Home

  • Schizopolitan – The Podcast: Episode 9 – Into The Woods, Big Hero 6, The Ghostbusters Reboot, and Superhero TV

    IT’S BACK! The greatest podcast in the entire history of the universe (*citation needed) returns with its ninth episode of genial insanity! This time around, Saxon and Jehan tackle a wide variety of subjects, from fairy-tale musical Into the Woods and Disney animation Big Hero 6 to the casting announcement for the new all-female Ghostbusters reboot, along with new trailers for Fantastic Four and Ant-Man, before getting stuck into a full-on analysis of the current state of Superhero TV! Agent Carter! Agents of SHIELD! The Flash! Gotham’s continuing tonal insanity! It’s all here for your enjoyment and delectation!

    This week’s contents:
    00:00:00 – 00:13:00 – Into the Woods
    00:13:00 – 00:22:30 – Big Hero 6
    00:22:30 – 00:37:09 – Ghostbusters
    00:37:09 – 00:49:30 – Fantastic Four (and Ant-Man)
    00:49:30 – 01:37:48 – The Big Superhero TV Round-Up

    Enjoy the podcast (please let us know in the comments if you do), and stay tuned for more episodes soon! And remember – you can now subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! Share and Enjoy!

    (The opening and closing music on the podcast is ‘Ouroboros’ by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

  • Schizopolitan – The Podcast: Episode 8 – The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

    It returns! The Schizopolitan podcast roars into 2015 with a fresh episode, in which Saxon and Jehan take on The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies! Not only do they examine the latest Peter Jackson film in detail, they also us it to look back on the whole experience of Middle-Earth on film, and all the interestingly weird ways in which the Hobbit Trilogy hasn’t worked out as planned. Action! Bloat! Sexy Dwarves! Plus, a Comic Recommendation for the current (and spectacular) Image Humble Comics Bundle, an offer which runs until January 21st 2015!

    Enjoy the podcast (please let us know in the comments if you do), and stay tuned for more episodes soon! And remember – you can now subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! Share and Enjoy!

    (The opening and closing music on the podcast is ‘Ouroboros’ by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

    , , , ,

  • RE: VIEW – Tron Legacy, The Grand Budapest Hotel

    Films recently watched:

    TRON: LEGACY


    Shiny. So shiny. ALL THE SHINY. I hadn’t watched Tron: Legacy since seeing it in IMAX in 2010, and it’s still a fantastically odd film – a megabudget sequel to an oddball 1982 example of style over substance that was a cult favourite and a style classic but never what could objectively be described as good. Here, we get shininess, epic vistas, gigantic amounts of visual style, and an hilariously creaky screenplay – plus, it’s also a fantastic argument for getting a Blu-Ray player and a decent soundsystem so that Daft Punk’s epic soundtrack can DESTROY you with its bass. There’s a good film trying to make itself heard inside Tron: Legacy, but it’d take a better director than Joseph Kosinski to make it happen. The Arena/Light Cycles sequence remains a highlight, and Jeff Bridges’ creepy digital younger self remains a brave but failed experiment that latter-day films have mostly steered clear of. Odd to view it in context as Disney’s attempt at doing an Avatar (which had hit only a year previously), and that Hollywood is no longer quite so desperate to sell us on 3-D as it once was.

    THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL


    Wes Anderson films often don’t agree with me (I can remember being frustrated and confounded by Rushmore, while others adored it) but this weird and melancholy confection is just about stylised and crazy enough to win me over. Presented inside a nested set of stories (with different aspect ratios), it’s an oddball 1930s European caper that gradually unveils a darker, more violent edge, before delivering a tragic finale in its last minutes. As always, it features an incredible cast (Ralph Fiennes is a particular urbane highlight), it’s production-designed within an inch of its life and so studied and kooky that it may make less open-minded viewers want to scream, but it’s also a gloriously odd exercise in moviemaking that plays as if Anderson had watched the stranger films of the Coen Brothers and declared “Not odd enough!”, thus pushing into territory that’s sometimes similar to fellow cinematic arch-kook Guy Maddin. I may not always adore his work, but I’m glad that Wes Anderson is still out there, making these kind of individual, quirky, love-them-or-hate-them films.

