ENTERTAINMENT ESSENTIALS: Batman

For this week’s Entertainment Essentials, we’re taking you back to the summer of 1989. Jive Bunny's at number one, Seinfeld has made its debut on US TV and one word dominates the minds of filmgoers: Batman. One of the most successful films of the 1980s, Tim Burton’s delve into the world of the caped crusader brought the blockbuster bang up to date and remains hugely popular among twenty-somethings keen for a blast of sweet nostalgia. However, the rose-tinted glasses can be funny old things, and just as they’ve opened the door for Take That to make their horrifying return, so to have they worked their curious magic on Batman.

In the works for well over a decade, the film was originally scheduled for release in the late 70s/early 80s when it could take advantage of the overwhelming success of the first Superman flick. However, production problems kept the movie on hold and by the time it finally emerged in 1989, the fairy tale innocence of post-Vietnam blockbuster cinema (Superman, Star Wars et al), had hardened into the violent cynicism of Rambo and Die Hard.

Thankfully for producers, the comic book industry had kept up with the times. Titles such as The Dark Knight Returns (Frank Miller) and The Killing Joke (Alan Moore) had turned Batman from a campy caped crusader into a brooding detective looking for justice on the rain-drenched streets of Gotham. Mixing realism, emotion and sometimes horror, these books were wildly popular and their success inspired studio bosses to turn earlier scripts that had included Robin, The Penguin and Batgirl into something altogether more dark and adult.

Though bold and daring at the time, this decision can now be seen as the film's biggest problem. In trying to make a movie that had both darkness and mass-appeal, the filmmakers turned Batman 1989 into a mess of competing styles. Is it a gritty comic ripped straight from the work of Moore and Miller? Is it a dark, gothic fantasy with a brooding hero and deranged villain? Or is it a straight-up summer blockbuster with celebrity cameos and Prince soundtrack?

In truth, it’s all of the above, but what it most certainly is not is a Tim Burton film. Though the odd shot (the Batwing hauling away the Joker's ghastly parade balloons), idea (the Joker's teeth giggling post-death) or scene (The Joker's much parodied creation), are distinctly Burton-esque, the script, characters and themes are imported straight from Blockbuster 101 and you can almost see the maverick director wince as he limply shoots his way through Vikki Vale‘s love scenes with Bruce Wayne.

The one aspect of the film that does seem true to his style is Gotham itself. However, even this is misleading as the city was designed not by the director, but the late Anton Furst. One of the greatest production designers cinema has ever been blessed with, his career was short (he committed suicide in 1991) but brilliant, having also turned a disused British gasworks into Vietnam for Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. Batman’s Gotham is his Gotham, not Burton’s, a fact that further adds to the film’s confused sense of authorship and is especially underlined when you compare it to superior sequel Batman Returns.

With Furst no longer around, Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands designer Bo Welsh was enlisted to build the Dark Knight’s dark city and the differences are clear to see. Whereas Furst’s Gotham is one of menace and darkness, ripped from the pages of Miller and Moore; Welsh’s is one of whimsy and colour, ripped from his director‘s imagination. It’s Vincent. It’s Edward Scissorhands. It’s The Corpse Bride. It’s totally in tune with Burton who, for all his quirks and twists, is simply not dark enough to accommodate Furst’s masterfully macabre Gotham.

Indeed, looking back now, the city also seems too dark for producers, because rather than complimenting Furst’s murky aesthetics with an equally grim script, they keep the rest of the film light and almost fluffy. The love story between Wayne and Vale feels tokenistic; we never get any real sense of our hero’s pain over his parents’ death (a flaw only exacerbated by the brilliant Batman Begins) and Jack Nicholson’s Joker is so over-the-top he makes Cesar Romero look like Marlon Brando.

Batman 1989 will forever have its place in history for not only that ridiculous performance, but also its groundbreaking marketing campaign and sensational design. But it’s a film lacking cohesion, substance and a clear sense of authorship and, with The Joker set to return to our screens in next year’s The Dark Knight, perhaps it’s time to let Burton’s film sail off into the past where it belongs.

THE EDITOR

WATCHING: A View To A Kill. For a long time, I've supported the theory that this is the worst of the official Bond films, but after watching it again, I've decided that it's a bit unfair. Sure, there's some bad moments, and Roger Moore was much, MUCH too old by this stage to be convincing in the role, but it's a lot more fun than the frankly dull Octopussy, so moves above it in my rankings. And it's got a good theme tune, though it's clear at this stage that 007 needed a massive overhaul, which he got with the excellent The Living Daylights.

LISTENING TO: As usual, a real mixture. Third Eye Blind's debut album brought back lots of happy memories and still sounds very fresh even ten years (or so) on. On a more recent tip there's Viva Voce Loves You, a small collection of great tracks from Viva Voce's albums, taking the cream of the crop and reminding us just how good they are. Hopefully enticing some new people in as well, and there'll be a full review at the weekend. What else? Oh yeah, My Morning Jacket rule, and I've just been introduced into frankly scary world of Dan Deacon by a work colleague...

READING: Lisey's Story by Stephen King. He doesn't bring out books at quite the pace he used to, but his 'retirement' hasn't exactly slowed King down much, this being his second book in as many years, with a couple more already scheduled for release. Lisey's Story is a twist on his frequent theme of tortured writers (ie, himself), with the tale focusing on the writer's widow Lisey, who is going through his possessions and uncovering a dark and mysterious world. Not read much so far, but it looks like a good mix of genuine pathos and love with the usual 'ordinary life is scarier than vampires' King fantasy/horror magic.


THE WRITER

WATCHING: How I Met Your Mother. Despite being tossed around the BBC schedules last year, this superb romantic sitcom from producers Craig Thomas and Carter Bays is well worth getting into on DVD. Following twenty-something singleton Ted as he attempts to find 'the one', it's understandably been compared to Friends. However, HIMYM is actually superior to its 90s counterpart thanks to its superb cast, sharp wit and ability to be genuinely touching without being cloying or insincere.

LISTENING TO: Bloc Party, Silent Alarm. Bloc Party are one of those frustrating bands who are oh-so-nearly perfect. Lyrically and musically, they excel themselves and can justifiably be regarded as the next Radiohead. However, I struggle with Kele Okereke's voice. While it's suitably intimate, it's also tough to take in over the course of a whole album. Stuck on an MP3 player, dispersed with other songs though it works well and Banquet, This Modern Love and Little Thoughts really are sensational tracks.

READING: Bruce Campbell, If Chins Could Kill. My trawl through the world of Sam Raimi continues with this autobiography of his 'muse' Bruce Campbell. A real B-movie legend, Campbell may never have hit it big in Hollywood (well, unless you count all his cameos in Raimi's films), but his self-deprecating humour and incredible physicality make him one of a kind and his book a ripping good read.

THE WRITER

WATCHING: Barton Fink. A fascinating, intricate and ambitious film though it may be, Barton Fink, like many of the Coen Brothers’ films, is a little to arch for me to completely love. As far as I‘m concerned, Joel and Ethan are at their best when they venture out of Coen-world and into the real world a little (as in Blood Simple, Fargo and The Man Who Wasn’t There), something Fink never quite manages to do. New film No Country For Old Men, which is apparently a return to Blood Simple territory, looks to be far more my kinda Coen…

LISTENING TO: Travis, The Man Who. They may be deemed uncool and boring nowadays, but Travis are still one of the best bands of the 90s and The Man Who is their best album. The teenage alienation of As You Are, the intimacy of The Last Laugh of the Laughter (awful title, I am prepared to admit) and the melancholia of Why Does It Always Rain On Me? make the band’s sophomore effort a rich and textured piece of work that puts many of today’s bland, one-note bands to shame.

READING: Spider-Man Fairy Tales Issue 1. A rather curious, but really quite brilliant version of Little Red Riding Hood recast in a medieval-style Spider-Man universe. Spidey's still doing his stuff of course, but the focus here is very much on Mary Jane (Little Red Riding Hood herself), who must choose between being her own woman or being loyal and dutiful as her mother says she should be. C.B. Cebulski's writing is rich and layered with allegory, while the art from Ricardo Tercio is suitably atmospheric. A must-read if you want a break from the Civil War/Back in Black tripe that Marvel keep weighing poor Spidey down with.

THE EDITOR

WATCHING: Not seen a film for weeks now, so it's all TV here. Gradually catching up on the end of the current seasons of Lost and 24 (no thanks to Sky and Virgin Media). Also had the end of Desperate Housewives, which was a genuinely quite shocking ending to a pretty decent season with plenty of the darker moments and not too many of the girly moments. Oh, and there's Big Brother, but thankfully not too much of that so far.

LISTENING TO: The new Ash album, which I'll go into more detail about when I do a proper review in a few weeks, but it's definitely a 'grower'. Also been listening to Brother Bones & His Shadows, a weird CD of 'bones' music that includes the Harlem Globetrotters' theme tune. There's also The Left Banke getting a lot of 'rotation' at the moment, along with some classic 1970s Aerosmith. Can't beat it.

READING: Just back off holidays, so there's a lot of this. Finished The Dream Life Of Suhkanov, then started Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and read it in a couple of days. Then there was The Promise Of Happiness by Justin Cartwright, which was ok, but not great, same goes for Panic by Jeff Abbott, which was a great page-turner, if short on substance. And finally (in no particular order) is Red Dust by Ma Jian, a great true story about an artist in Communist China who gets sick of life in Beijing and heads off on the road across the vast expanses of his country.

Top Ten... Alternative 60s

In the first of a new (mini) series of Top Tens, we're going to look over the alternative classic of the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s. So, what do we mean by alternative? Well, alternative, for the purposes of these entries, means anything that is critically derided, overlooked by the public or just generally under-rated. Ultimately, though, it all comes down to how we argue it, so if you disagree, let us know!

FILMS - By The Writer

1. Repulsion (1965)
A chilling horror from Roman Polanski, Repulsion features Catherine Deneuve at her best as a glacial virgin fearful of sex. Obviously, being Catherine Deneuve, she attracts the attentions of several men and the strain eventually drives her mad. Sophisticated and genuinely terrifying, it’s all held together brilliantly by Polanksi, as he effortlessly creates a nauseating, claustrophobic atmosphere that hasn’t been bettered by any horror director since.

