What the hell has happened to late Night TV

Even with freeview, there’s not much on past the 4am mark, always a turning point for me round about 4-5am whenever puppets start turning up, it’s bad news when it all goes from comedy to education when all that’s left if BBC news 24 which does have some comedy like when archbishops and popes and the like start talking about embryos and stem cell research, when they are wearing glasses and…ahem appearing on television, no science involved there of course. Surely an ex-member of the Nazi youth would be down with lots of experiments involving embryos. Where's the balance? I want a molecular biologist on with his/her opinion on the colour of Jesus's pants.

Other than that there’s Floyd on the Fjords and Taste, the two guilty pleasures of latenight TV. Had a discussion with Rich at work my co-chef and unfortunate listening post to most of insane rants during shifts, I like staying up until 5am and he likes cooking so he did see these shows, but I think he sees them at normal hours not on the 5am repeats. I saw Floyd cooking some goose monstrosity and what looked like a bathtub boiling with lots of pale meats and sausages, that all looked like the ‘baby’ at the end of Alien: Resurrection.

Although Taste has a hot presenter her borderline racism is quite funny, whenever a food expert from an ethnic minority comes on she’s like a lunatic, ‘now this daal isn’t too hot is it?’ etc., as if to assure all concerned that whatever dogs these experts are cooking will be alright for a usual Sky Three audience.

Ah I miss Troma’s Edge TV and the Trip, not to mention Vids and Bits. With No Internet my film watching has gone back to pre-information super-procrastination highway levels. Easter was only made bearable by watching Firefly and Serenity a bit too much and these flicks:

Bug
Like great, old Twilight Zone episodes, 1970s horror, like Bug, which this isn’t a remake of but thought it was before I found out more about it, even things like the David Warner movie Nightwing, that crappy low budget end of horror set in remote motels in the American south or even elements of Psycho along with Phillip K. Dick-like paranoia. Ashley Judd is a revelation and Michael Shannon is a twitchy genius.

Stardust
Alright apart from that unicorn shot that Matthew Vaughan is suitably sheepish about as it's almost identical to Bladerunner's, which Jane Goldman is oblivious to, had to go back to the commentary on that particular bit because I wanted to see what he said, he said as a filmmaker he was embarrassed about it. Bob's a highlight but all I could think about was fucking unicorns and the idiots that like them so it kind of cancelled itself out.

American Gangster
Good but they were a little too anxious to have Crowe and Washington as buddies, Chiwetel Ejiofer as always was great. Was left feeling though that someone who becomes a gangster kingpin couldn’t have been so cuddly surely he did some horrible shit that we’ll never find out about, and as soon as it started I knew ‘Across 110th Street’ would appear on the the sound track and of course it does.

In a Lonely Place
Great always good to take a classical Hollywood breather in amongst contemporary stuff, Bogart and Gloria Grahame are amazing in this and it’s underrated masterpiece.

Aliens
Much as I love the Alien box set the Aliens disc has an awful habit of always going straight into the James Cameron commentry, if I hear the words ‘hey Jim Cameron here, the version of Aliens you are about to see if my favorite’, madness will ensue.


Oh and Grindhouse, I did stay true to my previous rant and did not see Grindhouse until I saw the whole thing properly, and caught the double bill at a late show at the Odeon, where we’re doing a comedy night this Friday. I did like it, Planet Terror more than Death Proof, but the Vanishing Point references and the appearance of the great Zoe Bell made it so worth it. As a crap movie geek, I may have mentioned it, the injokes in Grindhouse are amazing, just to see Michael Biehn and Jeff Fahy (the terrible twins of straight to video crap of the 1980s on one screen as brothers was amazing) As always with anything from Tarantino since Jackie Brown, if you’re a 14-year-old boy, you will probably think this is the best film ever, and definitely one for those that like arses.