31 posts tagged “london”

In the new movie Harry Brown, Michael Caine (you may remember him from Return to the Poseidon Adventure, The Swarm, Jaws 3-D, The Hand and a couple of other movies) is a retired Marine who gives a bunch of yobs on a housing estate what they deserve after a mate of his is killed. The smart-arse at The Times thinks they should have killed him off, probably because Times readers would have preferred he prevailed if he talked like he did in Zulu. Me: I like a bit of escapism and this sounds like a modern-day Death Wish. (Pity that by the time Sir Maurice got to work with Michael Winner, the director had lost his marbles and they made Bullesye.) Go Michael! Blow them bloody doors off!

   Seriously, Sir Maurice had more personal reasons for starring in this film, being a Korean War veteran, and seeing how youth in these areas (it was filmed at the Elephant and Castle) have been let down by their elders, according to The Daily Telegraph.

The stories are different enough that one could not accuse the Hong Kong film-makers of outright copying, but there is clear inspiration between the English Ooh, You Are Awful (or Get Charlie Tully), starring Dick Emery, and the first of the successful franchise 最佳拍檔 (Aces Go Places). The films are 10 years apart.
   The plot lines are similar: in the original, Emery has to find a Swiss bank account number, separately tattooed on four different girls’ behinds. In the later film, Sam Hui (the father of Canto-pop) and Karl Maka’s characters have to find a map reference, tattooed on two different girls’ behinds. The following is of two very similar scenes, one set at Waterloo Station in London, the other at a taxi company’s radio department, and subsequent scenes involving photographic booths, where one might be able to claim there was a fair amount of direct copying. Emery is more blue, while the later film is more slapstick with better pacing.
   And yes, that is the lovely Cheryl Kennedy in the first clip.
   In the 1970s and 1980s, it was highly unlikely for Hong Kong cinemagoers to have seen the Emery film.
   Head to 2.45 for the above scene in the first video; 0.43 in the second clip.

Since Triangle TV closed in Wellington, I have not been able to watch al-Jazeera as often as I used to. As I was asked to be on the July 31 edition of Listening Post, commenting on Kim Jong-Il and the media, I thought it would be worth sharing with more of you, especially if you are equally hampered by access to the news network. (Apologies to my Vox neighbourhood who will see two entries to the same video.) I think this marks my fifth or sixth appearance—I seem to have lost count.

During a quiet moment at work, I put these on. A small tribute to Dennis Waterman, his starring roles, and his singing the ‘feem toon’.

Law & Order UK (from ITV) has started in New Zealand, and just like most remakes, it’s not as good as the original. It’s not bad, but proves again that sometimes, things should just remain in their original form.
   And before someone pounces on me by saying that Law & Order UK is not a remake, but a spin-off (as has happened on YouTube), then perhaps they could tell me why the script for tonight’s episode here is directly based on an American one (and even credits it)? Sorry, old chap, that makes it a remake, just like all those wonderful American shows and movies such as Three’s Company, Sanford & Son, Life on Mars, Coupling, Cosby, Ugly Betty, Three’s a Crowd, Eleventh Hour, Too Close for Comfort, The Office, Viva Laughlin, Kath & Kim, Payne, Amanda’s, The Prisoner, In Treatment, Worst Week, All in the Family, Good Behavior, State of Play …
   The credits are OK, and at least here there has been some departure from the original, though the trade mark noise that starts each scene is still present.

A slightly odd Ashes to Ashes on Monday night. There are clues that Alex has been found by the emergency services and that a crash crew is two minutes away, furthering her first-series theory that she could literally be living seconds of her life while days whiz by in 1982.
   Last night, Matthew Graham’s script was good for some of the Gene Hunt lines, and the freemasonry parts were suitably spooky, but there was relatively little from the stalker that we saw in Ashley Pharoah’s first episode last week. I don’t have too much to add, other than the use of a Leyland Princess for the opening car chase, to which Gene utters, ‘Death of a Princess’—again tying in with the Lady Di boat in the first episode last year, and the many Princess Diana references last week (Pont de l’Alma, England’s rose, and 1982 TV footage). And why does Alex keep hearing a helicopter?

   Alex’s body in 2008 must be somewhere connected with Diana—maybe the pier is named for her? Anyone a bit more familiar with the Greenwich–Milwall area?
   Next week, the preview indicates that Morph will appear, in the same manner as the Camberwick Green parody in Life on Mars and Zippy and George last year. Roland the Rat is also scheduled for an appearance in this second series.
   The cast of Ashes to Ashes has been told the entire plot and Marshall Lancaster (whose role has been expanded this year—and I like this direction) has been quoted as saying it is far more complicated than we expect. I think we can presume that it’s “real” and not just in her head—Alex has somehow done a Quantum Leap into someone in 1982. Unlike Life on Mars, there are scenes without her, indicating that the characters have lives outside of her mind. But is there any spiritual meaning behind Gene Hunt?

Most Wellingtonians have seen this Routemaster bus around. I think it’s a promotional vehicle for an English pub here, but it’s a cinch it’s also hired out for TV and film usage when people need to set something in London.

   Doesn’t quite fit in to the antipodean setting of Lambton Quay, does it?
   Here’s another strange one from the driver’s seat today: You just don’t expect to see a dull car like the Honda Inspire—Accord V6 here—with a chav spoiler when it’s brand-new (the grey car in the left lane, behind the bus). The rest of the car looks stock, which means it’s the sort of car an OAP would be driving. I didn’t see who the driver is, but it’s one of the most incongruous things I’ve seen in a while.

Welcome to Brown’s Britain.
   And one copper who might give so many of the good ones at the Met a black mark.
   I know there were some difficulties with protesters and I assume the police officer’s judgement was coloured by that. One would hope, however, that the training would keep the macho bollocks in check.

There is next to nothing online about The Paradise Club, one of my favourite TV series. It starred Leslie Grantham and the late Don Henderson as brothers whose mother was a gangland boss. Henderson, as Father Frank Kane, convinces little brother Danny (Grantham) to go straight. Murray Smith created the series. If I remember correctly, it was the first commissioned series on the BBC.
   In New Zealand, it wasn’t helped by being on a Friday night back in the days when I was a uni student who was otherwise occupied.
   I found one episode today on YouTube which guest-starred Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, ‘Rock and Roll Roulette’, but that’s it. There’s not even a DVD release.