DVD Review - Red Dwarf: The Bodysnatcher Collection

Overview:

The Bodysnatcher Collection is considered to be the final catch all release of Red Dwarf on DVD, carrying both the remastered three seasons and some important extras that were never made when the main season releases were being produced or were considered lost to time and rights issues, some possibly for good.

Before I delve into what I consider to be the highlights of this release, I'm going to talk about the remastered episodes and frankly, they're a complete load of Smeg and not worth your time, the only reasons they were done to begin with was so that the show could be bought in markets like Japan and to try and secure funding for the doomed feature film project.

But why do I smegging hate the remastered episodes, well its simple really: The alterations, the changes made to the original episodes kill the feel of them and alter a lot of the original timing to the point that it no longer feels like the show its trying to remaster to begin with.

But the irony of this project is twofold: first, it's highly unlikely that without these episodes I wouldn't have become the Red Dwarf fan I am today as those were the episodes UKTV aired on New Year's Eve 2001/2002 and the second I will now begin to talk about in more detail.

Disc 1 - Bodysnatcher:

Disc 1 of this 4 disc set contains 4 items but they're very significant ones and each deserves attention so let's get smegging to it.

Bodysnatcher - The Lost Episode: This was the very first episode written for the series by Rob and Doug all those years ago and it was the one that also never got made due to not having an ending to it and most likely being too expensive to produce given some of the scenes described in the story.

This is presented as a storyboard version with all the vocals done by Arnold "Smeghead" Rimmer himself Chris Barrie, Barrie was an impressionist before getting the part of Rimmer on the show and his impersonations are for the most part very good, his impression of Craig Charles is spot on the money as is his impression of Norman Lovett but he doesn't quite get Danny John Jules right as it lacks the manic energy he brought to the part but then again no one else can play that part so I won't hold it against Chris at all.

The script also has some lines that later made their way into future episodes such as the "Lemming Sunday" segment and the finale of Rimmer in full dress uniform, there is also a full length audio version of this story with a lot of the trims made for the storyboard version restored.

But the other main audio option is a new audio commentary track by Rob and Doug themselves, yes at long last Rob and Doug are reunited and boy does it feel so good, there's no hint of any animosity between the two of them and they rattle off stories like old pro's, this track is an absolute delight and it's just wonderful to see Rob back in the fold if only temporarily.

"The Beginning" Documentary on the making of Series 1: Done in the style of the other making of doco's on the later seasons of the show, The Beginning is simply a terrific watch with almost every key player involved interviewed to tell their side of the tale.

And speaking of Rob Grant, he finally appears in a making of doco on a series of Red Dwarf and it's such a joy to see him here as well telling his side of how this first season went through the trials and tribulations of getting made.

There are a number of great stories to be told in this doco such as the original actress who played Kochanski (Alexandra Pegg who was in Letter to Brezhnev and a Liverpudlian like Craig), the technician's strike that very nearly killed the series and caused Pegg to be unavailable when production recommenced, a look at each of the 6 episodes and the various stories regarding Producer Paul Jackson.

The Beginning is a really nice doco and I was very glad to see that one was made for the first season of the series but if I have a complaint and trust me it's a VERY minor one it's that I wish it had gone for another 10-15 minutes and included an interview with Peter Risdale Scott, the then Commissioning Editor at BBC Manchester who pretty much got the show made plus Chris does an impression of him when he's Brannigan the ship's psychiatrist in Queeg, still this is a minor complaint as it's a great doco.

"It's Cold Outside" Documentary on the Making of Series 2: But if one was good, then two must surely be great and like The Beginning, It's Cold Outside looks at the making of the second series of the show.

Again nearly all the major players are there telling their production stories regarding location shooting, a look at each of the 6 episodes, Norman Lovett leaving at the end of the season and the originally planned opening episode for Season 3 to be titled "Dad" and why it was never made.

It's Cold Outside like the Beginning is a great doco on the making of the second series and I am really happy that one was made for both seasons as having gone through the other doco's on the later season sets, it felt like a real shame to me that one was never done for the first two series, happily that happened and both were more than worth the wait.

