Showing posts with label This weeks watching and reading has been.... Show all posts
Showing posts with label This weeks watching and reading has been.... Show all posts

Monday, June 07, 2010

This weeks watching and reading has been...

Ratatouille (2007) - Directed by Brad Bird & Jan Pinkava
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) - Directed by Kerry Conran
Alice in Wonderland (2010) - Directed by Tim Burton
Deep Rising (1998) Directed by Stephen Sommers
El Borbah (1999) by Charles Burns
3D Artist#16 (2010) Published by Image Publishing

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

This weeks watching and reading has been...

The Space Vampires (1976) - by Colin Wilson
East is East (1999) - Directed by Damien O'Donnell
The Outcasts: 12 Issues (1987) by John Wagner, Alan Grant and Cam Kennedy
Contact (1997) - Directed by Robert Zemeckis
I, Madman (1989) - Directed by Tibor Takács
The Gate II (1990) - Directed by Tibor Takács

Sunday, September 06, 2009

This weeks watching and reading has been...

City of Ember (2008) - Directed by Gil Kenan
Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) - Directed by Jimmy T. Murakami
10 Rillington Place (1971) Directed by Richard Fleischer
Sci-Fi and Fantasy Modeller : Issue 14 (2009)
3D Artist#5 (2009) Published by Image Publishing
3D Artist#6 (2009) Published by Image Publishing

Friday, July 03, 2009

This weeks watching and reading has been...

Hardware (1990) - Directed by Richard Stanley
Mutant Chronicles (2008) - Directed by Simon Hunter
The Caves of Androzani (1984) Directed by Graeme Harper
3D Artist#4 (2009) Published by Image Publishing
A Century of Model Animation (2008) by Ray Harryhausen & Tony Dalton
Cinefex#118 (2009) by Published by Don Shay

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

This weeks watching and reading has been....

Star Fleet - The Complete Series (1982) - Created by Go Nagai
Dark Star (1974) - Directed by John Carpenter
Silent Running (1972) Directed by Douglas Trumbull
Cinemagic#2 (1979) Published by Norman Jacobs & Kerry O'Quinn
Amazing Cinema#1 (1981) by Don Dohler
Roadside Picnic (1972) by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

Thursday, July 24, 2008

This weeks watching and reading has been....

A History of Violence (2005) - Directed by David Cronenberg
Cypher (2002) - Directed by Vincenzo Natali
Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001) - Directed by Steven Spielberg
Modelling the 21st Century (2008)
Doctor Who: The Iron Legion (2004) by Pat Mills, John Wagner, Steve Moore, Dave Gibbons
Doctor Who: The Dragon's Claw (2005) by Steve Moore, Steve Parkhouse , Dave Gibbons

Monday, June 16, 2008

This weeks watching and reading has been...

The IT Crowd - Version 1.0 (2006) - Directed by Graham Linehan
The IT Crowd - Version 2.0 (2007) - Directed by Graham Linehan
The Simpsons Movie (2007) Directed by David Silverman
The Wind in the Willows (2007 Edition) by Kenneth Grahame - Illustrated by Robert Ingpen
The Stop-Motion Filmography (1998) by Neil Pettigrew
The City of Ember (2003) by Jeanne DuPrau

The producer of Series 2 of The IT Crowd was Jamie Glazebrook, no relation as far as I know.

Monday, April 28, 2008

This weeks watching and reading has been...


Firefox (1982) - Directed by Clint Eastwood
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (1981) - Directed by Alan J.W Bell
Fahrenheit 451 (1966) - Directed by François Truffaut
Dave Grohl: Nothing to lose (2006) by Michael Heatley
Sci-Fi and Fantasy Modeller : Issue 9 (2008)
Fahrenheit 451 (1953) by Ray Bradbury

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

This weeks watching and reading has been...

Alien Apocalypse (2005) - Directed by Josh Becker
Laserblast (1978) - Directed by Michael Rae
Perry Rhodan 1:Enterprise Stardust (1969) by K.H Scheer and Kurt Mahr
Star Wars:Vault(2007) by Stephen J. Sansweet and Peter Vilmur
Special Effects:An Oral History (2005) by Pascal Pinteau


I was quite pleased to pick up the Star Wars:Vault for only £9.99 is the Christmas sales, especially as it's RRP was £40.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

This weeks watching and reading has been...

