by hutchwp

What’s the deal with the Wes Anderson and Roald Dahl Netflix collaboration?

You may have noticed on Netflix recently a handful of sepia-tinged thumbnails popping up in your Trending Now or Recommends lists. Based on the lack of advertising generally, all you are left with is the titles alone: Poison, The Rat Catcher, The Swan and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.

These curiosities make up a series of four adaptations of Roald Dahl short stories by the distinctive director Wes Anderson. Bringing together a wonderful ensemble cast – including Rupert Friend, Richard Ayoade, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ben Kingsley, Dev Patel and Ralph Fiennes – the four shorts really are quite special. Marrying the distinctive styles of two great storytellers from very different eras, there is a high-art uniqueness that lands in a place that feels fresh and intriguing.

As I finished watching my favourite of the bunch – the sharp-scripted Poison, about a man struggling under the threat of an imminent deadly poisonous snake bite – I wondered whether these could have been made twenty years ago. Or even ten years ago? I could only think of one outlet for them, which would be as part of the festive programming of a terrestrial channel, probably on Boxing Day, when the rigidities of multi-part series and familiarities are relaxed as the nation forgoes its own schedules to Quality Street and sherry.

I’m thrilled these four short films have seen the light of day, although I also wonder whether they’ve been done a disservice in the manner of release. With little fanfare, they’ve just appeared in the faces of the casual scroller, with more than a little whiff of that U2 x iPhone collab we all loved so much. I know someone who accidentally watched the longest of the bunch – The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar – and wondered what on Earth was going on. With no explanation, it’s easy to see why the unfinished stylings of Wes Anderson could confuse. Actors look at the camera, the prop department hand items to the scenes apologetically, the elaborate sets are shifted as if they were part of an experimental theatre piece. These quirks that elevate the experience for fans of Anderson risk perturbing casual viewers, or indeed fans of Roald Dahl’s more popular output.

With results this good, perhaps Netflix decided that was a risk they were willing to take.

by hutchwp

Dad Gaming – We need to talk about loading

We need to talk about loading.

I’ve got a huge problem with my gaming habits, which means I’m almost never playing games.

I recently bought Street Fighter 6. After three nights of ‘gaming’, I can confirm that the training mode is quite enjoyable. I can also confirm I’m losing interest.

Back in 1993, when I was happily playing the original Street Fighter II Turbo on the SNES, my life was admittedly much simpler than it is now. I’d imagine that working out how far away Dhalsim could be from Ryu before his punches landed was fairly high on my priority list. I was a master of those 12 characters, and I had to be. My brother was a machine with Ryu and I had to be on my game to avoid embarrassment on a daily basis.

Let me talk about my experience not as an 8 year old, but as a 38 year old.

First night. I open the case up, turn on the Xbox Series X and insert the disc. Pretty excited. Will they have any knowing references to that original loading sequence from back in the day? Will the characters all be there? Will I be able to 100-hand slap like the old days?

Oh. I need to download an update. A big update. But it’s 10:30pm and I’ve only got 45 minutes. Okay, no worries. I’ll install and get some time in before bed time. I’ll watch that Beckham doc in the meantime.

11:15pm comes and goes and the game update still isn’t complete. I’ll need to come back tomorrow.

Tomorrow becomes today. A remarkable second free night in a row is here and I’m still very excited about playing Street Fighter 6, one of the best-reviewed games of the year. I load the game and the updates are fully downloaded. Good sign.

After a few intro sequences (no harking back to the glory days sadly), I’m told I need to login to Capcom using my Capcom ID. Strange requirement but I’m informed I can’t proceed with the game unless I agree. Sure. So I try to create an account, but apparently I already created an account at some point. So, I reset my password, but after 5 attempts it won’t link to my Microsoft account, which means I can’t access all of the game modes. It’s quite a fun experience so far – boy do I love entering email addresses using a gaming controller. Maybe this is the game? Turning grown men green with rage and seeing if they can spontaneously produce electricity.

So, I opt for the workaround and manage to get through to a reduced version of the game. However, instead of being able to jump in, I first have to complete a training exercise. My muscle memory is great, and I find it all a breeze. It’s good to know the grey matter is working.

And then, 15 minutes later, it’s bed time.

In 1993, after 2 hours of gaming I’d already kicked Bison’s ass so hard that the next Bison wannabee was gonna feel it. In 2023 I’m getting my ass kicked by loading screens, password resets and lethargy.

