First of all - Happy New Year everyone! Hope it's treating you well so far.

Second of all, let's talk about Louis C.K. and what he did over the last month or so.

You can skip my words and go straight to the source at louisck.net, but basically, Louis C.K. is an American stand-up comic who is starting to "make it big" off the back of a well recieved TV show (called Louie) and his increasingly popular stand-up shows. I must admit that I'm not the biggest fan of his stand-up routine (I hate that phrase, by the way - who cares if I'm not a fan? Who am I?) but his TV show is incredibly clever and pushes sitcom boundaries in a way very few other shows have done. So why am I trying to get your attention over this guy?

Well, he just released his new live stand-up show, Live at the Beacon Theater, but has done it in an unconventional manner, cutting out the middle-men and producing and distributing it on his own. You can buy it for $5 in whatever currency your country uses, all around the world, and download it completely DRM free - which means you can use it and view it however you want, as many times as you want, wherever you want.

It's a ballsy approach to distribution, but it means that if people buy it then all the money they spend goes basically directly to the artist, something that I can get behind 100%. It's already paid off for him as well. $5 is ridiculously cheap for something that would normally cost a lot more, and you can download it or stream it in standard or high definition, so he's pretty much removed every reason any one would have to pirate it.

I love this approach because it opens up a direct link with your fans, and those paying money for it feel like it's going exactly where it should go. I had no hesitation in buying it. I feel like models of distribution like this should be supported heavily by people like me, because in the back of my mind I hope to one day produce something that I can market and sell in a similar manner.

So, if nothing else, click on the link to louisck.net yourself and check it out, and seriously consider supporting this model if you like your stand-up comedy.

Sick. And slick.

Much like Once Upon A Time, which I reviewed last week, Grimm is also set in a modern world where the characters of fairytales are actually real, but this time it's a detective procedural as opposed to a human drama.

The first episode opens with a young female university student running through the woods wearing a red hooded jumper to the sound of The Eurythmics Sweet Dreams playing on her iPod. A few seconds later, accompanied by a blur and a growl from screen right, she is tackled into the bushes and we hear her scream briefly while she is torn to pieces. After that we're introduced to crime-solving duo Det. Nick Burckhardt (David Giuntoli, from, well, nothing, really, besides a few guest spots on random shows) and Det. Hank Griffin (Russell Hornsby, from Gideon's Crossing and Haunted), who chat idly about marriage and happily ever afters (get it?) after Nick exits the jeweller with (presumably) an expensive wedding ring for his fiance.

Continue reading my Grimm review.

In the search to find something new and fresh for television and film audiences these days creators are seemingly looking back more than forward, into the past itself, or re-imagining old stories for modern consumers. We've had Mad Men, Pan Am, and the recently cancelled Playboy Club travel back a few decades in American history, Spartacus, Camelot, and The Borgias travel back a few centuries in human history, and even Terra Nova travel back 85 million years in planet history. We've had vampires, werewolves, ghosts, witches, zombies, and all manner of paranormal entities return to our screens with the Twilight films, The Vampire Diaries, True Blood, Teen Wolf, The Walking Dead, The Secret Circle, Fringe, and many more.

It seems the new thing may be now to re-imagine and re-interpret old fairytales and fables. Grimm debuts soon, and is, obviously, based around the stories of the Brothers Grimm but set as a modern day cop show. The other is Once Upon A Time, which takes characters from a wider pool of fairytales (including the Brothers Grimm) and throws them all in a modern setting, but as more of a traditional drama/mystery.

Continue reading my Once Upon A Time review.

The Muppets parody trailers are awesome. I have high hopes for the movie - everything about it feels like they're going to do it "right". But I'm hoping that it's all not just misleading.

Alcoholic and depressed husband, father, and struggling toy company CEO Walter Black (Mel Gibson) finds an old beaver hand puppet in a dumpster and adopts it as his sole means of communication with his family and company after a failed suicide attempt. Slowly he starts to turn his life around, but more problems arise as it becomes unlikely Walter will complete his therapy and leave the beaver behind.