2. Barbarella (1968)
Jane Fonda may try to brush it under the carpet, but her turn in this saucy space romp is amongst the best female performances of the 60s. She plays the futuristic minx of the title, who cavorts through outer space doing…well, very little really except for wearing an array of skimpy outfits, talking vaguely hippyish nonsense about angels and love and being tricked into an orgasm machine by Duran Duran (the bad guy, not the band). The sixties in a nutshell then….

3. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
It’s Deneuve again, but this time she’s singing in Jacques Demy’s bittersweet musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. The French actress plays Geneviève, a naïve young woman who shacks up with another man when the father of her unborn baby is shipped off to war. Typical kitchen sink stuff, you’d think. Not so, because Demy’s film is a Technicolor treat for the eyes and ears in which every line of dialogue is sung. It’s really quite magical stuff and builds to a climax that somehow manages to make an Esso garage look romantic.

4. Walk, Don’t Run (1966)
This quaint romantic comedy was Cary Grant’s final film and while it’s certainly not his best, it’s charming and funny stuff. The one-time Archibald Leach plays Sir William Rutland, an English businessman who attempts to set-up tightly wound tourist Christine Easton (Samantha Egger) with American athlete Steve Davis during the Tokyo Olympic games. Entirely predictable romantic entanglements ensue, but with Eggar looking gorgeous and Grant producing his usual irresistible charm, Walk, Don’t Run is a thoroughly enjoyable flight of fancy which is far from the disappointing final Grant film that many believe it to be.

5. Cat Ballou (1965)
It’s Jane Fonda again, but this time she’s on earth in this bizarre comedy western from 1965. She plays the titular aspiring schoolteacher who is forced to hire a gunfighter (Lee Marvin) to avenge her murdered father. However, rather than being a sharpshooter, he’s a lazy drunk and his ineptitude forces Cat to become an outlaw herself. Fonda is typically brilliant, but it’s Marvin who steals the show as he slopes around like your favourite drunk uncle at Christmas. An under seen and surprisingly modern gem.

6. Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
Jason and the Argonauts is already widely regarded as a hugely important piece of filmmaking, but mostly for Ray Harryhausen’s stunning skeleton army. Of course, like everything the stop-motion master creates, the boney boys are deeply impressive, but there’s an awful lot to love elsewhere in Jason’s fight for the Golden Fleece, not least the appearance of Medusa who is played by Nancy Kovac but voiced by Pussy Galore. A real childhood classic.

7. Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill (1965)
The jury’s still out on Russ Meyer. Brutal misogynist whose films often featured women who were subjected to terrifyingly violent ordeals, or misunderstood feminist whose films often featured strong, sexually voracious women who refused to submit to mens’ violent whims? By common consensus, Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill just about falls into the latter category as it features an all-girl biker trio who run riot through the deserts of America. Quentin Tarantino would be nothing without it.

8. Barefoot in the Park (1967)
Without wishing to sound obsessed, this is Jane Fonda’s third entry on this list - hey, she was GREAT back in the 60s. But no matter how impressive the charming Ms Fonda is in this sparkling romantic comedy, it’s writer Neil Simon who excels with a typically witty tale of two newlyweds who struggle to settle into their dilapidated new apartment. A sharp, but still romantic, classic from one of cinema‘s best writers.

9. The Haunting (1963)
The sixties marked a watershed for modern horror with the likes of Psycho, Peeping Tom and Night of the Living Dead all pushing back boundaries. Sadly, their fame has overshadowed some of the more traditional fright-flicks of the period, and The Haunting is just one of the casualties. Directed by Robert Wise, it follows four people who get holed up in a haunted house. Pretty standard stuff you might think. But The Haunting’s brilliance is all in its direction, with Wise using light, shadow and suggestion to build a fiercely oppressive atmosphere that is just as scary as the ones Hitchcock, Powell and Romero created in the aforementioned taboo-busters.

10. Dr No (1962)
Dr No is hardly under-rated, but it is often overlooked in favour of the more obvious Bond classics of the 60s like Goldfinger, From Russia With Love and You Only Live Twice. It’s a shame too, because in this first entry into the mega-franchise, Connery mixes charm and danger perfectly and, unlike most other Bonds, actually has chemistry with his leading lady. Add into that exotic locations, an enigmatic villain and real intrigue and you have not only a great, overlooked Bond film, but also a great, overlooked spy film.

ALBUMS - By The Editor

1. The Ronettes - Presenting The Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica (1964)
Phil Spector (whatever his personal 'issues') is the greatest pop music producer of all time, but he's best known for singles rather than albums. This means that this ludicrously-titled LP has been long-since forgotten and unavailable, even though it features pretty much all of The Ronettes' best songs, like Be My Baby, So Young, Baby I Love You, You Baby, Walkin' In The Rain, etc, etc. Pure pop perfection, so why is it so overlooked?

2. Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood - Nancy And Lee (1968)
There's never been a more surreal and fantastic partnership than Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood. The beautiful daughter of a music icon working with a fairly dowdy and quirky songwriter with a voice deeper than the Grand Canyon. Somehow though, they have incredible chemistry, with their voices blending perfectly on playful tracks like Lady Bird and I've Been Down So Long, and reaching incredible and weird new heights on the classic Some Velvet Morning.

3. The Zombies - Odyssey And Oracle (1968)
Pet Sounds and Sgt Pepper's are always the ones that get mentioned when you talk about the great adventurous pop albums of the late 60s, and The Zombies tend to get forgotten. It didn't help that they broke up when they finished it (intending it as one last, lasting statement, which it was), having been on a downward spiral commercially. It was most ignored at the time, but has become recognised as one of the great psychedelic albums and no collection is complete without it.

4. Laura Nyro - Eli And The Thirteenth Confession (1968)
Another album that would feature highly in most serious music fan's Top 60s Albums lists, but is hardly well known, Eli And The Thirteenth Confession has three hit singles on it, but unfortunately for Nyro, it was other artists who had the success with her songs. She never really became famous, even though this is an incredible collection of songs that take in jazz, pop, soul and folk.

5. The Beach Boys - Friends (1968)
The Beach Boys are hardly great underappreciated underdogs of the 1960s, but their albums after Brian Wilson's Smile meltdown don't always get the respect and acclaim they deserve. They were already an irrelevance by this stage, having been overtaken by bands like The Doors and the likes of Jimi Hendrix, but Friends is a really mellow and spiritual record that showcases the talents of the rest of the band as well as giving Wilson the chance to make simple but beautiful music.

6. Tammi Terrell - Irresistible (1968)
Yes, I've noticed that all of these albums seem to have come out in one year... Tammi Terrell is best known for her gorgeous duets with Marvin Gaye (still the benchmark for pop duets), but her only solo album shows that she was arguably Motown's most talented female vocalists (with a better voice than Diana Ross or Martha Reeves) and it's full of great soul music. Tragically, she died at the age of 24, so was never able to build herself the kind of solo career she had the potential for, but this is a lasting tribute to her talents.

7. The Left Banke - Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina (1967)
The most obscure release in this list, The Left Banke are best known for one of the title tracks of their debut album, Walk Away Renee, which became a massive hit for The Four Tops. Not that they were a soul band, far from it, having been one of the best baroque pop groups in America in the late 60s. They didn't last very long and have been largely forgotten, but if you can find it, this is an album well worth listening to.

8. Vince Guaraldi - A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1964)
The soundtrack to a documentary about Peanuts (which was never actually released, but led to the start of the TV specials), jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi helped set the tone for Charlie Brown's animated adventures with a classy and fun score that includes the famous Linus And Lucy theme that became the signature tune of Peanuts. Probably the most enjoyable and accessible instrumental jazz record of all time, no matter how much any of the purists might sneer at its simple melodies.

9. Stevie Wonder - Down To Earth (1966)
Compared to what he produced in the early 70s, it's easy to see why Down To Earth is such an overlooked Stevie Wonder album. It doesn't even have any of the hits that he had in the late 60s, but it's an important step in his development, with his voice moving from 'Little Stevie' to the warm and rich one we all know and love. It soars on this album, even when just running through the predictable cover versions that Motown made him include, and despite not being a classic, it's one of his most enjoyable records.

10. The International Submarine Band - Safe At Home (1968)
Everyone knows and loves Gram Parsons' solo albums and his work with The Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers, but his first band's album tends to get forgotten. It starts with one of his best songs, Blue Eyes, and also has Luxury Liner, another classic. The rest is padded out with covers of Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, etc, but The International Submarine Band help Parsons start to take off here and it's a great album on its own merits.

WATCHING, READING, LISTENING TO

THE EDITOR

WATCHING: Slightly strange Chinese film The Heirloom, which was a ghost story, kind of, but had a bit more depth than most of them. Wasn't great, but was ok. Which is more than can be said for Scary Movie 4. I liked the third one, which was an enjoyable mixture of the Zucker/Nielsen spoofs like Airplane and Naked Gun along with the Charlie Sheen Hot Shots films. Nothing amazing, but good fun. Unfortunately, 4 finds them trying too hard to get back to the spirit of the dreadful Wayans brothers films 1 and 2. And it's really not good.

READING: Still reading The Dream Life Of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin and still enjoying it a lot. Sukhanov is getting deeper into his dreams of his childhood and starting to realise what a sham his life has become. It's basically Russian (as opposed to American) Beauty, but it's really impressive...

LISTENING TO: It's all classic soul at the moment, led by Marvin Gaye. From his legendary Motown duets with Tammi Terrell, Kim Weston and Mary Wells to his great solo stuff in the 60s to his amazing 70s albums when he really took control, it's all incredible. But even he pales in comparison to the likes of Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, the two greatest soul singers (and arguably greatest singers) of all time. The only shame about them both is that they both died just as they were starting to transcend their genre and we will never know where their talents would have taken them...


