Back soon (I hope)

In case you're wondering why I'm not writing about the inhuman number of films I just watched at the EIFF, it's because my computer is currently out of action. Normal service will, I hope, be resumed shortly.

(And a message just for MJP - no idea why my email address isn't working. I'll try to send you something once my computer is sorted, since I can't remember what your email address is)

It's all gone a bit quiet

It's that time of the year again - the Edinburgh festivals (the Fringe in particular) have started and I've been spending too much time there, hence the absence of film-related chat here recently.

Between the festivals and various other stuff that I've had to do, I've hardly even seen any films recently. In fact, here's my recent film viewing in its entirety.

ROBOTECH: THE SHADOW CHRONICLES is a flashy anime sci-fi movie that boasts some impressive visuals and a lot of things blowing up but very little else. This was paired with FULL METAL ALCHEMIST: THE MOVIE, which again offers some neat visuals but its storyline involving parallel universes, dragons, war, magic and a whole load of other things besides is a garbled mess.

WHITE FANG is a kids' film made in Italy in the 1970s - imagine LASSIE, but with a wolf. I watched it because of my interest in Eurocult cinema and Lucio Fulci in particular, but this isn't one of his best. It's got a good cast (you can't go totally wrong with Franco Nero) and it's quite dark for a kiddie film, but the version I saw was the English dubbed version. I'm used to bad dubbing by now, but this one is among the worst, thus causing a great deal of the more serious aspects of the film to suddenly become quite daft.

I also saw, for the first time, a minor 70s gangster film entitled THE GODFATHER. A lot of you probably aren't familiar with it, but it's got some decent acting by one or two okay actors, a reasonable story, and it's an okay way to pass a couple of hours. Yes, I'm being sarcastic, it's an amazing film and I can't believe it's taken me this long to see it. Maybe I'll get round to watching Part II sometime.

And that's it.

I'll not bother giving you any reviews of what I've seen, but if you want some tips, then I recommend The Black Seeds (if you fancy some music), Reginald D Hunter, Richard Herring, Mark Watson and Aeneas Faversham Returns (if you fancy some comedy) and theatre is your bag, then you won't get better than This Piece of Earth, a romance set against the backdrop of the Irish famine, possible the best piece of theatre I've ever seen, and impeccable acted by its two-player cast.

Of course, the Edinburgh International Film Festival starts next week too, so I guess that'll give me plenty of films to write about. Assuming I actually have time in between watching them all. In the meantime, it'll probably still be quite quiet here.