?
Well you’ll find reviews. Mostly film reviews but some of my other passions will creep in as well, namely books, comics and music. In the not too distant future you should be reading my views on Superman Returns, Don Siegel’s autobiography A Siegel Film and Kevin Smith’s first Green Arrow story Quiver plus lots more cool stuff.
You’ll also find comments rants on current movie related news and other things that bug me. The first of these already has a title - Disillusioned with American TV - and the rest should follow soon.
Lastly you’ll find my weekly viewing log complete with mini reviews. The first of these should be posted later today and will (hopefully) contain pretty pictures for you to look at.
