Archive for June 26th, 2009
Down And Dirty Pictures by Peter Biskind
Down and dirty
I’ve read and enjoyed Biskind’s earlier book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (subtitled: How The Sex-Drugs-and-Rock ‘N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood) so I was really looking forward to this on the film business in the 90s (this one is subtitled: Miramax, Sundance, And The Rise of Independent Film). Whilst Easy Riders is bursting with interesting information and stories about the great personalities of its time, unfortunately in comparison, Down and Dirty falls flat.
As the subtitle suggests the book chronicles the rise in importance of Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival and The Weinstien brothers’ Miramax films. Although it also includes by way of comparison, the downfall of October films, it has a much narrower field of view compared to the previous work with its coverage of multiple giants of industry including Scorsese, Spielberg, Lucas, Coppola, Friedkin, Altman, Fonda, Hopper, etc, etc. Down And Dirty does mention many directors and producers but perhaps, because the events are more recent, they have not yet risen so high in prominence, bar the odd exception – like Tarentino or perhaps Kevin Smith. Or may be they just had bigger personalities back then. Read the rest of this entry »
2000AD Extreme: Shako and Project Overkill
Shako!
A friend of mine sent me this old-skool comic, recently re-issued. ‘Shako’ is an old story from the early days of 2000AD featuring a polar bear going about eating people. Oh and just to complicate matters it swallowed a capsule filled with poison that the CIA lost. Why? Don’t ask silly questions. Having a Cold War twist means that Shako can not only eat Yankies but Russkies as well. And if that’s not enough it also features the best character name in the whole history of comics – Buck Dollar.
We will never see the like nowadays, mores the pity. It’s utter rubbish but, by god, it’s entertaining (especially if you put your irony goggles on).
This got me wandering if given a depth of water that gave no advantage to either party who would win in a fight between Shako and Hookjaw. I suppose it will have to remain one of those great unanswered questions. If you’ve not heard of Hookjaw go and have a look at my Action article.
There’s also the story ‘Project Overkill’ in this compilation. But as this makes literately no sense whatsoever I’ll leave it at that.
