Category: Movies & TV

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Top movies and docos about radio

It goes without saying that I like everything about radio, even movies that feature radio stations.

The first movie I watched about radio must have been FM (pretty sure I left the cinema disappointed). Then came Good Morning Vietnam… So I thought it a good idea to pull together my top 5 along with some notable mentions…

5) FM

Released in 1978 the film FM is about fictional Los Angeles station Q-Sky and the battle between the station’s DJs and the suits who want more commercials and less music (sound familiar?).

We see a variety of cliché DJs who each have their personal problems and we get an insight into the pressure the station manager – played by Michael Brandon – faces as he has … Read the rest “Top movies and docos about radio”

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The Prisoner – 60s TV series review

I am not a number, I am a free man!

There are still plenty of people who haven’t managed to sit through all 17 episodes of 1960s British cult TV series The Prisoner.  I can understand their frustration as the show doesn’t follow the ‘normal’ hero-beats-the-baddy formula with everything neatly tied up with a bow at the end of each episode.

Neither the episodes, nor the series, follow a straight line. It’s illogical, confusing, intriguing, unique, challenging, experimental, weird even. Which is why it is still such compelling viewing decades after it was made. During its first broadcast in 1967, and subsequent repeats, it drove some viewers to distraction.

The plot

Okay, so what is The Prisoner all about?

On the surface; a man … Read the rest “The Prisoner – 60s TV series review”

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The Truman Show

Truman show film review

I read FilmFreak’s review of the 90’s movie The Truman Show this week, and it got me thinking back – way back.

When word seeped out in 1997  that a movie was being made about a man trapped in a village many of us movie nuts assumed, wrongly as it turned out, that a big screen version of the cult 1960s TV show The Prisoner was coming down the line.

The Prisoner, played by Patrick McGoohan, tells the story of a British spy who resigns from the Secret Service. He drives home, is put to sleep by gas, and wakes up in The Village – an island choc-block full of disgruntled civil servants and spies who  were taken out of society [by whom we … Read the rest “The Truman Show”

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Roger Moore – Goodbye, Mr Bond

Goodbye, Mr Bond

I was thinking about actor Sir Roger Moore just last week while travelling on the bus. I remembered him playing James Bond of course and saying in an interview that he blinked every time he pulled the trigger of a prop gun when ‘shooting’ a villain. This made it hard for movie directors to get the money shot of Bond taking out a baddy.

Then I recalled that he was against animal cruelty – including fox hunting – and had volunteered to help children’s charity Unicef. He seemed a jolly good chap in my book.

So it was sad to hear he died this week (23 May 2017) aged 89. Not a bad innings.

My first memory of Roger Moore was as … Read the rest “Roger Moore – Goodbye, Mr Bond”

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Darcy Gladwin on the struggle of making

Darcy Gladwin tells Steve Hart all about his movie Godplex and what it takes to get a movie made against all the odds…

Godplex, which had the working title Godspell, is a feature film written and directed by New Zealander Darcy Gladwin. Not to be confused with the sixties stage show, Darcy’s movie features Shane Hollands, a prominent Auckland performance poet.

Shane plays Clark Duke, a frustrated insurance agent searching for self-respect and a new way of life.

“In the movie Clark creates an internet religion called Virtology,” says Darcy. “A combination of work pressure, psychological unrest and fate cause him to take the bold step of leaving his small city roots and stepping out on to the road to spread his word.

“The … Read the rest “Darcy Gladwin on the struggle of making”