Another thing that both of these doco's made me think about was just how important Rob Grant was to the success of the show, he seemed to have a real feeling for the characters and the comedy and those elements went missing when he left though happily the new season RDX recaptured it the best and I am very grateful for that.

The End - The Original Assembly: This is the original cut of the pilot episode from 1987, containing material that appeared on the deleted scenes of the 1st Season DVD as well as new material never seen until now.

To be frank I felt this was horrible, there were very few laughs, Craig and Chris were still finding their feet and the audience just didn't know how to respond to what they were watching and I can't blame them as a lot of the scenes fall flat on their face, thankfully a large chunk of this show was reshot and became the good opener we know it as today.

Rob and Doug also provide a commentary track for this rough version of the pilot and even they seem to feel uncomfortable with this initial footage, still they provide a great track and RD fans shouldn't miss it.

From there you get the other three discs containing the remastered episodes as well as some more neat extras which I'll go into now.

On the first disc you find the remastered Season 1 episodes but you also find this cool extra:

Still Galleries: Here are 4 still galleries which cover both the original making of the episodes and the remastered effects work, the first three are a real treat as they cover rehearsals (some of which were done by Chris Barrie), the Behind the Scenes production and Snapshots, galleries were done for the latter two on the later seasons of this show and it was a real treat to see that happen for the first two seasons.

On the second disc you find the remastered Season 2 episodes and has the bulk of the extras that I liked on it:

Deleted Scenes: Two previously unreleased deleted scenes are found here, the first is an alternate version of the Golf Course scene in Better Than Life where Lister and the Cat are sitting on a beach, the real beach it was shot on however was freezing Cold and its shown on the faces of Craig and Danny in the scene, thankfully the right decision was made to reshoot it.

The other one however is a real gem and comes from the episode Bodyswap and concerned Robert Llewelyn's first day on the show as Kryten and believed to be lost to the ages until this set was being made.

The scene is an extended version of Rimmer inside Lister's body in the sauna reading the magazine and Kryten bringing him another feast and lighting candles with his fingertips.

And now I come to my big bug bear with this scene and that is Bobby's voice, when I first heard it I thought "AAAARRRRGGHHHH this accent is Horrible, Bobby" and that it sounded like a really really really bad impression of C-3PO from Star Wars, I love Kryten and I love what Robert did with that role but thank Smeg he changed that voice, it would've been unbearable for an entire season, the scene as a whole however I am glad to see was cut.

Tongue Tied Archive: This archive concerns the song that opens the Season 2 finale Parallel Universe and has two items in it.

The first is the initial version of the song from Rob and Doug's old radio show Son of Cliche and its perfectly fine to hear but I don't think many will listen to it more than once.

The real treat however is Howard Goodall's demo for the full song, it has more of a 1960's feel to it and I really love it as much as the final full length version made for the show but cut down to fit the episode running time, this was well worth checking out.

Over on the third disc you find the remastered Season 3 episodes and this one final treat worth talking about:

Dad - The Lost Episode: This episode was originally intended to open the third season of the show and address the changes from Season 2 to Season 3 such as Lister being pregnant, the changing look of the ship, Kryten coming onboard and the change in appearance of Holly.

However Rob and Doug couldn't construct a script to their satisfaction and scrapped it, instead putting it all on a crawl at the beginning of Backwards.

Rob and Doug also provide a commentary for this extract but their comments were made better I thought on the "It's Cold Outside" doco which talked about the plans for this episode, still a Rob and Doug commentary track is something I won't complain about at all.

The Verdict:

The Red Dwarf Bodysnatcher Collection is a very nice companion piece to the main season releases but it also made me wish that some of this material had been on the season sets, especially the stuff for the first two seasons as their releases were kind of weak and suffer in comparison when compared with the releases of the later seasons where it was clear that they had a much bigger budget to produce them the way they were made.

The diehard Dwarf fans however will love it and especially love the presence of Rob Grant in the extras and his commentary tracks with Doug, just wonderful stuff that made me wish somewhat that the two would reunite to write one last season together but alas that will never happen but still it was just great to see him talking about his time on Dwarf somewhat and it reinforced just how important he was to the overall success of the show and why it's held up as long as it has.