    , ,

  • Schizopolitan – The Podcast: Episode 7 – Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Jurassic World, Terminator: Genisys and The Wicked + The Divine…

    It returns! Once more, Saxon and Jehan hurl themselves into the heart of the pop culture maelstrom to discuss the latest SF/Fantasy pop culture happenings! This time, it’s a trailer special as they take on the recent burst of movie trailers for films upcoming in 2015 – along with an in-depth (and pretty much unavoidable) discussion of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens teaser, they also talk Insurgent, Mad Max: Fury Road, Jurassic World, Terminator: Genisys, and much more! (Rewatch the relevant trailers above, to get you in the podcast-listening mood!)

    Plus, there’s the Comic of the Podcast, which this time is The Wicked + The Divine by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, which you can buy digitally here on Comixology.

    Enjoy the podcast (please let us know in the comments if you do), and stay tuned for more episodes soon! And remember – you can now subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! Share and Enjoy!

    (The opening and closing music on the podcast is ‘Ouroboros’ by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

  • Schizopolitan – The Podcast: Episode 6 – Pax Americana, Doctor Who and Marvel’s Phase Three movies…

    IT RETURNS! The podcast that EVERYBODY is talking about (well, everybody worth knowing) returns with another sense-defying episode to expand your horizons, transform your life and make you a better, sexier person. This episode, Saxon and Jehan take on a wide variety of subjects as they look at the recently concluded Season 8 of Doctor Who and also tackle the upcoming Phase 3 of Marvel films, sorting out who’s who, what’s what, and the kind of blockbuster madness that we can look forward to – while also finding time for a look at the more worrying movie developments with Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four…

    Additionally, starting this podcast, we’re recommending a comic an episode – this time it’s The Multiversity: Pax Americana by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, and you can buy a digital copy of it here at Comixology.

    Enjoy the podcast (please let us know in the comments if you do), and stay tuned for more episodes soon! And remember – you can now subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! SHare and Enjoy!

    (The opening and closing music on the podcast is ‘Ouroboros’ by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

    , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

  • Schizopolitan – The Podcast: Episode 5 – The Mad Max Trilogy Retro Special

    It returns! The Schizopolitan podcast rides again, and this time Jehan and Saxon have cranked up their V8 Interceptor and blasted out of the Wastelands with a bunch of fetish-clad bikers on their tail, all so they can bring you a detailed examination of the Mad Max trilogy, the three post-apocalyptic cult classic movies that gave us a uniquely bonkers view of the end of the world. Cars! Bikes! Trucks! Mel Gibson! Assless chaps! MORE ACTION THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY HANDLE! (With a few added technical snafus…)

    Enjoy the podcast (please let us know in the comments if you do), and stay tuned for more episodes soon! And remember – you can now subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! SHare and Enjoy!

    (The opening and closing music on the podcast is ‘Ouroboros’ by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

  • News: The Sci-Fi Chronicles (or: Blimey, I’m In a Proper Book that’s ACTUALLY IN SHOPS…)

    There is a book in bookshops that has words written by me in it (alongside words written by lots of other people). It exists. It’s in the world. And here it is, in the wilds of Waterstones:

    The Sci-Fi Chronicles

    I got asked to work on this last year by Guy Haley (one-time reviews editor of SFX who gave me my first break on the mag), as he was editing this massive book on SF and needed contributors. The Sci-Fi Chronicles was released at the start of this month – it’s a big, picture-heavy reference book featuring tons of infographics, timelines and articles on a whole variety of SF, from books and short stories to TV, films and animation.

