Gosh that was long!

There’s been a trend in movie criticism to comment on how long films are, that studios aren’t having the discipline to keep their products down to the required length. I never really felt that before now.

I went to see Spider-Man 3 at the cinema last night. It was in many respects a great film. The special effects were top-notch to my untrained eye (apart from one obvious model shot towards the end). Sandman and venom were a great choice of villains, and we are probably now only just at the stage where they could be realised well. Tobey makes a great Peter Parker, nerdy, and while doing a great job as Spider-Man, still a little on the immature side.

It’s just that being so long the story begins to drag in the third quarter. Maybe it was because I needed to catch the train home I was more aware of the time passing, I don’t know.

Here’s the Shiny Shelf take on it.

Review: Shakedown

Doctor Who: Shakedown- Terrance Dicks (ISBN 0-426-20459-X)

I enjoyed Shakedown, Dreamwatch media’s hastily produced video film, so wondered how old Uncle Terrance had gone on with adapting it as a new adventure. It was with no surprise I found that he had expanded on Shakedown, the video only comprising of a small middle section to the book, having read about it millions of times in the pre-publicity.

The basic story of Shakedown is great, I really enjoyed it. It is well plotted and shows all Mr Dicks skills as a master story teller. All the major characters are three dimensional. Unfortunately, they’re not all that well rounded (described by a friend of mine as “square and fleshy”). Dialogue seems very forced and hammy, cartoonish even. Benny comes off worse, portrayed as an alcoholic failed academic, rather than someone who couldn’t be doing with the academic system and likes the odd drink. Cewj and Forrester only work slightly better. The Doctor seems to have regressed to his second incarnation, with only the rather forced lack of confidence and Doctorish masterplan indicating that this is indeed a New Adventure. I’d like to see Terrance write a missing adventure where I’m sure he’d work better.

I’m sorry, but although I enjoyed it, for me Shakedown is a letdown.