THE WRITER

WATCHING: The Simpsons Season 7. Watching The Simpsons season-by-season on DVD rather than out of order on Channel 4 is an interesting experience as you really begin to get a sense of the show’s development and slow decline through the years. Season 7 is, for my money at least, where the cracks began to show. On the commentaries, the writers explain that they wanted to return the series to its family roots, and they achieve this with aplomb in episodes such as Mother Simpson, Bart Sells His Soul and Home Sweet Home-Diddly-Dum-Doodily. However, Homerpalooza and Sideshow Bob’s Last Gleaming, as funny as they are, display the roots of the show’s current obsession with zany humour and irritating tangents. Still, it’s a great season containing some truly great episodes which mostly stand up to endless re-watching.

READING: The Unseen Force: The Films of Sam Raimi by John Kenneth Muir. One of the few critical appraisals of Sam Raimi's career, this wonderful book strikes the perfect balance between intelligent insight and capturing the hedonistic joy of the director’s work. Indeed, it’s really quite amazing to read about his love of magic and the Three Stooges and see that such influences have survived even to this day and manifested themselves in that gloriously mad jazz club scene in Spider-Man 3. You don’t see Bryan Singer getting Clark Kent to swagger around Metropolis saying things like: “Now dig on this!” do you? Raimi gets Peter Parker to do it, though, and he’s all the better for it.

LISTENING TO: Batman Begins OST by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. These two composers have very different styles, but they come together on the superb soundtrack for Batman Begins to form a totally unique new sound for the Dark Knight - no mean feat considering how memorable Danny Elfman's scores for the original films were. The melancholic Corynorhinus is a heartbreaking lament, but it’s the orchestral drama of Molossus (the music used during the Batmobile chase), that leaves the biggest mark. Listen to it on your iPod to add extra intensity to your weekly shopping trip. Buying those peas will never be the same again!

READING, WATCHING AND LISTENING TO

THE WRITER

LISTENING TO: Send Away The Tigers, Manic Street Preachers: Arcade Fire and Radiohead aside, the Manics are the only band whose music gets me really excited anymore, so it's a relief to be able to say that new album Send Away The Tigers is easily their most complete effort since the criminally overlooked This Is My Truth. The title track is a brilliant opener and obvious choice for a single, while Autumn Song and the snarling Imperial Bodybags display the band at their most melancholic and angry respectively. Obviously the flaws are still there, with Nicky dropping a lyrical clanger every now and then (“send away the tigers, because they’re creeping up and dangerous”) and one or two of James' solos feeling a little indulgent, but overall it's a superb return from one of the country's best bands. Now, if only they could tell me what the artwork is all about…

WATCHING: Army of Darkness. The last thing I saw at the cinema was the slightly disappointing Spider-Man 3. Great middle hour full of brilliant Sam Raimi stuff, rubbish last act full of idiotic action forced in by the studio. So, in a bid to remind myself of just how great Raimi is, I'm watching the Evil Dead trilogy, starting, because I'm a back to front kind of guy, with threequel Army of Darkness. Bruce Campbell? In medieval times? With a chainsaw? Hail to the king, baby!

READING: Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil. This four-part comic from graphic novelist Jeff Smith focuses on Billy Batson and his alter ego Captain Marvel. It’s as brilliantly cute as you’d expect from the guy behind Bone and with DC presenting it in premium format without those irritating adverts for products you can only get in America, it’s well worth getting into. Better be quick though, last week saw the release of part three and everything's set for a thrilling conclusion.


THE EDITOR

READING - The Dream Life Of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin. Set in the dying days of Communist Russia, Grushin's first novel tells the tale of Anatoly Sukhanov, a successful art critic with a very comfortable life who starts to have visions of his childhood and realises that he abandoned all of his ideals and dreams and has become someone he never intended to be. The writing's very evocative and the story hooks you in quite quickly even without anything really happening. It's a familiar tale of a mid-life crisis, but the setting is intruiging and it's just a very enjoyable book.

WATCHING - Last film at the cinema was the impressive Bridge To Terabithia, which deals with grief in a very mature and moving way for a Disney film. Last film on TV was Heirloom, a Chinese horror film full of the usual foreboding cliches of scary children and ghostly visions, but with a decent plot about family loyalties and revenge that at least keeps you watching until the end. Aside from films, both 24 and Lost have been really very good recently...

LISTENING TO - Quite a lot of music recently that would be called 'guilty pleasures', not that I care much for that classification. Sure, the likes of Journey, REO Speedwagon and Foreigner aren't exactly cool and never really were, but there's nothing guilty about liking a certain kind of music or a certain band. It's much worse to listen to something just because everyone else tells you that it's amazing rather than enjoying something in spite of criticial derision. Conversely, I'm also loving Asobi Seksu, Tara Fuki and Azam Ali...

I have a confession to make: I'm a bit of a comic book geek. Yes, I know it’s un-cool, but there‘s just something about the big, bold world of superheroes that I can‘t help but love. On the other hand, though, I despise those peskily persistent reality TV shows that have cluttered up Saturday nights for what seems an eternity now. So, when I was handed Who Wants To Be A Superhero, the Sci-Fi Channel’s venture into the realm of reality, I was confronted with an inner dilemma Peter Parker himself would be proud of.

Thankfully, this six part show has about as much in common with reality as one of The Joker's maniacal schemes - and it‘s all the better for it. Debuting this weekend, it’s a wildly pantomimic flight of fancy which focuses on eleven random nobodies who have to live as self-created comic book characters in a bid to impress superheroic overlord Stan Lee. Whoever proves him/herself worthy of Lee’s praise will then be immortalised in both a Sci-Fi Channel original movie and Dark Horse comic book.

Unsurprisingly, such rewards attract a vast and colourful array of contestants, some of whom are more sincere than others. The mini-skirted Creature, gold-clad Lemuria and muscle-bound Iron Enforcer all seem to be budding actors cynically looking for a break, while the gladiatorial Ty'Veculus, with his entirely pointless apostrophe, is simply an irritation. Salvation comes in the shape of Cell Phone Girl, Feedback and the magnificently camp Major Victory, though, who bring a real sense of fun to their creations.

Sadly, some of this childish glee is hampered by the overwhelming American melodrama and the harshness of some of the tasks the contestants must perform in order to prove their superhero qualities (does anybody really need to see women attacked by two vicious, albeit highly trained, dogs?). Still, the group tackle them with such joy that it’s impossible not to be won over, making Who Wants To Be A Superhero simple, trashy entertainment which is perfect for the long, hot Bank Holiday Weekend.

Who Wants To Be A Superhero is showing throughout the Bank Holiday weekend on the Sci-Fi Channel.

Top Ten: Spider-Man stories

1. Amazing Spider-Man 121: The Night Gwen Stacy Died (June 1973)
One of the most influential comic books ever written, Amazing Spider-Man 121 finds our hero’s then-girlfriend Gwen Stacy kidnapped by the Green Goblin and hurled off the top of Brooklyn Bridge. You may remember a similar idea with Mary Jane Watson formed the end of Spider-Man 1, but there’s no happy ending here as Spidey shoots down his web in an attempt to halt Gwen’s decent, only for the jolting stop to snap her neck. Brutal, but brilliant.

2. Spider-Man: Blue (July 2002 - April 2003)
In true comic book fashion though, Gwen hasn't really stayed dead, with the writers preferring to clone her and have her bear the Green Goblin's children (!!!). Such revisions and re-interpretations have irritated fans, but some work, as is the case with Spider-Man: Blue. Told across six issues, this mini-series is written by Lost producer Jeph Loeb and illustrated by Tim Sale (who has created some of the art for Heroes), and retells the story of how Peter and Gwen first fell in love.

3. Spider-Man Annual 21 (1987)
After several break-ups and a couple of rejections, Peter finally persuaded Mary Jane to settle down and tie the knot in this memorable edition of the Amazing Spider-Man annual. Blending charming sentiment with a pleasing amount of good old-fashioned action, writer David Michelinie produced a story that tapped perfectly into the bittersweet brilliance of Stan Lee’s greatest creation.

4. Amazing Spider-Man 97: In The Grip Of The Goblin (June 1971)
At its peak in the 1960s and 70s, Spider-Man was a soap opera which focused on the tangled love lives of Peter, Gwen, Harry Osborn and Mary Jane, and this issue is a great example of that approach at its very best. Preferring to flirt with Peter, MJ dumps Harry, leading him into a downward spiral of self-loathing and drug abuse that is only worsened by the re-appearance of the Green Goblin. Classic stuff from Stan Lee, which has undoubtedly inspired Sam Raimi’s romanticised approach to the films.

5. Amazing Spider-Man 143: And The Wind Cries Cyclone (April 1975)
Despite boasting that it featured ‘possibly the most bizarre super-villain in the annals of Spider-dom’, this issue is best remembered for marking a turning point in the relationship between Peter and Mary Jane. Pete is shipped off to Paris to help out Daily Bugle editor J Jonah Jameson and on his exit from the airport shares a steamy kiss with MJ, thus cementing a relationship that had been simmering since the death of Gwen.

6. Amazing Spider-Man 50: Spider-Man No More (July 1967)
The basis for Spider-Man 2, this iconic issue sees Peter finally down his spandex and quit as the webbed wonder. As well as being one of the seminal moments in Spider-Man’s history, it also displays writer/illustrator team Stan Lee and John Romita at the height of their power as they effortlessly depict Peter’s growing frustration and eventual return to his superhero responsibilities in just twenty small pages.

7. Amazing Spider-Man 90: And Death Shall Come (November 1970)
Those Stacys never had much luck and in Amazing Spider-Man 90 it was Gwen’s father who bit the dust to sink Peter even further into his already-immense guilt complex. While Spidey and Doctor Octopus battle it out on the rooftops above, Police Captain George Stacy protects those below until tragedy strikes and rubble falls...

8. Amazing Spider-Man 480: Nuff Said (May 2002)
As anyone who suffered through the protracted torture of the recent Civil War story will know, Marvel love their gimmicks. Problem is, they’re usually all rubbish. Thankfully, they do sometimes get it right and this entirely dialogue-free issue, in which the then-separated Mary Jane and Peter muse on their troubled relationship, is a great example.

