David Crow Sep 19, 2019
The Underworld movies might be some of the strangest and most melodramatic B-action movies ever. That's a good thing.
Of all the B-movies that have grown, survived, flourished, and then declined well beyond their first installment with an unending string of preposterous sequels, none have been quite as colorful as the Underworld movies—the ones that feature Kate Beckinsale in skintight leather fighting werewolves. Despite enjoying a nigh monochrome visual scheme of blacks and pallid whites (occasionally punctuated by supernaturally tinged glowing blue eyes or spurts of scarlet liquid), the Underworld franchise has often sought to infuse a bit of prestigious highbrow blood into its B-movie veins. Quizzically, via repurposed Shakespearean conventions… but, you know, with vampires.
To be clear, from its 2003 inception Underworld has always known exactly what it was: The Matrix aesthetic of shiny black leather-numbers now adorning beautiful people who may or may not transform into gruesome monsters.
The Underworld movies might be some of the strangest and most melodramatic B-action movies ever. That's a good thing.
Of all the B-movies that have grown, survived, flourished, and then declined well beyond their first installment with an unending string of preposterous sequels, none have been quite as colorful as the Underworld movies—the ones that feature Kate Beckinsale in skintight leather fighting werewolves. Despite enjoying a nigh monochrome visual scheme of blacks and pallid whites (occasionally punctuated by supernaturally tinged glowing blue eyes or spurts of scarlet liquid), the Underworld franchise has often sought to infuse a bit of prestigious highbrow blood into its B-movie veins. Quizzically, via repurposed Shakespearean conventions… but, you know, with vampires.
To be clear, from its 2003 inception Underworld has always known exactly what it was: The Matrix aesthetic of shiny black leather-numbers now adorning beautiful people who may or may not transform into gruesome monsters.
- 1/4/2017
- Den of Geek
"Good-bye. Don't forget to feed the parrot!" shrieked Flora, who disliked this prolongation of the ceremony of saying farewell, as every civilized traveller must.
"What parrot?" they all shrieked back from the fast-receding platform, just as they were meant to do.
But it was too much trouble to reply. Flora contented herself with muttering, "Oh, any parrot, bless you all," and with a final affectionate wave of her hand to Mrs. Smiling, she drew back into the carriage and, opening a fashion journal, composed herself for the journey.
--Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm
Saying farewell to Slackerwood has been very difficult. And I do think of it as "au revoir" -- I'm still in Austin, I'm still writing, and so are many of the current Slackerwood contributors. You'll see us again.
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"What parrot?" they all shrieked back from the fast-receding platform, just as they were meant to do.
But it was too much trouble to reply. Flora contented herself with muttering, "Oh, any parrot, bless you all," and with a final affectionate wave of her hand to Mrs. Smiling, she drew back into the carriage and, opening a fashion journal, composed herself for the journey.
--Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm
Saying farewell to Slackerwood has been very difficult. And I do think of it as "au revoir" -- I'm still in Austin, I'm still writing, and so are many of the current Slackerwood contributors. You'll see us again.
read more...
- 5/28/2015
- by Jette Kernion
- Slackerwood
Danny Boyle's Isles of Wonder celebrates the British countryside and is infused with literary references – and a British Library exhibition also explores this idea of pastoral paradise
Stratford, Newham, meets Stratford-upon-Avon this July, and a line spoken by Caliban in The Tempest has emerged as the guiding spirit of Danny Boyle's Olympics opening ceremony: "Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises."
After Boyle's launch event last week, we now know that the stadium in Stratford is also to be full of cows, geese, and ducks (to say nothing of the three sheep dogs). It may say a lot about the country's anxiety for the future that the opening ceremony (or what we currently know of it) references not the white heat of digitally enabled tomorrows, but harks back to the earthly paradise of rural dreams; a vision of an eternal Britain that endures in the cycles...
Stratford, Newham, meets Stratford-upon-Avon this July, and a line spoken by Caliban in The Tempest has emerged as the guiding spirit of Danny Boyle's Olympics opening ceremony: "Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises."
After Boyle's launch event last week, we now know that the stadium in Stratford is also to be full of cows, geese, and ducks (to say nothing of the three sheep dogs). It may say a lot about the country's anxiety for the future that the opening ceremony (or what we currently know of it) references not the white heat of digitally enabled tomorrows, but harks back to the earthly paradise of rural dreams; a vision of an eternal Britain that endures in the cycles...
- 6/20/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
Had your fill of romance? Indulge in a delicious British satire about a smart city girl (Kate Beckinsale) who saves her gothic Wuthering Heights-y family (Stephen Fry, Ian McKellen, and more) with good common sense. Cold Comfort Farm Dir. John Schlesinger (1995) Sure, you could spend your Valentine's Day wallowing in the most gothic of English Romances, the likes of Thomas Hardy, D.H. Lawrence, or the Bronte sisters. (In fact, the 1996 adaptation of Hardy's Jude the Obscure, retitled Jude and featuring Kate Winslet, is now available on Hulu.) But for all those romantics out there, here's a better option: the smart and cheeky British adaptation of Stella Gibbons' comic novel Cold Comfort Farm. Made for British TV (but released theatrically in America), John Schlesiinger's (Midnight Cowboy) adaptation features an all star cast (Kate Beckinsale, Absolutely Fabulous' Joanna Lumley, Stephen Fry, Ian...
- 2/12/2010
- by Tribeca Film
- Huffington Post
Cold Comfort Farm Dir. John Schlesinger (1995) Sure, you could spend your Valentine's Day wallowing in the most gothic of English Romances, the likes of Thomas Hardy, D.H. Lawrence, or the Bronte sisters. (In fact, the 1996 adaptation of Hardy's Jude the Obscure, retitled Jude and featuring Kate Winslet, is now available on Hulu.) But for all those romantics out there, here's a better option: the smart and cheeky British adaptation of Stella Gibbons' comic novel Cold Comfort Farm. Made for British TV (but released theatrically in America), John Schlesiinger's (Midnight Cowboy) adaptation features an all star cast (Kate Beckinsale, Absolutely Fabulous' Joanna Lumley, Stephen Fry, Ian McKellen, and Eileen Atkins), doing proper tribute to this parody of the English country novel. In this film, smart city girl Flora Poste (Beckinsale, in her ingenue years), recently orphaned, moves to the country to live with her crazy relatives on Cold Comfort Farm.
- 2/12/2010
- TribecaFilm.com
It is rare for me to love a book and its film adaptation equally -- or almost equally, perhaps with a slight bias to the novel in question. I am very fond of Stella Gibbons' 1932 novel Cold Comfort Farm ... and the 1995 movie, which you can watch online for free, is very nearly as entertaining. Flora Poste, played by Kate Beckinsale, is a 1930s headstrong young woman obviously modeled on the heroines of Jane Austen, particularly Emma Woodhouse (whom Beckinsale later played in a BBC production). Flora is left nearly penniless when her parents die, and rather than live with her friend Mrs. Smiling (Joanna Lumley) in London and learn how to work for a living, decides to throw herself on the mercy of relatives. She ends up at Cold Comfort Farm in bleakest Sussex with her Starkadder cousins, and the chaotic state of their lives appalls her so much...
- 1/19/2010
- by Jette Kernion
- Cinematical
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