The Walking Dead-Count 2 – Electric Boogaloo (Season 2, Episodes 1 to 7)

Posted on by Ryan McNeely

And we’re back! You know, it seems you can have too much of a good thing. My plan to watch the complete run (to date) of The Walking Dead in a month, twice, turns out to have been a bit ambitious. Owing to a minor case of zombie fatigue, I took a break to rewatch all five seasons of Leverage. Because taking a break from one show to go watch 77 episodes of another show in two weeks is entirely normal behaviour.

So, the last time we saw Rick and the Gang, they were driving away from a (rather shoddy, let’s be honest) CG explosion that took out the CDC headquarters in Atlanta, along with Dr Jenner and Jacqui. Season 2 picks up just a couple of days later. Won’t you join me? Read More

The Walking Dead-Count: Part the First (Season 1, Episodes 1 to 6)

Posted on by Ryan McNeely

I recently had a notion to watch The Walking Dead. I saw season 1 when it first aired in the UK back in early 2011 but it didn’t really grab me – despite my fondness for zombie movies – so I never went back for more. Until a couple of weeks ago.

Long story short (you’re welcome) I watched season 2 in three days, followed immediately by season 3, then season 4 right up to the mid-season 5 finale. And now I’m totally hooked. Since season 5 isn’t back for another few weeks, I needed something to keep me busy so I had a thought. Anyone who has seen the show knows that a lot of things get killed: walkers, people, even squirrels. Hell, even people who haven’t seen the show can probably figure that much out for themselves. My thought was to enquire as to which particular character has the most blood on his or her hands. The only way to satisfy my curiosity was to go right back to the beginning, notebook in hand…

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First Look At Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD – UPDATED

Posted on by Ryan McNeely

Update – The actual promo was released online early this morning (UK time) after it’s debut appearance during last night’s episode of Once Upon A Time. It’s got some similar moments—including a clearer look at Whedon’s former Angel star J. August Richards playing someone who may or may not be (but almost certainly is) Luke Cage leaping from an exploding window, not to mention laying down the smack on some poor mook—and some new ones, as the longer running time would suggest. It also seems that the Son of Coul has been rewarded with a sweet new ride. Don’t touch Lola, indeed. Read More

5-Word Meets Katarzyna Klimkiewicz

Posted on by Ryan McNeely

In Flying Blind, the feature film debut by Polish director Katarzyna Klimkiewicz, Helen McCrory plays Frankie, a woman who has built her life around her career as a designer of military UAVs. That life threatens to come crashing down around her when she falls for a young French-Algerian engineering student whose secrets may extend to more than just his immigration status.

The movie is currently touring the UK for a series of screenings and Q&As, playing tonight (Saturday 27th) at the Filmhouse in Edinburgh and tomorrow at the Glasgow Film Theatre. I had the chance to chat with Katarzyna about the film itself, its distribution, and her plans for the future. Read More

I’m Not Dead, I’ve Been Bootlegging

Posted on by Ryan McNeely

Hello Dearest Fans and Admirers,

In case you were wondering (I’ll just assume my absence has been keeping you up nights with concern), I have not entirely given up this writing about films lark. In fact I spent last weekend at the most haunted bar in Edinburgh™, Banshee Labyrinth, diving headfirst into the Bootleg Film Festival. And then writing about it. Read More

Best Of 2012: The Beginning

Posted on by Ryan McNeely

So the supposed “few days”off turned into three weeks awfully quickly.

I sat through quite a few movies last year; probably more than in any other year of my life. I didn’t review all of them, but I must have watched about 500 films in those 366 days. A lot of sites like this do a “Best of the year” list and I’m no exception, but I thought I would do mine a little differently. First off, there are going to be two lists. The first one is for flicks that were released in 2012, followed up in a day or two by the best movies from other years that I saw for the first time in 2012. The other big difference is that I don’t really have any empirical formula for deciding which films are The Best, so these will simply be the ones that I enjoyed the most; the movies that appealed to me on an individual level.

So here we go. Read More