Current score: 3/10. Maybe if I get to play it sometime soon I’ll bump that up. Or maybe there will be another software update.

by hutchwp

How dads play video games

Even the title of this is ambitious. For context, I’m almost 39 and I have two daughters.

In the last year I’ve bought six new video games. They were: Street Fighter 6, Starfield, Demon Slayer Kimetsu No Yaiba, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cowabunga Collection, Cyberpunk 2077 and Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania.

In the last year, I have played two video games. One of these was one game from the Cowabunga Collection, a Turtles game from the NES era that I never managed to complete as a child, which gave me an instant nostalgia hit and supreme levels of joy and frustration. The second was Mario Kart 8 at the arcade in the local bowling alley. My entire involvement was to hold the pedal down for my daughter as she over-steered Peach around the first course in the Mushroom Cup.

Am I bitter about this? Absolutely not. I love that I’m so busy with my daughters that I don’t have time to indulge this most selfish of hobbies. They are literally my world and I’d do anything for them. That my gaming interests have fallen by the wayside is just a tiny problem.

So why am I writing a blog post about it? Well, it’s fairly obvious isn’t it? I knew I was never going to play any of those games. So why on earth did I buy them? I guarantee that I will never reach the 5% point of Starfield. I may never even start Cyberpunk 2077. I’m a disgrace to planning, to the gaming industry and to my bank account.

Will I still buy the Turtles DLC for Street Fighter 6? Absolutely.

by hutchwp

Halloween Quiz 2023 – Just for fun

Round 1 – Picture Round
Round 2 – Questions

Just for fun, here’s a free Halloween film quiz for you to use in your office, with your friends, or with your family!

Just print them off or share them on your screen and hey presto – instant fun!

I’ll publish the answers in a separate post.

UPDATE

Here are the answers

by hutchwp

Film review – Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget

It has been twenty-three years since we first saw the original Chicken Run on the big screen. A lot has happened since then. Upon its release in Britain, Tony Blair was the Prime Minister, the country was congratulating itself on avoiding the millennium bug, but we were still wondering what to do with the big dome we’d built in London. The biggest film at the box office was Gladiator, Kylie Minogue hadn’t made her golden-hot panted comeback yet and we were hotly awaiting the release of PlayStation 2. Oh, and Erling Haaland was about to be born.

Basically, it was a while ago.

So how does bringing back such an old film feel, after all this time? Honestly… like a huge big warm hug.

This is not a departure in style. Indeed, it picks up right where we left the clucky gang of misfits – on the idyllic island they’d found at the end of the first film. The opening act is something of a scene setter, introducing us to the new lead character in the film. Molly, played by Bella Ramsey, longs for everything her mum and dad ran away from in the first film. From her island, the outside world is full of wonder, delight and mystery. Frustrated by a feeling of suffocation, she escapes the island and looks for a new adventure with the first chicken she finds, a zesty Liverpudlian called Frizzle (played playfully by Josie Sedgwick-Davies).

Much speculation has been made about the refreshed voice acting cast. Only a few of the original cast have maintained their spots in the cast, with high profile names such as Phil Daniels, Timothy Spall and Julia Sawalha being recast. In their case, it was a simple move to ensure the voices sounded as youthful as the characters they were playing. It’s a distraction when the voice doesn’t match what you’re seeing, and you only need to see the first 20 minutes of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny to know how skin-crawlingly dreadful it is for your brain to have to work overtime to live with it. There may be more reasons at play for some of the cast, but there’s a whole additional essay that could be written about that…

I loved the film, and the small screening I was lucky enough to attend with all agreed. The audience was a mix of older fans revisiting a childhood memory, and younger people who were being introduced to the chickens for the first time. My four-year-old daughter, well-versed in Aardman, had a fantastic time and was annoyed she couldn’t watch it again any time soon. She was restless during the first 10 minutes but a swift bribe with a Curly-Wurly and she was golden. My only concern is how many sheltered children will be asking questions about their chicken nuggets next time they eat them.

This isn’t groundbreaking material, but nor does it need to be. As the film plays out, it does feel familiar. There’s an evil plot, the protagonists need to club together to stop them. But that’s children’s animation. It’s a formula that might feel tired to some, but sometimes what you need is exactly this. A big huge warm hug. And when hugs are this good, I don’t think you need much more.

by hutchwp

Film review – Love in Pawn (Charles Saunders, 1953)

The year is 1953. November. Britain is still bouncing from the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Winston Churchill was halfway through his second stint as British Prime Minister. Frankie Laine was the undisputed king of the musical landscape, topping the singles charts for well over half the year with three different songs. And, somewhere amongst it all, Charles Saunders crafted one of the most bizarre British comedy films I’ve ever seen.