9. Kraven’s Last Hunt (September - November 1987)
Falling in line with the rest of the 1980s comic book industry, Spidey went dark in this title-spanning mini-series from writer JM DeMatteis. Russian jungle man Kraven the Hunter was always one of Spider-Man’s more ridiculous foes, but here he is given a noble demise as he moves in for one last battle against his webbed adversary.

10. Amazing Fantasy 15 (August 1962)
Here’s where it all began, not in Amazing Spider-Man, but the final issue of an anthology series called Amazing Fantasy. Our friendly neighbourhood wallcrawler graced the cover and eleven pages inside, paving the way for Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko to weave their teenaged tale of power and responsibility. Comic books would never be the same again…

ENTERTAINMENT ESSENTIALS - Pet Sounds

It seems strange to have an Entertainment Essentials inspired by an Adam Sandler movie, but this one does owe a small debt to 50 First Dates. After all, if an album can survive one of its best moments being caterwauled by both Sandler and Drew Barrymore, then it really must be something special. And make no mistake, Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys IS truly special in a way that no other album I can think of is.

Sure, it's an obvious choice for this kind of praise, as one of those records that always gets in Top 100 lists compiled by Baby Boomers at magazines like Rolling Stone and Uncut, and it is one of those 'Sacred Cows' that hip young critics love to sneer at, but none of that matters. Pet Sounds has more heart, more beauty, more melodies and more balls than any other album in history.

Firstly, a bit of background. The Beach Boys were the biggest band in America by 1966, with only those English ragamuffins The Beatles bigger than them. Their success was built on their image as Californian surfer-dudes responsible for some of the best pop music ever written. However, resident genius Brian Wilson was dissatisfied with the limitations of being 'that surf band', not least because only his brother Dennis actually surfed outside of promotional photographs.

Having suffered a nervous breakdown on tour, he returned home while his band-mates continued to perform live without him, leaving Wilson alone to work on a whole new direction. Along with lyricist Tony Asher, he came up with some heart-breakingly wonderful songs and using a bunch of legendary studio musicians (mostly Phil Spector veterans) he went about recording the album without his band, whose only real contribution was the vocals (apart from some meddling from infernal 'front-man' Mike Love).

From the yearning Wouldn't It Be Nice (the song from 50 First Dates) to the sighing Caroline No, Pet Sounds was literally jam-packed with great pop ballads that had the power in their lyrics alone to touch anyone with a soul. The vocals were as amazing as all the other Beach Boys records, with Wilson and his brother Carl on particularly fine form (with the latter coming of age on the jaw-dropping God Only Knows). However, it's the music and the production that keep you coming back to it.

No other album would stand up to the kind of analysis and deconstruction that you can give Pet Sounds by listening to the Sessions box-set or the 5.1 Surround Sound version available on DVD (which is literally mind-blowing). None of the technological advances of the last 40 years have come close to outdoing what Wilson achieved with his personal brand of obsessive genius and while he burnt out trying to go one better with Smile a couple of years later, Pet Sounds would surely have still been his masterpiece anyway.

Certainly none of the deserved accolades that followed the belated release of the newly-recorded Smile a few years ago managed to overshadow what Wilson had achieved at his peak. It's a genuine tragedy that the Beach Boys weren't able to build on this and perhaps go on to become more important as artists than the Beatles, but with Pet Sounds they had at least recorded something that will surely be treasured as a musical milestone forever. Like Paul McCartney once said: "I figure no one is educated musically 'til they've heard that album."

TOP TEN TEAR-JERKERS

The Editor

1. The Closing Montage Of Six Feet Under
As a TV show that dealt with death and heartbreak on a weekly basis, there was only ever one way for Six Feet Under to bow out. A closing montage set to Sia's breathtaking Breathe Me intersperses clips of Claire Fisher driving to a new life with flash-forwards showing the characters we've all grown to love growing up, getting married, getting old and dying. That might sound depressing, but like the whole show that proceeded it, the ending was beautifully-judged and absolutely heartbreaking.

2. Johnny Cash's Hurt Video
A music video of an old man whose creative peak was almost 50 years earlier isn't the kind of thing that normally gets much attention, but Johnny Cash was never one to be told what to do. His cover of the Nine Inch Nails song had already massively surpassed the original, but the decision to film the video in his house, surrounded by the fading memories of his life was inspired. The clincher is when Cash's wife June appears on the stairs behind him, not long before both passed away. Almost fittingly, the house recently burned down before Bee Gee Barry Gibb could move in...

3. Grandad's Funeral In Only Fools And Horses
What made Only Fools And Horses one of the greatest sitcoms of all time was the way John Sullivan managed to work in the kind of pathos and emotion that you wouldn't find in most other sitcoms. He could make you laugh very easily, but he could also make you cry and the best example of this was Grandad's Funeral in Series Four. Filmed just days after the real funeral of actor Lennard Pearce, the raw emotions of David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst are clearly very real, but Sullivan's writing is also excellent, using the very sad situation to cut right to the heart of Del Boy, making him so much more than just the flash market trader cliche.

4. The End Of Blackadder Goes Forth
Another sitcom! Unlike Only Fools... Blackadder was never big on pathos, but that only made it more remarkable that Ben Elton and Richard Curtis chose to end on such a sombre note. The whole last episode was full of grim humour as the men in the WWI trenches prepared to make The Big Push. The cruel way that the characters are given a last minute sniff of a reprieve before being sent to their deaths in a moving finale is very British and very well done. You wouldn't get that in Friends.

5. Hotel Rwanda
Tears of rage and shame as much as grief, Hotel Rwanda is a brutal and moving film throughout, but the most affecting scene is when the staff and local 'residents' of the besieged hotel see UN troops seemingly coming to their rescue, only to discover that the soldiers are only there to help get the foreign journalists, photographers and guests to safety, leaving the Rwandans completely at the mercy of the machete-wielding killers. The guilt of those being saved and those doing the saving as well as the sheer desperation of those being forsaken make this scene almost unbearable.

6. Stand By Me
As if a film named after Ben E. King's beautiful song wasn't enough, Stephen King's nostalgic tale of childhood has plenty of moments to make you tear up, not least the more touching scenes between the friends. However, it's River Phoenix's performance as the doomed Chris Chambers that really stands out, not least when he breaks down and reveals just how much he wants to escape the destiny that his no-good family seem to have for him. With the knowledge of the fate of the awaited that talented young actor, it's all the more upsetting.

7. Midnight Cowboy
One of the best films of all time, Midnight Cowboy has two great performances from John Voight and Dustin Hoffman, a legendary soundtrack, plenty of atmosphere and bucketfuls of pathos. It's also got a really tragic ending that, like so many already in this list, is all about false hope and cruel reality. With Ratso Rizzo finally getting the trip of a lifetime to Florida, no-one could possibly not cry at the tragic moment when Joe Buck tells him that they're there and realises that Ratso isn't there at all.

8. Norma's Death In The Royle Family
The final special of The Royle Family started off as a fairly normal episode, with plenty of trademark humour from Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash, but halfway through, the jokes just stop as the tears start to flow for the dying Norma. The performances are all fantastic, the script is spot-on and there's not a dry eye in the house. Literally.

9. A.I.
Not one of Steven Spielberg's more lauded films, A.I. confused and irritated movie-goers and critics alike, and there's no doubt it has its flaws, mostly coming from the strange mish-mash of Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick. One of the more criticised aspects is the slightly surreal ending with the robots/aliens and the return of little Haley Joel Osment's long-dead mum. It was accused of being a hopelessly schmaltzy ending, but anyone with a mum can relate to the emotions involved and when you get past the cynicism, it's really very sad.

10. Dumbo
Another 'mum' moment, the scene where Dumbo's mother is unfairly chained up and locked away by the circus staff and struggles to comfort her son is a real choker. The death of Bambi's mum is the more famous moment, but the wrench of seeing mother and child so cruelly separated is arguably more affecting, particularly when they managed to connect and Dumbo is rocked to sleep by his mother's trunk.


The Writer

1. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
People often accuse Steven Spielberg of manipulation and over-sentimentality, with E.T frequently cited as a prime example. But what those critics fail to notice is that the film is more than cheap theatrics; it's a melancholic tale of a boy growing up and having to face up to the fact that life isn't always perfect. The 'Come...Stay' scene is simply magnificent, but it's the moment when Spielberg cuts from Elliot and E.T to Dee Wallace Stone as Elliot's mother which really gets me, as she kneels powerlessly watching her son endure the terrible pain of losing a friend. Perfect.

2. Radiohead’s Street Spirit
The greatest album closer ever written, Street Sprit is Radiohead at their bittersweet best. Yeah, that’s right, I said bittersweet. The ‘depressing’ aspect of Britain’s Best Band is well documented, but fails to grasp their more optimistic side which is heard in Thom Yorke’s closing cry of ‘immerse your soul in love’. Not miserable, but tearjerking in its idealistic beauty.

3. The Apartment
Tears can be jerked from happy occasions rather than just sad ones, as the final scenes of Billy Wilder’s masterpiece The Apartment prove. The film finds Jack Lemmon’s business drone Bud Baxter renting out his apartment to his superiors so they can enjoy affairs without their wives knowing. Sadly one of the flings is with the apple of Baxter’s eye, Shirley McClaine’s Fran. All hope seems lost for Buddy boy until Fran hears that he’s stood up to his bosses and refused them access to the flat. As she runs down the road to his apartment, Adolph Deutsch’s music swells and the boy finally gets the girl. If only real life were as good.

4. Will Eisner’s Sewers
Found in his short story anthology New York: The Big City, this one-page, four-panel strip is graphic novel maestro Will Eisner at his very best. We focus on a New York sewer grate as the rain washes away traffic notices, adverts, lottery tickets and, tragically, a letter from a bride-to-be to her ex-boyfriend explaining she will be married in a week. A masterfully told short about the insignificance of human relationships in modern cities, this proves why Eisner is so well-loved in the comic book industry.

5. The Death of Bill Hicks
Sure, Bill Hicks' style was confrontational, but what made his stand up - and untimely death at the age of 32 - so affecting is that he was ultimately a humanitarian who was simply aghast that people couldn’t just, you know, get along with each other. Read the ‘Love All The People’ collection for some stinging observations on George Bush Snr, Iraq Part 1 and the corruption of capitalism and then shed a tear as you realise that the idiots in power didn’t actually listen.

6. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
No, no, it’s not in here for its emotional content (don’t be so silly), but for the crushing realisation that George Lucas didn’t have a clue what he was doing with the prequels all along. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment that it dawns on you. Is it the part when you notice that General Grievous serves no real purpose at all? Or the bit where Lucas circles his camera around Anakin and the newly unveiled Emperor in a last gasp bit to be dramatic. Or maybe it’s the moment when we’re told (by a computer generated robot no less) that Padme has ‘lost the will to live’, despite the fact she’s just given birth (to twins!!!) and believes ‘there’s still some good in Anakin’. Probably a bit of all three to be honest.

7. Requiem for a Dream
Good god this is a depressing film. A (very) cautionary tale about the perils of drug-taking, Darren Aronofsky’s sophomore effort is so gut-wrenching because our protagonists are not druggie bastards, but normal people sucked into a downward spiral by the pursuit of their dreams. Particularly haunting is Ellen Burstyn, whose pitch-perfect performance as a woman who gets hooked on diet pills so she can fit into her best dress for a TV appearance was overlooked by the Academy in favour of Julia Roberts’ turn in Erin flippin’ Brockovich. Now THAT’S depressing.

8. The final Calvin and Hobbes strip
Tearjerking more for its poignancy than out-and-out sadness, the final strip of Bill Watterson’s wryly witty comic Calvin and Hobbes is the perfect way for the bratty boy and his beloved stuffed tiger to bow out. The mischievous pair stand in a snow-covered meadow with their trusty sledge in tow. ‘It’s a magical world, Hobbes ol’ buddy,” says Calvin as the duo ride into immortal childhood, “let’s go exploring.”

9.Post season 4 Happy Days
It’s always tragic when a great TV show comes to an end, but it’s even worse when a formerly great one plods along for endless seasons long after its sell by date. Case in point: Happy Days. In the first few seasons, the show was untouchable: crisp writing, memorable characters and rose-tinted nostalgia all blended to make the perfect sitcom. The warning sign came at the end of season four when The Fonz was inexplicably baptised, and it continued its irrevocable slide from then on in: jumping the shark, writing out Richie and eventually burning down the original Arnold’s. The show in its final few seasons was more cheap, tacky and soulless than a Gwen Stefani song.

10. Writing Top Ten tearjerkers lists
Great, now I’m depressed!

WATCHING, LISTENING TO, READING...

The Editor

WATCHING: The slushy, but undeniably moving TV movie Tuesdays With Morrie (based on Mitch Albom's book), based on a true story of how he spent time with an inspirational former tutor of his, who was dying of Lou Gehrig's Disease and wanted to teach him one final lesson - about life. As cheesy as that sounds, and despite the fact that it's 'presented' by Oprah, it really is a cut above any other TV movie and certainly gives the audience plenty to ponder about how they live their own lives and what's really important to them. The emotional stakes are raised even higher with the knowledge that Jack Lemmon, who gives a typically great performance as Morrie, was starring in his last film, dying two years later.

LISTENING TO: Most recently, Jean-Michel Jarre's great new album Tea and Teo (i can't be bothered putting in the accents, sorry), Amy Winehouse's cover of Valerie for Mark Ronson's Version album, plus the UK reissues of Tina Dico's first two albums. Oh, and Blondie's wonderful self-titled debut.

READING: Drama City by George P. Pelecanos. While he'll probably never top his D.C. Quartet of novels for their amazing characterisation and cultural backdrops, Pelecanos is still one of the finest American crime novellists, and has a style of writing that is so easy to read and even easier to get hooked into. I've only read about five pages so far, but the story's taking shape very nicely, even if it does seems to bear a striking resemblance to Elmore Leonard's Out Of Sight...


The Writer

WATCHING: The final, brilliant episode of Life on Mars. A superbly written piece of drama which managed to address all the pressing questions without stifling the characters (Lost writers, take note). A first act red herring worked a treat, while the ending was surprisingly (and pleasingly) ambiguous - as well as being fairly bittersweet. Ultimately, it's been the best thing on TV this year, along with the return of Doctor Who and the latest Louis Theroux documentary.

LISTENING TO: The radio. Haven't listened to any new music aside from the dross Radio 1 pumps out for a few weeks now, so I‘ve really got nothing to report. The only purchase I’d consider making at the moment is Underworld and John Murphy's score for Danny Boyle's Sunshine - or it would be if it had a release date. Come on, sort it out!

READING: I'm continuing to plough through A Man on The Moon (what? It's a big book and I'm a slow reader!) Still good stuff, brilliantly written and researched by Andrew Chaikin. Science is fun, kids. Check it out.

THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT…Mary Harron

As South Park’s toe-tapping ditty ‘Blame Canada’ proves, America’s northern neighbours are all-too-often given the raw end of the deal. Mocked by their flashier counterparts and mostly ignored by other nations, their effect on Western culture is actually fairly immense. They may be considered Americans now, but actors like Dan Ackroyd, Keanu Reeves and William Shatner were all born north of the border along with influential directors like James Cameron and David Cronenberg, who have both contributed to American culture, while at the same time commenting on it.

This week’s There’s Something About… also falls into that category. Mary Harron may not be particularly well known and has only made three films across her relatively short career, but she is a bold, brave and intelligent director, whose movies have all taken a fascinating and relevant peek into the troubled and turbulent times of late 20th Century America.

Her debut came in 1996 in the shape of I Shot Andy Warhol. A stylish biopic of militant feminist, SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men) Manifesto writer and Andy Warhol assailant Valerie Solanis, the film neatly compares two of the most significant cultural movements of the late twentieth century and the two figures who embodied them.

On the one hand, we have Solanis (played with gritty charm by Lili Taylor), the deeply intelligent radical who attempted anything to put her message of female superiority across. On the other, there’s Warhol (a captivating Jarrad Harris), the gifted but somewhat callous artist, who often seems as superficial as the bitchy hangers-on who surround his infamous Factory workshop.

With his ‘famous for five minutes’ prediction and soup can paintings, Warhol, of course, was the one who ultimately found long-lasting success, but Harron’s film attempts to redress the balance. Far from being the crackpot mentalist her later actions and subsequent incarceration would suggest, Harron shows Solanis was a pioneer of the feminist movement, one who, with a little more planning and support, could have been as well known as Emmeline Pankhurst or Germaine Greer.

By finding the humanity behind such a controversial and misunderstood figure, you’d expect Harron to be pigeonholed as a feminist filmmaker. However, with her second effort she defied stereotypes and took on Bret Easton Ellis’ supposedly misogynistic novel American Psycho, in which businessman Patrick Bateman goes on a murderous rampage through 1980s New York. (NB: for the purposes of this article, we’re accepting that the murders actually happened. Like the book, the film keeps the truth ambiguous.)

Together with co-writer Guinevere Turner, Harron toned down much of the extreme violence of the novel, meaning that some of Ellis’ finer moral points about the media’s reporting of serial killers are lost. What remains though is a cutting and sharply funny satire of yuppie America which is only now starting to gain the kind of respect it deserved upon release in 2000.

An emasculated little boy, desperately seeking power and void of any personality of his own, Bateman is portrayed as the ultimate 80s man, lost in a sea of faceless drones and reduced to murderous rampages in a bid etch out some kind of identity for himself.

Sadly for poor old Paddy, it doesn’t work. He may be the one killing and maiming innocents, but society is just as degenerate and refuses to believe or even acknowledge the killings. When he confesses to his lawyer, it’s laughed off as a joke and when he claims to be into ‘murders and executions’, his words are misunderstood and heard as ‘mergers and acquisitions’.

Most disturbing is the brilliantly captured moment when he returns to the scene of one of his crimes. Rather than finding a carved-up body and blood-spattered walls, he is presented with a freshly decorated, clean apartment complete an estate agent who ushers him out hurriedly so she can make the sale. It’s blackly comic brilliance, loaded with menace, and the fact that it works so well is mostly down to lead Christian Bale, whose casting Harron had to fight tooth and nail for.

While the studio wanted a Leonardo Di Caprio who was still hot off the success of Romeo and Juliet and Titanic, Harron demanded Bale, even quitting the project when it looked like the studio would win out. Thankfully, she got her way and the decision to cast the then relatively unknown actor works a treat as his turn is a masterpiece of macabre pantomime in which he keeps the character undeniably unhinged, but frighteningly real.

Six years later, Harron followed up this stroke of genius with another bold move: hiring Gretchen Mol to play the eponymous heroine of The Notorious Bettie Page. Telling the story of the 50s pin-up girl/bondage queen/latter day kitsch icon during her modelling year only, the film is a nostalgic trip through a long-dead America which posits Page not as an exploited victim or even feminist pioneer (as many have claimed), but a somewhat naïve innocent, who grasps and is comfortable with the idea of nudity, but perhaps doesn’t understand how the pictures that were taken of her would be used.

Mol, who fell off the radar somewhat after Vanity Fair hailed her as the next big thing in 1998, brings suitable mystery to the character, grounding the occasionally too-lightweight script in a necessary sense of realism and nailing Bettie‘s cute facial expressions and girl next door charm. Wonderful support is found in the shape of the returning Harris and Taylor, but what ultimately makes the film fly is Harron and her sublime use of colour.

For Bettie’s time in the sexually-repressed New York during her bondage shoots, Harron uses dusty black and white. Realistic but claustrophobic, it is contrasted sharply with the explosion of glorious Technicolor which is used to denote the freedom Page felt on the beaches of Miami during her lighter pin-up sessions for photographer Bunny Yeager. It’s such a simple, almost obvious, idea, but it tells you so much more about Page visually than could be put across through words.

Sadly, the film was overlooked upon release last August, thanks mainly to Harron’s refusal to provide pat answers to Page’s mysterious life (she is currently a recluse). But the model is used here mostly as a cipher to investigate wider issues of sexuality, repression and civil liberties and with Janet Jackson’s nip-slip a few years ago still influencing what can and cannot be shown on US TV, such subtext ensures that the film, like all of Harron's work, is a revealing and all-too-relevant window into today’s America.

