To celebrate Views from the Sofa completing its first year, I am presenting the first annual Views from the Sofa awards. These awards aren’t the usual look back over the films, actors and directors of 2012 but instead a look … Continue reading Views from the Sofa Awards
Always watch the first two episodes of any new television series before you decide to stop watching. It’s a simple rule but its one that I always use when I’ve found a new television series. There is a basic reason behind this. Every now and again, a tv show will have a brilliant pilot episode. Lost, Heroes, Prison Break and Flashforward are all good examples of television shows with fantastic pilots. The pilots grabbed your attention, they had huge budgets that meant that they could amaze an audience and pull them in before actually establishing the main themes/format of the series. … Continue reading My Rule of Two for Television
You may have noticed its been a while since I’ve posted anything. You may not have… which is fine too. This is just a courtesy heads-up that I’ve been unexpectedly busy so haven’t had chance to update the blog like I usually would. I am going to give it another week and then get back on here properly. So if you are usually hanging on my every word, don’t fret, I’ll be back soon! Continue reading Just a little break….
Channel Four’s recent “Funny Fortnight” was pretty hit and miss to say the least. For people who may have missed it or may not be familiar with Channel Four, it is a UK channel which celebrated 25 years by revisiting their “greatest hits of comedy.” As well as showing the best of their past series, they also aired pilots for new comedy series, in an attempt to gain interest or an audience, hopeful for a new series. I really enjoyed the fortnight for this reason. I liked the idea of getting a small taste of a show and then voting with … Continue reading Should the UK have a TV Pilot’s season?
I loved Batman: Year One and a big part of that was because I knew the comic so well and they had done such a good job of transferring the story to the animated film. It did leave me wanting more though and I led in bed last night wondering what other Batman comics would work as animated films… and here we are. The Long Halloween/Dark Victory Like I mentioned in my Year One review, in a perfect world, they would continue the Batman comic book adaptations as a fully fledged, animated series and Jeph Loeb’s stories would be the … Continue reading Batman stories that should be remade into animated films.
It was the Fifth of January when I first started Views from the Sofa. It was on recommendation from a friend who said that I should start reviewing the ridiculous amounts of films I watch rather than bother people with one sentence summaries on Facebook and Twitter. Since then I have been steadily reviewing every single film I’ve watched, as well as dipping a toe in the waters of opinions and lists that are quite common for movie blogs too. I’m addicted now though! I have began viewing other people’s blogs, mostly movies but a few others too and they are much … Continue reading Views from the Sofa is Changing and Expanding!
Film fans don’t pay enough attention to who devised the initial story or wrote the screenplay. When it comes to films we care more about the director and actors but never really pay attention to who wrote the words and story they are using. Some writers have managed to buck this trend, Aaron Sorkin, Joss Whedon and Kevin Smith being some exceptions but we never really pay as much attention to the screenwriter in the way we do for television or comics. I’m as guilty of this as anyone else. I can tell you who wrote specific episodes of Doctor … Continue reading Why film fans should pay attention to what Mark Millar is doing
Peas, cards that mark occasions (birthdays, anniversaries etc), Daniel Bedingfield, Liverpool Football Club and Unnecessary Sequels – I hate them all! Before I can go any further, I need to clarify what an unnecessary sequel is. In my opinion, an unnecessary sequel is any sequel to a film that is originally self-contained with a story that is finished. Usually the film is much more story or event-driven than character driven so superhero films and horror films don’t have unnecessary sequels but an event-driven film like Speed does! These sequels are usually straight to DVD rubbish that is clearly some studio executive seeing the popularity of … Continue reading Stop making unnecessary sequels!
Die Hard, Indiana Jones and Toy Story, three pretty perfect trilogies. In my opinion there isn’t one film in any of these series that has a huge, detrimental effect on the others. This is because every single one of those films is a single story, not trying to carry over any plot-threads, unanswered questions or huge story arcs from any previous film and what’s more, the first film didn’t try to set up the sequels before it had even finished! This has been a ridiculous trend in films that I don’t think ever really works. Recently I watched the worst possible case … Continue reading Don’t use two films to tell a story when one will do!
As much as I loved Avengers Assemble (my review was ridiculously positive) I left the cinema with one nagging question… what next? Whedon and Marvel did the best thing they could, making this Avengers film as if it was stand-alone, their last effort, the only one. They gave the fans everything they would want to see from an Avengers film, in particular the hero vs hero and the perfectly pitched comedy! The only problem is, where do you go next? What story do you tell that warrants the Avengers Assembling one more time? Furthermore, what story do you tell that ties together all the … Continue reading My idea for the inevitable Avengers sequel.
Distinct Chatter 