Love in Pawn stars Bernard Braden and Barbara Kelly as Roger and Jean Fox, a married couple in dire need of financial help. After a fairly slow opening act, they come to the only logical conclusion: to pawn Roger for a then-considerable £5. However, when Jean loses the ticket, Roger is stuck in the pawn shop for longer than expected. This gives him just enough time to begin a flirtatious kinship with the pawnbroker’s daughter Amber, played brilliantly by Jeannie Carson.

That the daughter is not of age (it’s suggested she’s 17) is not even the most unusual part of this strange plot. The main confusion for this viewer was that nobody seems to greatly question why Roger is allowed to be pawned. Even when they get to court the judge has a little confused look and then proceeds as normal.

For such a wild premise, the film itself isn’t particularly hilarious. Plenty of films, across all genres, stand up to the test of time after 70 years, but this doesn’t really hit the mark. Charles Saunders was on the fringes of television and cinema throughout his career, and this does lack the grandeur of a big-screen story. Indeed, it would sit much better as a TV movie with some of the fat cut out of the first twenty minutes.

Perhaps his creativity had reached saturation. Between 1952 and 1954, he rushed through no fewer than eight films and nine episodes of anthology series Douglas Fairbanks Presents. Such a prolific career tends to lead to a formulaic output.

There is a good story here but it feels rushed and unbalanced.

by hutchwp

Film review – Your Place Or Mine (Aline Brosh McKenna, 2023)

Listen. Schmalzy romcoms are totally not my bag, okay? The whole premise does nothing for me. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed one for years. But there was something about Aline Brosh McKenna’s film that made me want to keep watching. And – whisper it very quietly – I quite enjoyed it.

The film stars Reece Witherspoon as Debbie and Ashton Kutcher as Peter. It opens with them having a one-night stand together in the early 00s. A jump forwards in time reveals that they didn’t end up married, but that they did end up very close friends, despite living on opposite sides of the USA.

So, where is the story taken and how does it end? Well, very similarly to most other rom-coms. There are a few bumps along the way and everyone ends up quite happy at the end.

The beauty in the film comes with its simplicity and charm. The leads have never looked better and make a perfect match. They add life to a solid storyline that feels snappy and well baked. There’s no laziness in the character realisation, especially in Theo (Jesse Williams), for whom it would have been easier to paint as more sinister and manipulative.

It isn’t groundbreaking cinema but it does a very good job of what it set out to do. Sometimes that is enough.

Maybe it is my bag after all.

by hutchwp

Film review – Two Way Stretch (Robert Day, 1960)

There is something immediately joyous about Two Way Stretch. The score, supplied by Ken Jones, plays beautifully over some whimsical title cards, typical of British films at the time, and it sets up the tale perfectly.

Set in a British prison, Robert Day’s 1960 comedy tells the tale of a group of three prisoners – Peter Sellers, Bernard Cribbins and David Lodge – who operate their cell like a homely bed and breakfast, with contraband food and drink, a radio, daily newspapers and even a pet cat called Strangeways. They receive a visit from a man purporting to be a vicar (played by Wilfrid Hyde-White), but who is actually a conman who has hatched a plan to use the three prisoners to carry out a large-scale diamond theft. They’ll be broken out of prison, steal the diamonds, then broken back in. A classic farce.

Sellers is brilliant throughout, providing natural comedy at every moment. In 1960, his film career had just taken off with a BAFTA win for his leading role in another British comedy, I’m All Right Jack. By 1962, he was starring in Kubrick’s Lolita before being cast in Pink Panther. This is a perfect opportunity to see Sellers in his prime, fresh from radio, making his way on the big screen. A comedy legend at his best.

There are some moments of real hilarity. A visit from some elderly ladies provides Sellers with the opportunity to play a few tricks, whilst the smuggling of contraband into the prison on visit day is a shambolic hoot. The real gold starts with the arrival of Lionel Jeffries as the officious Chief “Sour” Crout, who brings a real counterpoint for the trio of protagonists. The comedy is all underpinned by a solid plot that keeps things moving forwards.

Two Way Stretch is a pure joy from start to finish and a perfect snapshot of British cinema at the start of the 1960s.