28 Days Later (2002) - Directed by Danny Boyle
28 Weeks Later (2007) - Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Coast:Series 3 (2007) - BBC Birmingham
Splinter of the Mind's Eye (1978) by Alan Dean Foster
Lord of the Rings sketchbook (2005) by Alan Lee
Great Lies to Tell Small Kids (2005) by Andy Riley
Loads More Lies to Tell Small Kids (2007) by Andy Riley

Saturday, August 18, 2007

This weeks watching and reading has been...

Downfall (2004) - Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel
Dogtown and the Z-Boys (2001) - Directed by Stacy Peralta
Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) - Directed by Barry Levinson
Dangerous Frontiers (1980) by Steven Caldwell
Space Patrol (1980) by Steven Caldwell
Hook Jaw - Vol 1 (2007) by Pat Mills, Ken Armstrong and Ramon Sola

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

This weeks watching and reading has been...

Jason of Star Command (1979) - Directed by Arthur H. Nadel
Forbidden Planet (1956) - Directed by Fred M. Wilcox
The Football Factory (2004) - Directed by Nick Love
Testament: The Life and Art of Frank Frazetta (2001) by Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner
Mystic Funnies: No 3 (2002) by Robert Crumb
Moonshadows: The Mike Ploog Sketchbook (1998) by Mike Ploog

Thursday, January 04, 2007

This weeks watching and reading has been...

Nomads (1986) - Directed by John McTiernan

Stanley Kubrick : A Biography (1998) written by John Baxter
The Stanley Kubrick Companion (1999) written by James Howard
The Art of Brian Bolland (2006) by Brian Bolland
Sculpting a Galaxy : Inside the Star Wars Model Shop (2006) by Lorne Peterson
The 1970's Scrapbook (2004) by Robert Opie


My good mate who works in 'Forbidden Planet' recommended the Brian Bolland book to me, a fabulous insight into his early work and life with lots of great stories and snapshots as well as his fantastic artwork.

Great piccy's in the Sculpting a Galaxy book, ILM at their best.

The 1970's Scrapbook is a great look into all the cool stuff from that era, everything from Tudor Crisps to Space Hoppers. Loads of fab pics, the cover doesn't do the interior justice at all. If there was a time period I could live in again it would be the 70's !!

Friday, December 01, 2006

This weeks watching and reading has been...

Feast (2005) - Directed by John Gulager
Explorers (1985) - Directed by Joe Dante
Roughnecks: The Starship Trooper Chronicles - The Tesca Campaign (1999) - Directed by Various

Doctor Who: The Inside Story (2006) written by Gary Russell
The Winston Effect: The Art and History of Stan Winston Studio (2006) written by Jody Duncan
The Book of Three (1964) written by Lloyd Alexander

Thursday, November 09, 2006

This weeks watching and reading has been...

The Philadelphia Experiment (1984) - Directed by Stewart Raffill
Doctor Who: The Invasion (1968) - Directed by Douglas Camfield
I, Robot (2004) - Directed by Alex Proyas
Bubba Ho-tep (2002) - Directed by Don Coscarelli

Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th (2006) written by Peter M. Bracke
Star Wars - Manga Issue 1 (1998) by Hisao Tamaki

Monday, October 16, 2006

This weeks watching and reading has been...

Demolition Man (1993) - Directed by Marco Brambilla
Slither (2006) - Directed by James Gunn
Doctor Who : The Leisure Hive (1980) - Directed by Lovett Bickford
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) - Directed by Kevin Smith

Blue Sky : The Art of Computer Animation (2002) Written by Peter Weisher
Infinite Worlds (1997) Written by Vincent Di Fate, Foreword by Ray Bradbury

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

This weeks watching and reading has been...

