13 posts tagged “review”

Remember how a few weeks back, I chided Examiner.com for a poorly written review of District 9? The writer of the review told us how a chap called ‘Neill Blomcamp’ directed the film, and invented new words such as gansters, prolifigate, demonstate and permissiable. I still wonder if a prolifigate is where pro-lifers meet up.
   It looks like the site never really checks things. Its latest review is a bit better when it comes to spelling and word usage, but it still has some mistakes, such as ‘the Nazi’s outlined treatment of the Jews during WWII’ (which Nazi?). Less forgiveable, however, are the first two words which begin the review. There, I see that Neill Blomkamp’s name is now ‘Neil Bomkamp’:

Examiner goofs on Blomkamp’s name again

The writer of this review of District 9, Andrew Ricks Jr, has good phrasing, and seems to know his stuff. However, it reveals that someone did not do any checking at the Examiner, whether it’s the writer (I am the first to admit it is difficult to proof your own stuff on-screen), the proofreader (who should be skilled enough to do this) or an editor (who really should be). And this paragraph is where I stopped reading because I was way too put off by the errors:

Guess no one proofs at the Examiner

This was a real find today. I know a lot of Mission: Impossible fans have seen this, but since there is no CNBC down here, it was the first time I saw it. Mike Jerrick (latterly of Fox News) interviews Peter Graves, Greg Morris, Peter Lupus, Lynda Day George and Leonard Nimoy from the original show, around the time of the first Tom Cruise Mission: Impossible movie in 1996. Only Lupus had nice things to say about the movie in a Murdoch Press review that he penned; Graves and Morris were (rightly, in my opinion) critical, with Morris going so far as to say it was ‘insulting’. We also learn that Greg Morris was the prankster on the set of Mission: Impossible; and it’s clear from this interview that the cast had a great deal of camaraderie.

I am so behind on work after taking delivery of my new Asus Pro 50 SR! I spent an evening installing software, including the odd few which had Windows Vista incompatibility issues. And I spent ages trying to delete Arial, a typeface family I never use, because one has to change the administrator privileges (not easy during your first 24 hours with Vista).
   First impressions are generally positive. The keyboard is great, the res is not bad (but I feel it is less than what I saw at the shop and I don’t think I dreamed this, unless the guy at Dick Smith gave me the wrong model number). Good processor, independent graphics RAM, and generally a more solidly made machine than the Acers that I saw. After my experience with Compaq, I won’t return there for a while. And the Num Lock works when I tell it to! Eat that, Compaq!
   I also like the fact that even my old Type 1 fonts are natively supported, which means a saving on buying an extra site licence for a new platform.
   But there are some down sides:

• not quite wide enough for a numeric keypad, though having said that, I have limited desk space for the laptop;
• no noticeable speed increase from some of my older machines as Vista is clunky, though it’s streets ahead of the Compaq;
• function key where I expect Control to be;
• while the battery theoretically can go for three to four hours on the power-saving mode, in normal mode it runs for under two;
• the idea that the power-saving mode is less efficient for computer performance (!);
• the double quotation mark (the one on the keyboard) seems to be a bit slow (!);
  
• no infrared or Bluetooth, as far as I can tell. I had expected the SD card reader to be able to take my MicroSD off the cell, but the smallest it can do (with an adapter) is the MiniSD.

ASUS_Pro50SR

Pixellated font on Loïc’s site 1

Notice how pixellated the header type is, as well as the sans serif used on the title. But wait, there’s more:

Pixellated font on Loïc’s site 2

   A quick hunt on Google for information on fonts being pixellated on Vista reveals nothing: people are asking how to turn ClearType off! So, it seems, once again I have found something no one else has!

Great US Life on Mars: a remake of the eighth UK episode, so the basic storyline was the same—and because of the shorter running time, some bits were missed, and there was less depth to the Sam–Annie relationship caused in part by the still inexplicable introduction of Lee Tergesen’s character, Lee Crocker, into the US show. Gene played a bit part here, but he did in the original version of this episode as well.
   Vic Tyler (Dean Winters), is crueller in his American incarnation, and it’s interesting to note that Ruth Tyler (Jennifer Ferrin) is called Rose Tyler here—something I missed a few weeks ago. (For Life on Mars trivia buffs, Sam Tyler’s surname came about when the daughter of one of the writers suggested it, after watching Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler character in Doctor Who. It’s very interesting that the American writers chose Rose as Sam’s mother’s name.) And because of the shorter running time, there was one disappointment: both Sam and Annie had to verbalize things that we had to figure out for ourselves in the original (e.g. Sam realizing he had blocked the memory of Annie’s death at the hands of Vic). We also missed the part where Sam told Ruth, in the original, what to tell young Sam about his father.
   But what a cliffhanger! It reminds me of the call Sam received at the end of episode nine in the UK (second series, episode one) from Hyde 2612 and he seems genuinely fearful of the rings from the black rotary-dial phone. This time, Sam gets clues from the printing and form codes at the NYPD to take him to an address, 35 Stewart Drive. There, the phone rings as soon as Sam enters the house. And the call is of an electronically muffled voice, one that can hear Sam.
   Before you think that this is a straight adaptation of the British series and it’s DCI Frank Morgan calling, the call’s contents are chilling. The lights are flickering in the room as in Jekyll, and the script goes something like this:

Caller: Hello, Sam.
Sam: You can hear me.
Caller: Of course I can hear you. You’re doing a good job, Sam. I need you to do something for me.
Sam: Who is this?
Caller: I need you to go to the basement.
Sam: Why?
Caller: The basement, Sam. Across the room, behind you. I need you to go down to the basement, Sam.

And the credits begin.
   So: is this the American equivalent of Alex Drake’s Pierrot clown or the Test Card Girl? Because it doesn’t appear to be the American Frank Morgan calling. The preview suggests there is a nutter decapitating police officers, and the call could be from the killer. No Gene, Sam, Ray and Chris getting into the Cortina and saying, ‘Pub.’ ’Pub.’ ’Pub.’ … ‘Pub.’ Not a happy, upbeat ending—but it wouldn’t have worked here anyway.
   It appears this is where the Americans will break for now. The series stops here and does not return until January 28, 2009, after Lost, on ABC. It is a logical place to conclude things—this story was the season finalé in Britain—but by that week I imagine we will all be waiting for the next series of Ashes to Ashes more.
   Here is the January 28 preview and I don’t think there is a British equivalent this time. This, as far as I can tell, is where the two shows really begin to part company. And the Americans seem to be taking a darker route, which is what has also been promised for Ashes to Ashes in 2009.

I liked the latest US Life on Mars. It was clearly a remake of episode 6 from the original series, and we had the element of mystery back about Sam’s condition in Adèle Lim’s rewrite of the British script. We again did lack a bit on the Sam–Gene relationship (American Gene still has his buttoned-up shirt, no tie, and father-figure moralizing) but we saw the Sam–Annie one really develop. Sam believes Maya has come to say goodbye to him—a storyline explored in a much later episode in the UK—and he begins seeing Annie as a potential love interest in 1973. Not as good as the original, and no real improvements (in my opinion) in terms of the plot, but much closer to the spirit of the excellent first American broadcast episode (as distinct from the Kelley pilot) than last week’s comparatively empty one.
   Next week is a remake of episode 8, which was the season finalé in the UK. Where the US series goes after this is anyone’s guess.

The Los Angeles Times has both a video and a written review of tonight’s US Life on Mars première. Mary McNamara finds it largely positive; Robert Lloyd has a few minor reservations. Hop over to the site to see a few more clips; by (my) morning we’ll all know how it went for the new crew behind the show.

Someone has seen American Life on Mars already: Kelly West at Cinema Blend, who gives it 3½ stars. A lot more photographs on the page as well. Ms West makes no comparisons with the UK original and gives away nothing we don’t know already, but for American viewers, she does evaluate how suitable the show is airing after Grey’s Anatomy. There is, interestingly, one comparison to Journeyman, my favourite American show last year.

Some reports in on US Life on Mars are emerging. ABC says that the programme is actually ahead of schedule with new scripts for the series, according to Mediaweek, while Den of Geek has leaked information about the pilot (which will be reshot anyway, so it might be worth holding back on judging what Americans will see till later). No wonder the new producers and the network have ordered a near-carte blanche remake of the remake if we learn that the American version has a ‘1972 oddly free of sexism and racism it seems’ and is a ‘litigation-friendly homogenous [sic] 70s cop show that’s not remotely evocative of anything’. It summarizes, ‘this is a version of Life on Mars where everything that made the original worthwhile has been bleached out, leaving a hollow husk to twist in the wind.’
   It also believes the Americanized Gene Hunt is not funny, there are no Chris and Ray, and Annie Cartwright is a love interest for Sam almost straight off.
   The Guardian’s blog also has a review of the rejected pilot, though it notes that it will be remade. It gives a thumbs-down to Irish actor Jason O’Mara, which does not bode well for the series.