Rhys was a guest on GTFM's Film Show

Well during our Bondathon, Tez and myself appeared on there special 007 show. A week later after successfully completing the challenge, they kindly called us for our thoughts on Skyfall & too see how we are after 23 Bond films in 3 days!

Tez wasn't available so they had to make do with me !! So, here's the clip from last Sunday's GTFM Film Show, hope you enjoy and don't forget you can still donate to our Bondathon - donations are open until the end of November. Many thanks.

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V For Vendetta (2006)

'Remember, remember, the fifth of November,

Gunpowder, treason and plot...'

In 1605, Guy Fawkes and several others- including Robert Catesby and Thomas Winter- plotted to kill King James I by blowing up the Houses of Parliament. They failed. Fawkes was captured and tortured but jumped from the scaffold before he was hung.  So every November 5 here in the UK, we commemorate the failure of Fawkes' attempt at regicide by burning his effigy on a bonfire and setting off fireworks. It's an odd kind of celebration; we commemorate something that didn't happen, rather than something that did. Now, Fawkes is representative of a revolutionary anti-establishment movement.

Fitting then, that Alan Moore decided to use a Guy Fawkes mask for his hero V to wear in his comic-book series V For Vendetta (first published 1982-1985). In the comic book, V is a lone anarchist who seeks to bring down the totalitarian government of Britain using theatrical acts of destruction. Unsurprisingly, a film adaptation of the comic book was released in 2006, directed by James McTeigue.

Britain is ruled by the fascist Norsefire party, under the tyrannical High Chancellor Adam Sutler (John Hurt). One night, a young woman named Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman) is saved from an attack by the secret police by a masked vigilante named V (Hugo Weaving). V has an agenda: to topple the government. He destroys the Old Bailey and then, in an exhilarating speech, hacks into the emergency system to deliver a stark message to the people:




Performance-wise, the film is top-notch. Portman, gaining top billing, is great as Evey: her British accent very seldom slips and she captures the conflict within the character very well. It's difficult to gauge Weaving's performance as he is almost always masked but he imbues the character with a vocal intensity which is superb. The role should have been played by James Purefoy who dropped out of the project after finding it difficult performing behind the mask. Hurt gives a steely performance as High Chancellor Sutler, who- even when the character rants- steers clear of an easy performance as a tinpot dictator. 

Stephen Rea and Rupert Graves make for an excellent pairing as police officers Eric Finch and Dominic Stone who investigate V's acts of terrorism (as Sutler calls them) but find their loyalties stretched when Norsefire's previous actions come to haunt them. Stephen Fry gives a lovely turn as Gordon Deitrich, a talk-show host whose interest in Evey is merely a front to hide his true desires; homosexuality is not tolerated in Norsefire's world. Which leads me on to a powerful performance by Natasha Wightman as Valerie, a relatively minor but important role as a young woman imprisoned by Norsefire for being a lesbian. 

The action set-pieces are directed with breathless skill by McTeigue (who cut his teeth on The Matrix trilogy); the early destruction of the Old Bailey is a pyrotechnical feast, especially, and- whilst the metaphor is slightly overplayed- the sequence with the dominos also looks fantastic. There's a pervading sense of dread that hangs over the film which is impressive; this futuristic dystopia seems all too easy to imagine coming to pass. 

The film is an excellent thriller and a damn fine adaptation of a seminal comic book, but it also has a more lasting legacy; the Guy Fawkes mask as portrayed in the film is now used as a symbol by hacker group Anonymous and has also been used by protesters during the Occupy protests and other political protests in the UK. Quite apt as one of V's bon mots is: 'People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people'.

So, this Fifth of November, take a seat and watch this film. One thing's for sure, it's one you'll remember.

Tez

Programme 23: The Watchers Halloween Special

The Watchers' Halloween Special

The Watchers Film Show: Ep 23 - Halloween Special from The Watchers Film Show on Vimeo.



We count down our favourite scary movies and Tez reviews Tim Burton's latest movie Frankenweenie.

Enjoy!

Bondathon 2012 this weekend!!

Hello! If you have found us The Watchers, but your looking for our Bondathon?

Or you didn't know what were doing - well 23 films in 3 days all blogged and podcasts.

All for Cancer Research Wales

Please follow this link to the Bondathon Blog Page & thanks for the support

http://thewatcherscharitybondathon2012.blogspot.co.uk/

The Watchers' Pre-Bondathon Special

With less than a week to go before the Bondathon, we thought we'd showcase some of the stuff we've done in the run-up to the event and give you a taster of what to expect over this coming weekend.

We have to say a huge thank you to Videomajic.tv for their support.

Enjoy!

This Week On The Bond Blog: 21/10/2012

This week on The Watchers Charity Bondathon 2012 Blog...

Countdown: The Watchers' Top 10 Worst Bond Henchmen

The Watchers Charity Bondathon 2012 Weekend Schedule

A video of our favourite James Bond quotes

Only 4 days to go! 

Please consider sponsoring us, either through JustGiving or via text - see below for details of text donation.

Review: The Imposter (UK cert 15)

Have you ever been told a story and thought 'you couldn't make it up?' There are some stories that, had then been invented and not happened in real life, you just would not believe. Well, in the case of The Imposter, truth is most definitely stranger than fiction.

In 1994 Nicholas Barclay, a thirteen year old boy from San Antonio, Texas, disappeared. Three years and four months later, his family are contacted to say that Nicholas has been found alive in Spain. Nicholas' sister travels to Spain to pick him up and takes him back home. But is the young man who he says he is? Well, sadly, the title kind of gives the game away. However, that doesn't take away from the fact that this is an impeccable piece of documentary film-making.

Whilst knowing that 'Nicholas' is really a twenty-three-year-old French conman named Frederic Bourdin does take away some of the drama of the story, it really is only just the tip of the iceberg. Bourdin's audacious scam spider-webs out to impact the lives of a grieving family and the resulting story is told in an admirably even-handed and non-sensational manner. It would have been so easy to have turned this into a lurid Jerry Springer-esque freakshow, but director Bart Layton eschews the tabloid shock-value ethos for something a little more quiet and ultimately more devastating. 

A mixture of dramatic reconstruction and talking-head testimony, Layton seems content to let the story almost tell itself. The end result is a heady mix and has left me with several unanswered questions. That could be considered a failing but I don't see it like that. It's left me with food for thought. I felt several conflicting emotions during the film: sympathy, anger, confusion, bewilderment, frustration, suspicion and disbelief all in the space of ninety-nine minutes. There aren't many films that can do that to you.

Engrossing, absorbing and unbelievable, this is one of the strongest documentaries I have seen in years.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Tez