The Core (2003) - Directed by Jon Amiel
Deep Core (2000) - Directed by Rodney McDonald
At the Earth's Core (1976) - Directed by Kevin Connor
Captain Scarlet - Series 2 (2005) - Directed by David Lane,Dominic Lavery and Mark Woollard
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) - Directed by Brett Ratner


Doctor Who - Special Effects (1986) - Written by Matt Irvine


Thought I'd have a trip to the centre of the Earth trilogy. The Core was a lot of big budget hokum, nice special FX but not a great deal of anything else. Deep Core was a DVD that a mate I go drinking with passed onto me, I should attach it to a brick and send it back his way. Still it does tell roughly the same plot as The Core even though it was made 3 years earlier. I remember sitting on the hall floor at Junior school in 1976 and watching At the Earth's Core as the schools Christmas movie, as a 9 year old I thought it was pretty amazing, now as a 39 year old I think Caroline Munro (pictured below) was the amazing part and the rest of the film was a bit of a let down. Still out of these 3 films it was the best. Good old Peter Cushing and Doug McClure too. I'd love to see someone try their hand at telling the Edgar Rice Burrough's tales set in Pellucidar, At the Earth's Core being the first of 7 stories published between 1914 and 1963, I think they'd make a great film series, even Tarzan visited the place in one story.
Out of the Gerry Anderson shows from being a kid Captain Scarlet was always my favourite, the new CG show has managed to do to the old puppet show what the new Battlestar Galactica did to the 80's version, re-invent the old idea but make it work on a whole new level. A fantastic show, pity it was put in such a crap timeslot by ITV.

X-Men: The Last Stand had some good bits and bad, the worst of the 3 X-Men films, but still an entertaining watch. Funnily enough both this film and The Core see the destruction of 'The Golden Gate Bridge'

Friday, September 22, 2006

This weeks watching and reading has been...

Shock Treatment : 25th Anniversary Edition (1981) - Directed by Jim Sharman
The Starlost : The Movie Collection (1973) - created by Harlan Ellison
Tremors (1990) - Directed by Ron Underwood

The Future was FAB : The Art of Mike Trim (2006) By Anthony Taylor with Mike Trim. Forewords by Richard Taylor and Dave Tremont of Weta Workshop

Sci-Fi and Fantasy Modeller : Issue 3 (2006)



I'd heard about the Canadian TV series The Starlost a long time ago in magazines like Starlog that I bought as a kid. Always wanted to see it, used to read letters from Adults who grew up watching it and had fond memories of it. This collection takes all the original 16 Episodes and edits them into 5 TV movies, this was done some time in the early 80's. As a show it comes across as all the cheapest bits of Doctor Who, Blake's 7 and The Tomorrow People only 10 times cheaper, it's Visual FX make Button Moon look like they were done by ILM.

There's an idea in this show, it's just nobody had any real talent to pull it off. Harlan Ellison the shows creator had his named removed, and what Douglas Trumbull (FX genius of 2001, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Bladerunner etc...) had to do with the final show is beyond me. For a bit of early 1970's Sci-Fi it's worth seeing just to say you've seen it, but I'm glad I didn't pay more than £11.99 for this set.

Here's a link to a Starlost site with lots of Episode and Production info http://tinyurl.com/ja78b




The Future was FAB : The Art of Mike Trim
on the other hand was worth every penny, lots of great pics and concepts of the crafts from the Gerry Anderson shows and the Jeff Wayne War of the Worlds album. Even Mike's recent concepts have a great look to them, I'm suprised people aren't using his design more.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

This weeks watching and reading has been...

Dawn of the Dead (2004) - Directed by Zack Snyder
Blade 2 (2002) - Directed by Guillermo del Toro
Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) - Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Forgotten Silver (1995) - Directed by Costa Botes and Peter Jackson

The Making of King Kong (1978) - Written by Orville Goldner and George E Turner
The House Book (2004) - Phaidon Press Ltd


Thought I'd give Zack Snyder's remake of Dawn of the Dead another go, I did enjoy it more the 2nd time but it would have been better if it hadn't been a remake, there are so many few elements from the original used it's more of a remake in name alone.

Monday, August 21, 2006

This weeks watching and reading has been...

Space 1999 : Series 1 - Episodes 9 & 10 (1975) Directed by Ray Austin & Lee H.Katzin
Fright Night (1985) - Directed by Tom Holland
Doctor Who : Tomb of the Cybermen (1967) - Directed by Morris Barry

Fantastic Films Issue 1 (1978)
SPFX Magazine Issue 3
Cinefantastique : Dune/Eraserhead-Double Edition (1984)