    I’m responsible for fifteen of the articles – I wrote about Battlestar Galactica, The War of the Worlds, John Carter, Christopher Nolan, George Lucas, Independence Day, the Riddick movies, The Thing, Predator, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Philip K. Dick, Doom, Batman, Cordwainer Smith and Flash Gordon. (The ones on the list that I’m most proud of are the Cordwainer Smith piece, the Philip K. Dick profile, and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen article, where I got to do a fictional timeline of the League’s world that was so much fun to write. Flash Gordon, on the other hand, almost broke my brain, as doing a timeline of the original Flash Gordon comic book was more difficult than I ever would have dreamed…)

    It’s come out looking very nice indeed, and it’s great to know that there’s a book like this out there that has my words in it. Okay, it isn’t a novel yet, and my words only make up a small percentage of the total word count, but it’s a START, dammit…

    IMG_0603

    IMG_0604

    , , , ,

  • Podcast-a-Go-Go

    Quick update time – so quick, if you blink you may miss it. The Schizopolitan podcast may have undergone an accidental six-week hiatus, but it’s back, and online with its fourth spectacular episode, in which my friend Jehan and I engage in wild speculation about the recently announced slate of DC superhero movies coming in the next six years, and what DC’s chances are of getting anywhere near matching Marvel. You can listen to the podcast at the link above, and we’re also now on iTunes, so you can catch up on previous episodes there, and subscribe (the new episode will be arriving there in the next forty-eight hours). We’re having a lot of fun doing these, and more episodes should be arriving soon!

    ,

  • Schizopolitan: The Podcast – Episode 4 – The DC/Marvel Superhero Movie Smackdown

    It’s back! The Schizopolitan podcast returns, and this time Jehan and Saxon tackle the thorny subject of the newly released DC movie slate! A slew of release dates have been revealed for movies in the DC shared universe (which will be properly kicking off in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice) stretching through till 2020. But what does this mean? What properties have been chosen, and why? Will DC stand any chance of matching Marvel’s success? And will any of what Jehan and Saxon say result in Aquaman actor Jason Momoa wanting to punch them? Listen to the podcast to find out the answer to these questions, and many more!

    Also, Lego movies! Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them! Rumblings in the world of Marvel! And does Sony really not have the faintest idea what they’re doing with Spider-man?

    Enjoy the podcast (please let us know in the comments if you do), and stay tuned for more episodes soon! And remember – you can now subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! Follow this link to subscribe – the first three episodes are already available, and this latest one should be up there in the next 48 hours…

    (The opening and closing music on the podcast is ‘Ouroboros’ by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

    , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

  • Schizopolitan: The Podcast – Episode 3 – Doctor Who, Gotham and Star Wars: Rebels

    Schizopolitan lives! After a hiatus longer than we wanted, Jehan and I have finally succeeded in recording another episode of joyful rambling about film, television, comics and everything else that takes our fancy. This week, I do a brisk half-time report on Season 8 of Doctor Who, looking at how Peter Capaldi is shaping up as the new Doctor, and then we’re on to tackling two new US TV shows. First up is Gotham, the new series that’s using a traditional cop-show format to do a massive prequel story for the Batman mythos, giving us a sprawling origin not only of Batman and stand-up cop Jim Gordon, but also virtually every villain you can think of. We look at the first two episodes of Gotham – its highs, its lows, and its tonal weirdness – while the other show we look at is Star Wars: Rebels, the entertaining new CGI animation that’s also the first onscreen Star Wars material released since George Lucas sold the franchise to Disney, and an interesting sign of what’s to come…

    Enjoy the podcast (please let us know in the comments if you do), and stay tuned for more episodes and less lengthy hiatuses! And please remember – you can now subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! Follow this link to subscribe – the first two episodes are already available, and episode 3 should be up there within the next couple of days…

    (The opening and closing music on the podcast is ‘Ouroboros’ by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

    , , , , , , , , , , , , ,