TOP TEN ANIMATED FILMS...

THE WRITER'S LIST

1. Bambi
It may be infamous for its haunting death scene, but Bambi is at the top of this list mostly for its animation. Long before CGI sauntered in and gave everything a somewhat unnatural sheen, director David Hand and his team of animators created a stunning, hand-drawn, look at cutesy animals that hasn‘t been bettered since. The opening, in which the camera pans across a beautifully hand-painted forest, is a gorgeous example of Disney at its very best.

2. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Yes, it may only be part-animated, but Robert Zemeckis’ zany trip through Toon Town is a triumph of technical achievement, which is also steeped in cartoon history. Betty Boo has a melancholic appearance in a club, while Bugs Bunny is seen parachuting with Mickey Mouse in one of the film’s most memorable sequences. The corking, film noir-informed plot, only adds to its brilliance.

3. Toy Story
Pixar are the company that really began the current boom in computer generated animation and, despite some fine efforts from other studios, they are the only ones to repeatedly produce brilliance. Picking the best of the bunch then is difficult, but while the likes of Monster‘s Inc, Cars and The Incredibles are all superb, it‘s this first effort (and, to a slightly lesser extent, its sequel) that still shines the brightest. John Lasseter’s ‘toys come to life’ tale is simple but brilliant and touches upon the big themes of friendship and mortality in a way most modern animations can only dream about.

4. The Iron Giant
One of the last great hurrahs of traditional animation, Brad Bird’s adaptation of Ted Hughes’ short story retains all the original’s subtext, but infuses it with a modern sensibility so it still applies to today’s youth. The fact that it’s pretty much all hand drawn (with only a few computer-powered embellishments here and there) simply adds to its poignancy and shows 2-D animation still has a place in our CG-drenched world.

5. The Nightmare Before Christmas
Even to this day, the baffled TV networks seem confused as to when it’s best to schedule NBX: Halloween or Christmas. Of course, the festive period is always a good time to watch this tale of Jack Skellington’s commandeering of December 25th, but Tim Burton’s magical story and some stunning animation from stop-motion master Henry Selick mean that it’s universal enough to be enjoyed at any time of the year.

6. Grave of the Fireflies
This heartbreaking tale of two children trying to survive in wartime Japan is certainly not for sensitive kids. Dark, complex and incredibly upsetting at times, it does away with the magical escapism often associated with Studio Ghibli films, in favour downbeat realism and an ending which is by far the most tragic the animated medium has ever produced.

7. Wallace and Gromit in The Wrong Trousers
It may only be a short, but The Wrong Trousers is brimming with wit and ideas. From villainous penguin Feathers McGraw disguising himself as a chicken via the cunning use of a rubber glove, to the thrilling train set chase which brings our disunited heroes back together, Nick Park’s film boasts an imagination and sense of love missing from the cookie-cutter world of modern animation.

8. Kiki’s Delivery Service
Many would opt for Spirited Away from Hayao Miyazaki’s impressive oeuvre, but I’m going for this intimate tale of a young witch. The Japanese maestro can do epics such as Princess Mononoke and Howl’s Moving Castle like no-one else, but the smaller, more low key stories are when he really shines and this one is the pick of the bunch, with our young heroine coming of age in a sweet, simple story that also stars a talking cat. What more do you need?

9. Finding Nemo
Pixar’s fifth effort marks the point at which CG animation really matured. Along with human skin, water had always been the most difficult thing to reproduce with pixels, but directors Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich make it look easy with some lush deep sea visuals in this tale of a fishy father looking for his lost son. Throw in some great set-pieces, vegetarian sharks and, in Ellen DeGeneres’ forgetful Dory, one of the best characters Pixar have ever created and you have a real classic.

10. South Park: The Movie
As someone who was never really into the TV series, I was pleasantly surprised by the South Park movie. Sharply satirical, it also has some surprisingly toe-tapping musical numbers, including the barnstorming Blame Canada. Trey Parker and Matt Stone came nowhere near matching it with their funny but rather hollow Team America: World Police.

THE EDITOR'S LIST

1. Spirited Away
The film that introduced me (as it did for many others I assume) to the world of Studio Ghibli, Spirited Away is still the one I keep coming back to despite the amazing other works of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. With an amazing story, delightful score and some sumptuous visuals (most memorably the train seemingly gliding across the water) Spirited Away is the most complete of all the Ghibli films.

2. Transformers: The Movie
A real nostalgia choice here, but I seriously cannot imagine too many other kids' cartoon movies having the sheer drama, excitement and emotional impact of Transformers. With the biggest battle imaginable at the start, plus the shock death of Optimus Prime, plus the voice talents of people like Orson Welles (seriously), Leonard Nimoy, Scatman Crothers and Eric Idle, it's got everything. It's got The Touch...

3. Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs
The original Disney movie and still the classic by which all others are judged, and really by which all animated films are judged. It's very old-fashioned and of its time, but the songs are great, the story is timeless and the animation is excellent. Considering it was known as "Disney's Folly" while in production, it's pretty obvious who had the last laugh.

4. Fantasia
Ground-breaking in so many ways, Fantasia not only eschewed a traditional storyline, but it also introduced stereophonic sound and to this day is probably the first real classical music that children are exposed to. It has had its critics, not least Pauline Kael and some classical purists, but there's just nothing like it out there and you really can't imagine modern day Disney (or any other major studio) doing anything this adventurous can you?

5. South Park: The Movie
South Park was funny before the movie came out, but it was still a fairly basic comedy that relied on offensive humour without really making a point of it. The Movie however, was a instant triumph, using its license to swear like never before, making for a hilarious film that also had a strong anti-censorship message. Buoyed by its success, Trey Parker and Matt Stone went on to really thrive with the vastly-improved TV series, even if its popularity over here was hit by some bizarre scheduling...

6. Pinocchio
Classic early Disney, Pinocchio is one of the darkest of their films, but also one of the most magical and enduring. When You Wish Upon A Star is the all-time best Disney song, perfectly summing up the innocent appeal of it, even now that its such a cynical gigantic behemoth of a company. The mixture of light and dark is perfectly judged and it's almost impossible not to enjoy.

7. Laputa Castle In The Sky
Not as famous as some of the other Miyazaki movies, Laputa is nevertheless one of the best. It starts off as a fairly routine adventure story with action and chase scenes, but like most Ghibli films there is an ecological and pacifist message behind it all that becomes clear as it reaches its climax. The visuals are stunning and Joe Hisaishi's score is typically lovely.

8. Belleville Rendezvous
It came out at a time when Spirited Away had revitalised animation at the cinemas, and Belleville did a lot better because of it. Some of the anti-American jibes are a bit much, but Sylvain Chomet's fairly surreal tale is still very entertaining and at times affecting even though the overall tone is fairly satirical and bizarre. Endlessly creative and entertaining, it's a modern classic.

9. Dumbo
The most emotional of all the Disney films. Bambi might have the death of his mother, but when Dumbo is separated from his mum at the circus, it takes a heart of stone not be upset by it. A tale of the plucky underdog and hopeless outsider, this flying elephant is the most appealing of all of Disney's heroes. With the legendary 'drunk' scene counting amongst the most surreal of all of the House of Mouse's musical numbers, Dumbo really does fly.

10. The Flight Of The Dragons
Another personal choice, this Rankin and Bass movie from the early 80s was never particularly acclaimed or particularly famous, but is one that seems to have touched those who have managed to see it, as it has an impressive 7.7/10 rating on IMDB. The late John Ritter stars as a writer who goes back in time to an era when dragons fly and the worlds of science and magic are coming into conflict. It's never been on DVD, so you'll struggle to find it, but it's well worth searching for the VHS...

THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT... THE WiLDHEARTS

Your first time is always special and my first gig was The Wildhearts at Warrington Parr Hall on April 14th 1996, and it's still one of the best that I've ever been to, even though it nearly destroyed my dad's eardrums and I could hardly walk when I came out because I'd been kneeling down in the seating area around near the top of the stage. If I hadn't declared my undying love to Ginger, Danny, Jef and Ritch before that gig, then I certainly had by the time they finished the encore of Don't Worry 'Bout Me.

If there was any justice in the world, which there of course isn't, The Wildhearts would be the biggest rock band around, because they're certainly amongst the best these British isles have ever produced, right up there with Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. At times it looked like they might be able to make it big, but part of being "rock 'n' roll" is having that self-destructive streak and The Wildhearts certainly have that, having split up as many times as most of us have had breakfasts.

Ginger IS The Wildhearts, having started the band in 1989, and he's the only constant in an ever-shifting line-up. Their first EP came out in 1992, called Mondo Akimbo A-Go-Go and 15 years on it still sounds fresh and exciting, not least the classic Turning American, which still features in their gigs to this day. However good their first two EPs were, their debut album Earth vs The Wildhearts took things another level with a collection of stunning tracks that mixed heavy metal riffs with power pop melodies.

The high point of the album was My Baby Is A Headfuck, which featured Bowie guitarist Mick Ronson in one of his last recordings before he died soon afterwards. With great singles like Greetings From Shitsville, Suckerpunch and the hyperactive Caffeine Bomb (the song that helped me discover them), the album simply didn't have a weak track and will hopefully one day be recognised as one of the greatest British rock debuts of all time.

But Ginger had only just started to show off his talents, with fan-club-only follow-up Fishing For Luckies one of the most experimental and exciting rock albums released in the 90s. From folky sing-a-long Geordie In Wonderland to 12 minute sci-fi epic Sky Babies, it was easy to see why record label EastWest baulked at the idea of trying to sell it commercially, but their cowardice was their failing and the start of the disintegration of their relationship with the band.

Second album proper p.h.u.q. (say it however you like) saw guitarist CJ sacked and the band have a few more minor hits with I Wanna Go Where The People Go and Just In Lust. In 1996 they re-released Fishing For Luckies with some new tracks, including Sick Of Drugs, which got into top twenty, and with a relatively settled line-up, things seemed to be going well. Of course, it all went wrong, and they split before releasing Endless Nameless, a massively-underrated raging beast of distortion and feedback that sounded like career suicide.

