Category: Films

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Film Review: A Short Vision – 8/10

Sometimes when it is a Sunday night and your girlfriend has been out all day and you have spent too long staring tensely at the cat and you are waiting for Match of the Day 2 to start and Monday is breathing down your neck like a two headed dragon, you may find yourself tumbling down the rabbit hole that is the more weird corner of the web. It is here that I discovered A Short Vision…

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Amazingly broadcast in prime time on both the BBC in the UK and the Ed Sullivan Show in the US in 1956, A Short Vision is a strange animated short about the end of the world. Packing in a lot of nightmarish imagery and disorientating repetitively primitive language as well as some unsettling rudimentary animation and a screeching score, it is impossible to imagine this ever being shown on any channel at any time in this day and age, never mind when people are just sitting down to enjoy their smiley faces and turkey dinosaurs.

The message is more than simply ‘nuclear war is bad’ and I ended up watching it a few times such is the haunting nature of the subject matter. Still very much pertinent and perhaps even more shocking than when first released, A Short Vision is a good if odd way to spend six minutes of your time.

Watch it here:

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Top 5 Kevin Smith Partnerships

The fictional ‘ViewAskewniverse’ that Kevin Smith has created has struck a chord with people the World over who see themselves, in the geeky idiosyncrasies and insecurities of the main characters. Kevin Smith’s films are awash with Heroes and Sidekicks – just like the world of comic’s that Smith loves so much. Here are five of the best of them…

5. Banky Edwards & Holden McNeil

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Played by: Jason Lee and Ben Affleck

First appearance: Chasing Amy

Best moment: Narrowly pipping the ‘tracer’ argument from the opening scene, is the glorious moment when Banky finally realises that Alyssa is lesbian and the sexy song she has just sung was not for Holden but for Kim. Jason Lee’s smile paints a thousand spiteful words.

4. Bartleby & Loki

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Played by: Ben Affleck and Matt Damon

First Appearance: Dogma

Best Moment: The slaughter of the Mooby executives with Bartleby constantly undermining Loki’s ‘penchant for the dramatic’ is hilarious and well written. The fictional Mooby’s brand would go on to play a big part in the Kevin Smith universe. Not least for the next two clowns…

3. Dante Hicks & Randal Graves

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Played by: Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson

First Appearance: Clerks

Best Moment: Hard to pick just one defining moment from two movies that are basically Dante & Randal sitting around talking but the ‘home truths’ scene at the end of Clerks is surprisingly hard hitting and emotionally resonant as Randal flames Dante for blaming everything on others and telling him to ‘shit or get off the pot’.

2. Brodie Bruce & TS Quint

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Played by: Jason Lee and ‘TV’s Jeremy London’ (to quote Jason Lee from the Mallrats DVD commentary.)

First Appearance: Mallrats

Best Moment: The taking over of Mr. Svennings dogshit game show has some killer lines (‘When Jaws popped out of the water…’) but their initial entrance to the Mall where they bump into that dick from the Fashionable Male and Willam’s sailboat is Brodie and TS’ finest hour.

1. Jay & Silent Bob

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Played by: Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith

First Appearance: Clerks

Best Moment: Finally getting their own movie is obviously a wonderful achievement but in terms of the characters themselves surely (SPOILERS) buying the Quick Stop at the end of Clerks II is their crowning glory. Taking the whole franchise back to where it all started. Snoogans.

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Film Review: ABC’s of Death 2

While the first ABC’s of Death film had more disappointing segments than good ones, it did at least have a few interesting directors on board in Ben Wheatley (Kill List), Adam Wingard (You’re Next), Ti West (The Sacrament) and Jason Eisener (Hobo With A Shotgun). The most famous contributor on offer for the sequel is probably the surprising entry from one half of The Mighty Boosh, Julian Barrett – One of a number of British directors to work on the project.

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