Film Review - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

The Hobbit is director Peter Jackson's long awaited prequel to his Lord of the Rings trilogy and like those films is based on the book by Professor JRR Tolkien, this story sees Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) who never went for an adventure, but an invitation from Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) may see him go on the adventure of a lifetime.

I went into the Hobbit with a mixed sense of expectations, having read the book about a decade ago and knowing that it would be nothing like the Rings book at all and that it was much more of a children's tale, so could Jackson restrain himself for this time around?

Well, yes and no would answer that question and there is certainly a lot here that I really liked, the performances by Freeman and Richard Armitage, Howard Shore's majestic and beautiful score, the visual effects work, the cinematography and the humorous script which for me nicely reflected the chid like tone of the book as did the moments of the Riddle Game and the "Misty Mountains Cold" both of which I thought were beautifully made and the highlights of the movie.

But yet for all of this, it did become a bit too much after a while of endless shots of cameras swooping around the beautiful NZ countryside and armies of Goblins enveloping the Dwarves and giant Trolls threatening to swallow them whole with spicy seasoning, I have to admit that I got a bit bored with that as I did with the finales to both the Dark Knight Rises and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Despite that though, I did enjoy the Hobbit and found it a lot more fun than I thought I would but if you aren't a fan of the fantasy genre or the previous Lord of the Rings movies then there is little here that will sway that opinion, 3 out of 5.

2012 At the Movies Part 1

And thus it was, at each December of each year, the writers wrote "Lo I shall look back, look back upon the many red seats of comfort, the many boxes of popcorn, the gallons of sugary drinks and Lo, the various images of excitement, tension, drama and visual splendor we call the movies."

Yes, another film year has come to an end and with that, the time has come to cast our minds back to the highs, the lows and the disappointments of 2012 on cinema screens.

But before I do that I'm going to look back on my own cinema going year as a whole and spot the good and bad trends that for me defined the year at the movies.

So some of you are surely thinking "How did you find the year as a whole?" well to answer that one I shall quote from A Tale of Two Cities which for me defined it:

"It was the Best of Times, It was the Worst of Times"

The quote goes into two separate parts, the first of which was the Best of times and that was having more access to new release movies than arguably at anytime of my life, it was rare for me to go to the movies as a kid and for the most part I waited until Video before seeing a big film like Jurassic Park to name as an example, this was no doubt helped by the major refit my local cinema got early in the year which made for a much better experience than before and for me, more chances to go to the cinema to see films.

I was also able to do some travelling to see films like The Dark Knight Rises and Argo to name as examples and that is certainly fun to do plus take in 2nd showings of films like the Avengers as I'd really enjoyed it the first time around and it was a chance to take in another showing before it left cinemas.

But sadly this would be short lived as my local cinema would again close its doors in early November, this time probably for good as it was the 2nd time it had close in 18 months, what made this feel worse was that the new James Bond film Skyfall was so close to release as well as a big roster of Boxing Day releases like the Hobbit, Wreck-It-Ralph and Les Miserables, but in small areas it's hard to build a dedicated base of film followers nor can people be made to go to the cinemas these days with downloads becoming so popular.

That said, it was still a sad occurrence for me as I had begun to be convinced that once it got a digital projector then prints would be easier to book and everything would turn around but alas it wasn't to be and I couldn't help but ask myself "Why Me, what have I done to deserve this?" and hence the quote from Tale of Two Cities.

But as for the movies overall, I thought it was a good year but not a great one with many that I saw this year leaving me with that feeling when they were over, that they were perfectly fine, entertaining and enjoyable but in the end I can't say that I found them memorable enough to be a highlight of my year, films like Prometheus, the Grey and the Raid are prime examples of this for me.

With that out of the way, I'll now have a look at the trends that defined the year of movies for me.

Good Trend:

The wealth of Genre films: This year brought about an incredible wealth of genre films to cinemas and disc, films like The Avengers, The Raid, Cabin in the Woods, The Dark Knight Rises, Looper, Skyfall and the Hobbit to name as examples and almost all of those mentioned were well received and will probably live on in people's minds much like a lot of the genre films released in 1982 have.