They came back in 2001 with the Earth vs The Wildhearts line-up, and your Editor went to see them at Dudley JBs, only to witness yet another implosion as heroin addict bassist Danny scuffled with CJ and Ginger on stage after struggling his way through the first half of the show. However, in true Wildhearts style they battled on (not literally) with the bassist from the support band standing in, and when Danny returned they released The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed in 2003.

It was a fairly lightweight return though, lacking the punch or insane genius of their classic material, and probably was their first slightly disappointing release. Fairly predictably, they split up again in 2005, despite having had a radio success with a cover of the Cheers theme tune (a b-side like so many of their classics - 29 x The Pain, Show A Little Emotion, Dangerlust, And The Bullshit Goes On, Shut Your Fucking Mouth And Use Your Fucking Brain, etc), and it looked like their time was finally up. They'd lived fast, died young (many times over) and left a beautiful corpse. But then it rose from the dead again late last year, with a line-up of Ginger, Scott Sorry (on bass), CJ and Ritch Battersby returning on drums.

They've got a new self-titled album out in April and Ginger has promised a return to their classic sound: "The melodies are still there, the big choruses are still there, but the mammoth guitar riffs are back and heavier than ever," he said, which promises much. They might never recapture the glory days of the mid-90s, but they will always be one of the most interesting and exciting rock bands around, and their live shows are legendary. They'll be playing the Academy in early May, so why not check them out? Who knows, they might change your life. They changed mine...

(PS, also well worth checking out is Ginger's excellent recent solo album Yoni...)

THE EDITOR

Entertainment Essentials: The Right Stuff

Space, to paraphrase Douglas Adams, is big. Really, really big. So big, in fact, that Hollywood has struggled to capture its vastness on the silver screen. Space operas like Star Wars and existential odysseys such as Solaris and 2001 aside, the infinite realms of the universe and our tentative steps into them have rarely been investigated by anything other than TV documentaries. It’s a shame too because when space and NASA’s role in decoding its mysteries are translated onto the big screen the results are usually terrific, with Apollo 13, Contact and especially The Right Stuff leading the way.

Based on Tom Wolfe’s same-titled non-fiction novel, Phillip Kaufamn’s film turns the US-Soviet space race into a grand, three hour epic which effortlessly blends tragedy and comedy to form a slyly satirical look at a crucial moment in American history. Ostensibly, the focus is on the Mercury 7, the septuplet of test pilots who became the first Americans in space. However, Kaufman finds intriguing dramatic weight in contrasting the fates of Sam Shepherd’s rough and ready Chuck Yeager, the 50s’ greatest test pilot who never became a part of the project, and prim and proper John Glen, who became the first American to orbit the earth.

While Glen and his six colleagues are put under intense media spotlight, subjected to rigorous and absurd tests (most of them neatly parodied in The Simpsons’ Deep Space Homer episode) and exhibited by NASA and the government as bastions of American excellence, Yeager gets on with his work alone. There are no trumpet fares or ticker tape parades as he risks his life by breaking the sound barrier several times over.

However, while he laments the fact Yeager’s influence has been buried by the sands of time, Kaufman’s smart enough to realise that the astronauts never encouraged such attention themselves and were simply washed up on a tidal wave of national euphoria at a time when US citizens desperately needed a distraction from the escalating Cold War.

Crucially, the writer/director also shows the tremendous danger of their missions, ensuring the film never descends into the kind of chest-beating patriotism that the title may suggest. When Gus Grissom, for example, is not treated to the same heroic welcome as the others after a botched landing, Kaufman finds sympathy, as he does with the wives of both the astronauts and Yeager, who powerlessly watch as their husbands ride into the unknown inside rocket-powered tin cans, be they spaceships or planes.

Indeed, rather than hailing American jingoism, the film makes a point of subverting it, ironically bathing a Russian scientist in a mephistopholian haze and portraying two NASA recruitment agents (played by Harry Shearer and Jeff Goldblum) as bumbling buffoons. The Right Stuff isn’t a nationality, Kaufman suggests, and it certainly isn’t in physical prowess. It’s in the ability to stare destiny in the face and it should certainly be in your DVD collection.

With Casino Royale out on DVD this week, our two bloggers have come up with their own personal Top Ten Bond Films lists and it has already stirred up plenty of debate and controversy, so see what you think and add your own...

THE EDITOR

1. You Only Live Twice
By this stage, Sean Connery WAS Bond (the poster even said as much), and Roald Dahl's fantastic script gave him the best lines of any Bond film (including the innuendo-ridden line 'don't get soap in my eye' which Connery seems to get great delight in saying whilst being bathed by Japanese ladies). Donald Pleasance's Blofeld set the standard by which all villains are measured, and John Barry's soundtrack is simply stunning. The perfect Bond film.

2. Goldfinger
This was the film that established 007 as a global phenomenon and it's easy to see why, with so many iconic scenes and lines. How they got away with having a character called Pussy Galore remains a mystery, but pretty much everything about Goldfinger is classic, with Connery wearing Bond like a second skin and exuding charm and danger like no-one that has followed him.

3. Live And Let Die
After the fiasco with George Lazenby and Connery's slightly off-beat return in Diamonds Are Forever, the franchise needed to come back strongly with its third 007, and Roger Moore got off to a flying start with this voodoo-riddled classic. He even manages to keep that pesky eyebrow in check, and with George Martin and Paul McCartney coming up with a timeless theme song, Bong was back on track.

4. The Living Daylights
Reaction to this was muted at first, with the Bond series in trouble after Moore had gone on at least a couple of films too long, with View To A Kill being the weakest in the whole series. Timothy Dalton's portrayal was a sea change for the character, dispensing with Moore's sardonic humour and being, well, a bit grumpy. However, it works really well and a much more grounded Cold War plotline meant that this was a welcome shift in direction for Bond.

5. License To Kill
Followed by an even more dramatic shift. License To Kill is sometimes criticised for being '007 Does Die Hard' and it's a fair cop, because it's the most obvious attempt by EON to appeal to an American audience, with almost the entire film set in America and featuring a rather un-British story about drugs and vengence. It's also much more violent, ushering Bond into the modern era, and while it still gets a mixed press, it's done very well and Dalton's final performance certainly stands up.

6. Casino Royale
Daniel Craig was under so much pressure to perform here that the initial reaction was almost hysterical relief that it was so good when expectations had been lowered by so much negative press. Rather over-long and at times ponderous, Casino Royale is still a massive improvement over some of the silliness of the later Brosnan films (though they were all ok), bringing it back down to earth, though hammering the final nail into the coffin of any kind of continuity in the series...

7. From Russia With Love
A big step forward from the iconic but flawed Dr No, From Russia With Love was where Bond got his wings. With a genuinely menacing baddie in Red Grant and the sexiest Bond girl in Tatiana Romanova, this is an excellent spy film as well as a great Bond film. John Barry's score is classy, and while it gets lost a bit during the scenes in Turkey and the gypsy camp, it's easy to see why so many would put this at number one.

8. The Spy Who Loved Me
Very much along the same lines as You Only Live Twice in terms of plot, The Spy Who Loved Me is one of the most ridiculous Bond films, but also one of the most enjoyable. It introduces one of the most iconic villains, Jaws, as well as one of the most popular cars, the Lotus Esprit that goes underwater. Maybe it was a step in the wrong direction, leading to the even sillier Moonraker, but it's still a lot of fun.

9. The World Is Not Enough
Probably a controversial choice just ahead of Dr No, this film has been rather unfairly dismissed in the grand scheme of Brosnan Bonds. A return to form after the slightly iffy Tomorrow Never Dies (a media baron? come on...) and much more grounded than Die Another Day, it has a great villain in Robert Carlyle and a great vampy villain girl in Sophie Marceau, as well as Judi Dench's first really good performance as M. And a really underrated theme tune to boot.

10. The Man With The Golden Gun
Lulu's campy theme tune tends to be used as a brush to tar this whole film, with Sheriff J W Pepper's second appearance rather grating, but it's still an excellent Bond film. It's got Christopher Lee as the bad guy for crying out loud. And he's got a third nipple! And The Man With The Golden Gun also has that spiral jump car stunt. What more do you need?

THE WRITER

1. From Russia With Love
Goldfinger has the iconic set-pieces, but From Russia With Love can boast a raw edge which its sequel lacks. Connery’s on top form, bringing charm to the casual brutality he displayed in Dr No, and for the first time we’re introduced to the pussy-loving (ahem) Blofeld.

2. Goldfinger.
Magnificently mad, the third outing for 007 really should collapse under the weight of its own silliness. That it’s gone on to become the template for all future entries is testament not only to Connery’s charm but also director Guy Hamilton’s deft, Boy‘s Own sense of fun.

3. Casino Royale
Perhaps it’s a little premature to put a film which was only released five months ago this high, but Casino Royale really is that good. Eva Green was born to play a Bond girl and Daniel Craig brought a dark but compassionate edge to the character which had not been seen since Timothy Dalton. Speaking of which…

4. Licence to Kill
If Casino Royale’s success proves anything it’s that Dalton was ahead of his time. The Hot Fuzz star may only have two films to his name, but with Licence to Kill, he was given a depth entirely absent from the Moore era. The only problem is that the best line of the entire series (“he disagreed with something that ate him”), goes to the villain.

5. You Only Live Twice
Roald Dahl scripts, Connery stars and Blofeld hollows out a volcano in the final truly great Bond since Dalton donned the tux. Escapist, but still grounded with Connery’s earthy edge, it’s only scuppered slightly by some dubious political incorrectness.

6. Goldeneye
With Communism long since consigned to the history book, James Bond had to quickly find his feet in the 1990s and did so with the energetic Goldeneye. Easily Pierce Brosnan’s best film, it benefits from two cracking set-pieces (the opening bungee jump and the St Petersberg tank chase) and has fun in recasting M as a woman. Shame the other Brosnan Bonds never hit the same heights.

7. The Spy Who Loved Me.
This is where myself and The Editor differ greatly. He likes the Moore era, I loathe it, so that’s why he makes his first appearance at number 7. The Spy Who Loved Me is easily the best of the Moore era thanks mostly to the first appearance of Jaws and the best Bond girl yet in the shapely form of Barbara Bach’s Anya Amasova. Agent Triple X indeed.

