Chimpomatic

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Improved op, Simon Pegg lightens Cruise control. Overlong, vertigo stunts IMAX-ready.

#Screened
#Film
#chimp71

23rd Jan 2012

Y: The Last Man

Brian K Vaughan, Pia Guerra

Vertigo

One man and his monkey, alone in a world full of women? Ever get the feeling that some projects are written just for you? 

Brian K Vaughn was one of the hired guns brought onto the Lost writers team and he brings a similar deft touch to his own work (check out Hurley reading the Spanish language version "Y, El Último Hombre" here). Ex-Machina is a great combo of city politics and superhero antics, while Pride Of Baghdad turned that corny Disney shtick about animals banding together for an impossible journey into an elegant anti-Iraq War statement.

Here, Y: The Last Man is a thoughtful and playfully entertaining sci-fi series that follows hero Yorick Brown over the course of ten graphic novels as he tries find out why he's the only man left alive after an overnight plague kills off all the other men and leaves him trapped on a planet of the babes (ahem).

It's one of those simple set-ups that doesn't disappoint. Our hero ends up being protected by secret agents and fighting ninjas on a globe-trotting odyssey as he searches the planet for his girlfriend (never let a gendercide get in the way of being hung up on one girl). A film version has been in the offing for a while, with Disturbia director DJ Caruso and Transformers dude Shia LeBeouf attached (and not attached, and attached again), but it's great in the comic format (and all ten have been out since last year, with some beefy deluxe reissues coming through now), so why not just read the original?

#chimp71

30th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

In Search Of A Midnight Kiss

(dir. Alex Holdridge)

Vertigo Films/ IFC Entertainment

Monochrome US indie romance that follows the walking and talking template of Before Sunset/Sunrise. It's New Year's Eve and wannabe scriptwriter Wilson (Scoot McNairy) finds himself stuck in LA with no job, no girl and no prospect of getting the elusive midnight kiss he's dreaming about. His roommates talk him into placing an ad on Craig's List, so he cynically types:

Misanthrope Seeks Misanthrope

and is pretty surprised when he gets a confident call a few hours later. He's even more surprised when he goes to meet her a few hours later, and finds her auditioning other prospective dates for the evening. It's not giving too much away to reveal that Vivian (Sara Simmonds) decides to pick Wilson (where would the rest of the film be?)

It's always great to see a film that's confident enough to let its characters learn about each other's lives without any great car chases or hyperactive ninjas forcing them together. It's also interesting to see the downtown side of LA - they talk about heading over to hip hotels like the W, but never actually make it. Instead we're hanging out on the streets (ie, the streets where there are actually people walking around), taking the subway, getting stuck in traffic.

It's downbeat, funny, moving and revealing in turns, as the glammed up Vivian slowly sheds her sassy hardass shell, and Wilson lets his slacker guard down. Very much in the spirit of that wave of 90s US indie, with the Craig's List internet dating MacGuffin giving it a 2008 refresh. Recommended.

#Film
#chimp71

6th Aug 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

U2

Cardiff Millennium Stadium

Dr Chimp's ears are still ringing after the U2 rockfest at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium last night. Very odd to be in a space that big, but with a roof overhead - a bit like being indoors and outdoors at the same time. U2 gave us two very loud hours of their greatest hits, plus about three-quarters of the latest album. Oddly, the songs from their very first album were played with far more energy than the newer material (apart from Vertigo, which we got twice). One guy standing near us seemed to have a 48-piece imaginary drum kit, which he gave a good thumping during Sunday, Bloody Sunday. And two other swaying dudes air-guitared themselves into a total frenzy during Bullet the Blue Sky. All in all, infinitely better than the limp Zooropa show that Dr Chimp and Chimp71 saw in Cardiff in 1993, but nowhere near the heights of the San Francisco ZooTV madness of '92. Very excited to see the convoy of U2 people carriers, under heavy police escort, racing past the grassy knoll by the castle on our way back to the car. But why does this feel like a farewell tour?

Dr Chimp

set list:
Vertigo
I Will Follow
Electric Co.
Elevation
New Year’s Day
Beautiful Day
I Still Haven’t Found
All I Want is You
City of Blinding Lights
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
Love and Peace
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Running to Standstill
Pride (in the name of love)
Where the Streets have no name
One

Zoo Station
The Fly
With or Without You

All Because of You
Yahweh
Vertigo

#Music
#Gig
#Dr.Chimp

30th Jun 2005 - Add Comment - Tweet