When my Dad first told me about Detectorists, I said, “What, so it’s about a bunch of metal detectors?” And he said “No, they’re detectorists.” And I thought “OK, fine, there’s no need to be a nob about it.”
And that kind of encapsulates the genius of that show.
I work for a little not-for-profit organisation. Whenever we come into any amount of unexpected funding, I ALWAYS raise the prospect of getting a yacht just like the @massivelyop team!
New York detective Ichabod Crane is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of mysterious deaths in which the victims are found beheaded. But the locals believe the culprit to be none other than the ghost of the legendary Headless Horseman.
I guess if you don’t like the Depp/Burton/Elfman triumvirate there’s no way you’ll like this. But I think this is worth the watch for the visual effects, makeup and stunt work alone.
The headless horseman is superbly realised. A villain almost as formidable and implacable as the Terminator that, despite the lack of facial expression, still manages to have a playful and cheeky demeanour.
The central plot is fun, though it does rely heavily on a fountain of exposition in the third act to bring it together. Some of the performers are a bit wooden and the accents are ALL over the place but there’s at least Michael Gambon to enjoy.
Finally, a word on “horror”. There’s more threat and gore in this than I find in most recent horror movies pitched at teens. It deserves a little more respect in that regard.
★★★★
A young boy and his friends face off against a mysterious grave robber known only as the Tall Man, who keeps a mysterious arsenal of terrible weapons with him.
This is quite the silver lining!
“Jobeth Williams in Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film Poltergeist.” The Guardian not even pretending… https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/feb/01/kids-horror-shows-joe-cornish
A rogue band of resistance fighters unite for a mission to steal the Death Star plans and bring a new hope to the galaxy.
I hated this when it was first released. Maybe I just didn’t want to like it?
I couldn’t get over the fact that we knew almost all of these characters were going to die, otherwise we’d have heard of them, right? I guess you could call it the curse of the prequel. On that basis I found it pretty hard to warm to them.
This time round, I was just focussed on what was on the screen much more. And, while there are still some fairly clunky lines and moments, the overall story plays out well and the battle scenes might be some of the best in canon. Looks gorgeous too.
★★★★
This is my current favourite for work focus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNN7iTA57jM
“I remember as we were walking out General Gerasimov said, ‘Never again will we be humiliated. We used to be the fourth army in the world, we’re now number two.”
I think he was right, they have shown themselves to be number 2 💩
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jan/30/boris-johnson-says-putin-claimed-he-could-send-missile-to-hit-uk-in-a-minute