Bad Trend:

Animated Movies: Seriously, what the Smeg happened this year in the animated movies department, almost all of the major ones released landed with a thud, even Pixar's highly anticipated Brave failed to recapture the spark the studio had for so long nor did it do much to quell the questions audiences had about them after last year's Cars 2 left a lot of its fan base cold.

Sadly that tradition continued this year with many animated movies failing to turn the tide around, if only Transformers Fall of Cybertron had been an animated movie instead of a game as I have no doubt that that would've turned things around and given Transformers fans the film they properly deserve after Bay's train wreck of a trilogy.

And thus ends Part 1 of my look back at 2012, keep watching after this break for Part 2 of my look back where I talk about my 3 best, worst and disappointing movies of the year, what will make the list well you'll have to wait to find out.

Film Review - Extreme Prejudice (1987)

Extreme Prejudice is directed by Walter Hill (48 Hours, Red Heat) and stars Nick Nolte as Texas Ranger Jack Benteen who is investigating a series of drug operations near the US/Mexican border and run by his old friend Cash Bailey (Powers Boothe) but amidst all this lies a phantom army led by Michael Ironside and when these three meet in the desert sands there might be a killin.

Extreme Prejudice is a terrific action picture and is sharply directed by Hill who nicely blends the modern day feeling of action with the desert sands of the western in terms of the Texas style hats, the use of rifles by the rangers and the small town setting of much of the film's plot.

But the praise doesn't end with Hill's direction, it also extends to the cast, Nolte is one good form here and this marks one of the rare occasions where I've enjoyed him in a movie the same with Maria Conchita Alonso who like Nolte I've found to be very hit and miss in films but here she delivered the goods in her small role plus there's a good small role by Rip Torn as a fellow sheriff.

I also really liked Ironside and Clancy Brown in their roles and I really loved Powers Boothe as the villain, a good villain can lift an action film for me and a bad one can kill it stone dead but Boothe plays a solid one here and the scenes between him and Nolte are a real highlight of the movie and help to give it a grounding that other action films sometimes don't have.

So all in all, Extreme Prejudice is a great blend of action and western and has sharp direction and great performance all around, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Wreck It Ralph (2012)

Wreck-It Ralph is the latest animation from Walt Disney Studios and stars John C. Reilly as Ralph, the bad guy in his arcade game "Fix-It Felix Jr." But Ralph has had enough of being the bad guy and wants to do good no matter the cost.

I went into Wreck-It Ralph with a sense of optimism as the trailers had made the film look promising and the last couple of years have been very average for animated movies, can this be the film that turns that tide?

Well sadly, it is not but by no means do I think that it's a terrible film at all, it's just one that I am of two halves of, first off I'll start with the positives and that is pretty much the entire first half of the film, it was exciting, it had some great gags and it had a neat feeling to it that made it feel fresh.

But there are two halves to this movie and the 2nd was where the film really let it itself down for me as for most of that time you are in a game world that for me was very off putting visually as well as the central character named Vanellope voiced by Sarah Silverman being really bratty and obnoxious to the point where she really started to annoy me with her whiny voice that for me I found hard to put up with after a while.

Despite that though, the third act climax had some excitement to it and Jane Lynch from Glee was very good in her role as a tough sergeant from another arcade game.

And lastly there is a short before the feature called "Paperman" a silent black and white short which I found to be really charming and quite cute, I would also say that I enjoyed it more than I did the film that followed it and it was a nice surprise I didn't know about heading into the movie.

So all in all, Wreck-It Ralph is okay but overall I found it to be nothing special either, still I think families will enjoy it (and the families I saw it with were very quiet during the film) and it will do well with that crowd over the holidays, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Frantic (1988)

Frantic is directed by Roman Polanski and stars Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Walker who along with his wife have arrived in Paris for a medical conference but one night after coming out of the shower he finds his wife is missing, in a city where he can't speak French and could've very well vanished into thin air.

Frantic is a thriller that I found to be really enjoyable and the main reason for that is the central performance by Ford, he has always had a real sense of genuine empathy and likeability on screen and that quality is used to full advantage by Polanski as he gets more and more panicky as his time in Paris goes on and finds that not only can he not get much help from the authorities but also the consulate who say "This is their jurisdiction."

