Day 1070

Aka Friday 3^rd January 2020
 

I picked up a few DVDs today:

…watched ‘The Peacemaker’, which I remember as a pretty good nuanced thriller, but when re-watching it (after a good few years) it did feel a tad jingoistic, with a few plot holes or leaps of logic/storytelling, but it is a bit of a romp, with a nice thrilling pace and George Clooney and Nicole Kidman are good leads and it’d have been interesting to see more of them (as these characters). 6/10.

And the first ‘Dracula’ film is…odd, especially compared to later film versions of the Bram Stoker’s 'Dracula'. It’s like the copy of the book the film makers used had half the pages missing, as there are whole scenes and characters missing. The scenes in Castle Dracula are great and creepy, but then it goes a bit melodramatic and lacking in tension or thrills, with Dracula being dispatched off-camera, although it does manage to feel disconcerting now and then. I assume that a lot of this is due to the restrictions and trends of the time being out of sync with today. But it’s not that the film feels quaint, rather it just feels…odd and a little disconcerting. 6/10.

Next up was ‘Horror Of Fang Rock’ was described as ‘John Carpenter’s The Thing’ meets ‘John Carpenter’s The Fog’ and it does live up to that hype. ‘Horror Of Fang Rock’ does a great job of building suspense, dread and horror, at least until the reveal of the baddies real form. Which instantly reminds you of the budgetary and technical limitations of ‘70’s Doctor Who. And explains why so many Doctor Who stories have such great concepts, with the strength of the story overriding any quibbles about the special-effects, and ‘Horror Of Fang Rock’ is a great example of this. 7.5/10

…and the postman delivered ‘John Constantine Hellblazer’ #2:

…which delves further into Constantine’s new life and the horror residing in Peckham Rye, nicely re-establishing John and building tension and dread. 7/10.

…and Lucy Suvillan’s zines:

…which I want to save for when I can send some time with them, not just rush through…

…and a copy of Bomb the Bass’ single ‘Don’t Make Me Wait’/’Megablast’, both of which are classic late ‘80’s dance tracks. For me ‘Megablast’ is one of the great songs and I only had the 7” edit, which is packed full of urgency, scratches, bass and funk and I waited more. The versions on this single are longer and more hip-hoppy, but they don’t have that urgency and danceability that the 7” edit has. So 7” edit for before the club and the longer versions for after the club, at home chilling.

…and I read the last three issues (#43, #44 and #45) of ‘East of West’, which bring the ‘East of West’ story to its conclusion and ends the story with both a bang and a whimper, as we get to see nations clash in the most bloody way possible, three of the Four Horsemen killed by the fourth, wrongs righted, villain’s getting their comeuppance, the fourth Horseman sacrificing himself for his son, nations reborn, promises kept and a mother and son reunited. There are plenty of big action moments and plenty of smaller human moments, like the best Westerns it’s about doing the right thing, keeping to your moral compass regards of the consequences and in the end the bad guys lose and the good guys continue on. All in a beautifully illustrated and written tale that after 45 issues feels like a satisfying conclusion to the tale of Death rescuing his son and reuniting him with his mother and of nations rising and falling. 7/10.

…and I did today’s G2 Crossword:

…which went a tad better than yesterdays and I only had to cheat on a seventh of the clues (four out of 21). A bit annoyed that I didn’t get ‘blowfly’ from ‘bluebottle and ‘gratuity’ from ‘tip’, but I did learn that a ‘sunk fence’ is called a ‘ha-ha’ and that ‘hake’ is a type of fish…