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taxman2001
Reviews
Barriers (1981)
The-Fugitive-meets-a-Cold-War-Film-Noir-Children's-Television-Serie s
For some reason I always seem to remember this being shown on Channel 4 when it first started back in 1982.
It never came across to me as a children's drama (even though it was) and I always felt that I was watching something that the adults wouldn't want me to. The opening credits always fascinated me, which I suppose me being an 11 year old at the time was not hard to do.
It's a dark night on the Austrian/Hungarian border in 1963 as a car drives through some woods. This is inter-cut with the present day (well as present a day as 1980 England could be) and Billy Stanyon (the character played by Benedict Taylor).
Back at the woods, and after some more cutting back and forth, the car crashes first of all through some nasty looking soldiers with machine guns and then through some BARRIERS (get it!). Naturally the car is fired upon, crashes and bursts into flames but not before a solitary figure rolls out into the woods before making their escape.
This whole sequence had me glued to the episode week-in, week-out, when our adopted hero Billy Stanyon would try and discover the truth behind his real parents' death.
I just remember that not only were the opening credits and music haunting but the show was too. Billy Stanyon was always one step behind the truth and because of this permanently had a look of complete dejection etched onto his face.
Unfortunately I never got to find out what the whole damn thing was about. Maybe I missed the last couple of episodes or maybe it is lost in the mists of my mind. Or maybe there never was any ending.
Looking back on it, the closest I could describe it was as a The-Fugitive-meets-a-Cold-War-Film-Noir-Children's-Television-Series.
Antibody (2002)
Okay, I'll try and make this as painless as possible ...
Think FANTASTIC VOYAGE.
Think INNERSPACE.
Now think ANTIBODY.
Yep it's the much overlooked (but always excellent) concept of miniaturization brought upto date with terrorists, nuclear bombs and those great big white blood cells.
After enjoying Christian McIntire's film THE LOST VOYAGE (also starring the ever excellent Lance Henriksen) I kept my eye out for his other directorial efforts.
Basic plot: terrorists now use nano technology to have detonators implanted in their body's so that should they die the the bomb will explode. Enter terrorist with nukes planted across the world and detonator in his body. Enter ex-FBI Agent Lance Henriksen who - after Mr Terrorist is shot - is injected, along with Robin Givens, into said nasty man to find the detonator and "disarma" it.
There are some nice nods to FANTASTIC VOYAGE and INNERSPACE. In my spends-too-much-time-sitting-on-his-backside-and-watches-films opinion the most notably are the room in where The Helix (the submarine in which our heroes travel) is shrunk which has a familiar FANTASTIC VOYAGE ceiling and those red blood cells which seem to have come directly from the INNERSPACE set.
Not that I'm complaining (if I had to then it would be about Robin Givens performance but hey, I even warmed to her character in the end). Far from it.
Give me more. In fact maybe this could be the basis for a new tv show?
The Hole (2001)
An Ode To THE HOLE
Oh HOLE, Oh HOLE, You plot was quite gyre.
And Thora, Dear Thora, Your accent was so dire.
The acting! What acting? Made me yawn and tire
For a film, Any film, That wasn't a misfire.
Enigma (2001)
A good old fashioned romantic thriller ... and British to boot
At last a British movie with a complex plot and complex characters scripted superbly by Tom Stoppard, a marvellous score by the God-like John Barry and damn fine direction by Michael Apted.
I remember reading Robert Harris's FATHERLAND way back when and being stunned by it. So obviously when ENIGMA came out I bought it immediately. I tried reading it and for whatever reason only got a quarter of the way into it. To be frank I'm glad I didn't finish it, for if I had I think I wouldn't have enjoyed this movie half as much.
Dougray Scott is excellent in his role as a codebreaker who's had a nervous breakdown and Jeremy Northam is totally mysterious as a spy who you are never quite sure about. Kate Winslett could almost be there for show as the romantic interest but makes the most of her part and ends up solving the mystery and proving her worth.
All in all a damn fine movie from start to finish which makes me want to finish the source material. Now where did I leave my copy of the book...?
Lost Voyage (2000)
The reason I got a movie channel ...
Okay this ain't gonna be to many the greatest movie ever made but it's sure as hell enjoyable. Let's face it any movie with Judd Nelson and Lance Henriksen in it, TOGETHER, has got to be worth watching at least once.
Basically the plot goes that in 1972, the Corona Queen disappeared on a voyage through the Bermuda Triangle. Skip forward to the present day and our kid Judd (a researcher in paranormal activity) through necessary plot detail get a hitch on a helicopter with a tv crew and some salvage guys (lead by the always excellent Henriksen) to the recently discovered vessel.
Catch is, Judd's father was on his honeymoon with his new wife, Judd's stepmother, on it's last voyage.
It's got some thills, some chills, is unintentionally funny (i.e. Lance Henriksen's line when he gets the phone call on the supposedly empty ship) and the director McIntire even gets to plug his other movie "Python".
All in all, kinda like an aquatic "The House On Haunted Hill" (1999). Hmmmmm maybe they should have called it "The Ship On Strange Seas"...