8. Live and Let Die.
The second and last Moore film to appear on this list, Live and Let Die actually contains the reason I dislike most of his entries into the series. In the film’s opening, he seduces a woman in typical fashion, using a magnetic watch to unzip her dress. It’s meant to be Bond at his most suave, but thanks to Moore’s false charm it comes off more lecherous than debonair as he utters the dire words: “sheer magnetism, darling.” Despite this, and an obvious Bond goes Blaxploitation plot, the film’s enjoyable nonsense which culminates in the stupidest villain death ever. Damn those compressed-air bullets.

9. Dr No
It’s a pity that Bond’s first big screen adventure is largely overlooked these days, because it’s a cracking little spy story with plenty of mystery and intrigue. It’s also the only one that feels like an actual film, rather than a BOND FILM, with Connery and Ursula Andress sharing what so few other Bond couplings do: chemistry.

10. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Yes, it’s camp. Yes, George Lazenby is more wooden than a table leg. And yes, it’s got some terrible continuity errors. But OHMSS is a glorious anomaly in the Bond franchise with a neat sting in the tale. Shame it was ruined by the opening of For Your Eyes Only. Damn you Roger Moore.

THE EDITOR

WATCHING: On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The Lazenby Bond film. Initially considered a flop, it's gone on to be claimed as one of the best, but doesn't really stand up to scrutiny. Lazenby clearly isn't an actor, and the plot meanders along until the last half hour, with the scenes in Blofeld's mountain hideaway more like a bad Carry On film than anything else. The ending is still impressive, but how much worse would OHMSS have been if it had ended as originally intended, after the wedding and before the murder (which would have been at the start of Diamonds Are Forever if Lazenby had still been Bond)? It's not a disaster, but if Connery had stayed on, it could have been so much better...

LISTENING TO: Mano Negra's debut album Patchanka. The French mongrel punks led by Manu Chao may have taken their lead from The Clash, but they throw in everything else they could possibly have thrown in, with styles from all kinds of genres and countries. Best example is the cover of Leadbelly's Rock Island Line that takes in Beastie Boy hip-hop, rockabilly and Alvin and The Chipmunks. Chao would go on to even better things in his solo career, but Patchanka is a classic album that sounds as fresh and adventurous as anything out there.

READING: For One More Day by Mitch Albom. Another sentimental tale from the writer of Tuesdays With Morrie and The Five People You Meet In Heaven, Albom's books are the equivalent of Frank Capra films. If you're overly cynical or cold, you'll sneer at this story about a suicidal former baseball player who tries to kill himself and fails, ending up at his childhood home where his mother is waiting to look after him. His dead mother. So far so good...

THE WRITER


WATCHING: Walking with Monsters. A frankly frightening TV series which may be a good few years old now but can still boast a spider the size of a human head pitting its wits against a giant millipede the length of a car. What more does a boy need? At the cinema I last watched The Illusionist, a love story with no chemistry between leads Ed Norton and Jessica Biel which looks, feels and sounds like a dreadful period-set ITV1 drama premiere. Very dull.

LISTENING TO: Arcade Fire's Neon Bible. What can I say about Arcade Fire's immense follow-up to Funeral that hasn't already been said? Both lyrically and musically it's a more expansive piece of work than its predecessor and songs like Ocean of Noise and No Cars Go will be remembered as modern classics as stunning as Street Spirit and Paranoid Android. A rare masterpiece in a music scene drowning in drivel.

READING: Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. It's a shame that this corking little title is marketed as a comic book for teenage girls, because it's actually one of the best Spider-Man books around at the moment. That probably says more about the dreadful state core line Amazing Spider-Man currently finds itself in, but Sean McKeever's writing exhibits a knack for teen dialogue rarely seen beyond Joss Whedon's work and Takeshi Miyazawa has a Manga-inspired and charming art style. A must-read if you're sick of all this Civil War crap.

TOP TEN: MOVIE SEQUELS

1. The Godfather Part 2
Although lacking the titanic presence of Marlon Brando and some of its predecessor's more iconic sequences, Godfather Part II is a more subtle, rounded and, dare I say it, intelligent film than Part 1 and more than deserving of its place in the record books as the first of only two sequels to win Best Picture (brownie points for those who can tell us the second).

2. Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade
After the unusually dark and violent Temple of Doom, Steven Spielberg returned to the action/adventure template of Raiders of the Lost Ark and threw in a dash of knockabout comedy in the shape of Sean Connery as Indy’s dad. The result is just a Karen Allen away from beating Raiders.

3. Empire Strikes Back
Empire only at three? You better believe it, because while not entirely destructive, it’s very difficult indeed to reconcile the whiny, poorly developed Anakin we see at the end of Episode III with the brutish, Han Solo-torturing bastard we see here. Still one of the touchstone of pop culture, it’d probably be higher were it not for Jar Jar and co.

4. Dawn of the Dead
A rare example of a sequel which not only betters the original, but changes the formula altogether. While Night of the Living Dead is creepily dark, Dawn is gaudily bright, with Romero replacing the urgency of his genre-defining classic with the bored apathy of this film’s protagonists to form a superb comment on consumer culture as well a crackingly gory midnight movie.

5. Spider-Man 2
If the first Spider-Man film was a respectful introduction to the characters which rarely allowed Sam Raimi to break free, its sequel finds the director in full, hyper-kinetic mood hurling the camera from pillar to post and filming some superb set-pieces to boot (the train chase is a doozy). Throw in some nice character development and the best use of Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head since Butch and Sundance and you have a superb set-up for this summer’s Spider-Man 3.

6. Aliens
James Cameron’s finest film by some distance, Aliens is the only time the director has convincingly matched up emotional content with his great talent for action. It helps that he already had great groundwork in the shape of Alien (still the better of the two), but here Cameron evolves the character of Ripley whilst also creating a few memorable ones of his own. Titanic would have improved immeasurably had Hudson been roaming about on board.

7. Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Another example of a film which, while not bettering its predecessor, evolves its mythos. While Gremlins was a wonderfully sadistic inversion of films like It’s A Wonderful Life, The New Batch features Joe Dante making a live action Chuck Jones cartoon, complete with cameos from Daffy and Bugs and a third act New York, New York sing-along. Not sure how a film as barmy as this ever got made, but we’re glad it did.

8. Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn
One of the few examples of a horror-comedy which manages to balance out its competing genres well, Sam Raimi’s manic follow-up to The Evil Dead features Bruce Campbell at his hyperactive best, some truly ridiculous camerawork and a newly-severed possessed hand being trapped in a bucket weighed down by a copy of A Farewell to Arms. Who needs sophistication, eh?

9. Back to the Future Part II
Unfairly criticised for being overly complicated, the second film in Robert Zemeckis’ time-travel trilogy is only slightly inferior to the first thanks to another winning turn from Michael J Fox and enough paradoxes to give even Stephen Hawking a headache. Oh and it‘s got hover boards as well. Lots of hover boards.

10. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.
Notorious sexploitation guru Russ Meyer wrote this follow up to Valley of the Dolls with critic Roger Ebert and the result is a uproarious satire of 60s celebrity. Worth seeing for it’s violently manic finale alone.

The point of this blog isn't to whore it out to promote stuff, but hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. There's an awesome rock tour later this year that calls at the MEN Arena on November 18th, and we want to review it and hopefully give away tickets to you guys, so indulge us in a little PR stuff...

Rock fans are in for a unique treat this November when shock rock guru Alice Cooper teams up with legendary British rock’n’roll hellraisers Motorhead & loud leather lovin’ Joan Jett and the Blackhearts for a value-packed 10-date UK tour which promises a relentless, ear-splintering, deliciously dirty rock’n’roll experience. Each legendary artist is a leader in their rock genre.

We love Alice Cooper here at Entertainment Manchester, so that's a given, but the chance to see Motorhead as well is simply too good to miss, and Joan Jett's bound to be fun too, so make sure you get your tickets soon. Or you could wait for our competition of course... if not, see you there!

Here's our latest Watching, Listening To and Reading, feel free to add your own...

The Writer:

WATCHING: That Thing You Do. Tom Hanks' 1996 directorial debut focuses on fictional 1960s pop group The Wonders (or The Oneders depending on which era of the band you're concentrating on). It's a pity Hanks has yet to follow it up because it's a light and enjoyable slice of Americana which proves he’s as good behind the camera as he is in front of it.

LISTENING TO: The Collateral soundtrack. An eclectic mix of chill-out tunes, edgy dance numbers and James Newton Howard's murky, urban underworld score, it's the perfect audio accompaniment to one of Michael Mann's best films of recent years.

READING: Essential Sensational Spider-Man Vol 3. While never quite hitting the heights of the classic Stan Lee/John Romita run on Amazing Spider-Man in the late 60s, these black and white reprints of the 1970s Sensational Spider-Man still have the same kind of drama, tragedy and romance that makes the wall crawling wonder so popular. Current Spidey writers, take heed...

The Editor:

WATCHING: Last film I watched was Chocolat. It was ok. I'd like to go to the cinema more often, but there's so little out that's actually worth the effort these days. Last one was Hot Fuzz, which was about as good as Chocolat, but disappointing because I'd hoped for much more. Also recently watched the failed American pilots for Red Dwarf on YouTube, which were certainly interesting, just not funny. At all.

LISTENING TO: Moby's Animal Rights. Before he took over the world of TV advertising with Play, he bemused his techno fanbase by making this rock album (interspersed with some lovely ambient melodies) and it's generally regarded as his weakest effort. Maybe it's because I saw him blow Soundgarden off the stage as a support act at the Apollo, touring this album, but I love it.

READING: Having finished War And Peace (!) last week I'm now onto The Good Life by Jay McInerney, which is a sequel to his classic Brightness Falls, with the central characters from that, Corrine and Russell Calloway still together and still living in New York. The Good Life sees how their lives are torn apart by 9/11, and while in the wrong hands it could be a schmaltzy mess, McInerney keeps it all with an edge that making for an engrossing read.