This leads me to my next point that I liked so much about the film, the fact that Ford's character is not a heroic character, he's just a regular man caught up in a place that he doesn't understand with the worst possible situation thrown towards him, it was this fact that made the film very believable for me.

I also liked the performances by John Mahoney and Emmanuelle Siegner, both of them help to anchor the film and you don't get bored when they appear on screen.

So all in all, Frantic is a well made thriller with a great central performance by Ford and is well worth checking out, 3 and a half out of 5.

A Look Back at Red Dwarf X

Red Dwarf X is the tenth season of the cult British TV Series and again sees the Boys from the Dwarf Lister (Craig Charles), Rimmer (Chris Barrie), Kryten (Robert Llewelyn) and the Cat (Danny John-Jules) still on Red Dwarf coming across all sorts of Smeg as they travel across the Galaxy.

It has to be said that after the rather atrocious TV Special "Back to Earth" part of me felt "Never Again" when it came to new episodes of Red Dwarf as Back to Earth was the worst the series had ever been, the jokes fell flat, the story was confusing, the cast were showing their age and there was a cynical attempt to tie it into one of the show's best episodes "Back to Reality."

But still I decided to watch the new season regardless and see if the Boys could regain their spark once more.

The first episode "Trojan" certainly went a long way to doing just that, the whole episode for me was a real delight as it felt like a return to the good old days again when Rob Grant co-wrote the show with Doug Naylor before his departure at the end of Season 6, the 4 characters felt like the characters, there were some good jokes and the show had some real energy to it, in short this was vintage Rob and Doug Dwarf back with a vengeance and it stands as one of my overall favourite episodes of the entire series.

The next episode "Fathers and Sons" focused more on Lister trying to be a better dad to himself with some very funny results and that scene stands as a real highlight of the overall season and really shows off how good Craig has become in the role and how his acting has matured over the years, no doubt helped by his time on Coronation Street, the episode as a whole isn't quite as good as "Trojan" and relies a little too much on Vending Machines for humour but still it was a nice episode.

Sadly, that compliment I can't extend to the third episode of this new season called "Lemons" where the crew go back in time and encounter Jesus or so they think, sadly this episode made me a little sad as "Trojan" really restored my faith in Dwarf to really deliver good episodes again whereas "Lemons" felt like the bad old days all over again, very little humour, flat premise and lagging pace that made this one the weakest of the entire series.

The fourth episode titled "Entangled" was a nice return to form with Lister getting up to mischief outside the ship and needing to set it right, after the disaster of "Lemons" I wasn't expecting a lot from this episode but this had some of the zing back from the first two episodes but still I felt that it didn't live up to the heights of "Trojan."

The fifth episode titled "Dear Dave" again focused on Lister and again relied too much on Vending Machines to generate laughs, I can't say I enjoyed this episode as much as I did "Fathers and Sons" and I wish that this episode had instead focused on Kryten as I really love what Robert Llewelyn has done with the character and to not see him get an episode with him as the focus is a sad shame, still I found this to be an okay episode, not great but not entirely terrible either.

But if the last two episodes were a bit on the iffy side, the season finale "The Beginning" would put things back on track after the promise of the first two episodes, there were some good jokes, great character moments and some very good special effects, the slime well and truly came home in this episode and it left the season on a high note.

So that was the individual episodes but some of you are no doubt thinking "How was the Season as a whole?" and I am very happy to say that despite some bumps in the road, this is quite easily the best the show has been since the Rob Grant years as the characters and comedy feel like they're centre stage rather than the Sci-Fi angle which Doug was always better at than Rob who had a feeling for the characters and the comedy.

And so in closing, I look to the future of the Boys from the Dwarf with a sense of optimism, this series has made me a fan of Dwarf again and inspired me to revisit the Rob Grant years which still hold up fantastically well after all these years and if the Boys from the Dwarf can keep up the quality of this series in future seasons then things will look very bright indeed and for Red Dwarf fans who expected the worst from this season, that is certainly something to smile about.