It's a touching and somewhat controversial subject to tackle - depression, alcoholism, schizophrenic delusions, and everything else Walter is suffering from - and the use of a gruff, no-nonsense, therapeutic beaver who speaks in a tough, Ray Winstone-like cockney accent is a reasonably zany way of approaching the subject. What follows, though, is a very intimate personal and family drama. Yes, it has those awkward comedy moments when people are forced to react to the fact that a man has a beaver puppet on his hand and is treating it like a living being with a personality of its own, but it's never overplayed and always treated in a realistic manner. There's no doubt in anyone's mind that Walter is very sick, and if the beaver is going to help him get better then they go along with the absurd situation for the sake of his health.

Continue reading my The Beaver review.

In a post-apocalyptic wasteland a man and his son travel the long road towards the coast struggling for survival.

Yep, it's a pretty sparse premise for a pretty sparse tale told in a very sparse manner. An unspecified man and his son (probably around 9 - 10 years old) attempt to make an epic journey across a desolated country towards the southern coast in the hopes that they can avoid the harsh winter, trying to scavenge what little remains left in the world to survive, whilst hiding from or fighting off cannibalistic survivors, freezing weather, or the dark ash that covers everything. There are no animals left, or fresh food, or fresh water, or safe shelter, and 99% of the planets population is either dead or very far away.

It's no exactly a pleasant story to read, filled with the horrors that such a reality might bring, but neither is it exactly a rip-roaring sci-fi adventure. It's a very simple tale of father and son struggling to survive after the end of civilisation.

Continue reading my The Road review.

Inspector Douglas Kingsley is a highly regarded detective with the London police who finds himself arrested and imprisoned for being a conscientious objector to the war and refusing to serve. It's 1917 and the great war is calling all men to the front - those that refuse are branded cowards and locked up or shot. In France an English hero, Viscount Alan Abercrombie, popular officer and reknowned poet, is shot and murdered while recuperating from shell-shock. The prime suspect is a young English soldier and bolshevik (communist) found in the next room with the smoking gun who protests his innocence. The army officially announce that Abercrombie has in fact died in battle. With the potential to ignite a class war should the cover up be discovered, Kingsley is abducted from prison by the Secret Intelligence Service and offered a chance to escape his sentance if he agrees to travel to France and use his famous logic and detective skills to uncover the truth of Abercrombie's death and prevent a scandal. With nothing left to lose, Kingsley agrees, his death is faked, and he emerges on the Western Front as Captain Christopher Marlowe of the Military Police to begin his investigation.

All throughout his investigation Kingsley is forced to confront the reasons he objects to the war and the irony in the fact that he is now essentially serving in it despite his moral outrage that had led him to lose everything in the first place.

Continue reading my The First Casualty review.

I'm a big fan of the James Bond movies, mainly for the creatively absurd stunts and escapism (rather than their qualities as films), but have never actually read any of Ian Fleming's original novels. From Russia With Love is probably my favourite of all the movies, so when I had the chance to borrow a copy of the novel from a friend I thought, "why not?" and gave it a shot.

From Russia With Love concerns a Russian plot headed by SMERSH (basically the KGB - or MGB in this case - assassin squad) director Rosa Klebb designed to embarrass the British Secret Service and restore faith in the Russian Secret Service after some recent failures. The plot centres on the assassination of Britain's top spy, James Bond, in a most scandalous fashion.

Continue reading my From Russia With Love review.

The kind of spy film I love - and that cast!

The New Financial Year may not be as glamourous as its New Calendar Year cousin, but it's still a great time to reassess ones life and goals, maybe even make some new resolutions without the spectre of a full Christmas and hangover from NYE parties looking over your shoulder! Not to mention the potential for a financial boost from your tax-return! That's how I'm feeling right now - like it's time to put the last six months behind me and do the hard work in the following six months so the first six months of next year are better than the last six months I just had.

As such, I will be working towards finishing a few screenplays that have sat around half written for a year, putting lots of time into Train Girl and its website, updating this site far more often, and trying to get a few other stagnating projects actually moving.

On top of that, I will try and set aside more regular time for reading my book collection, viewing my DVD collection, and playing my video game collection. If I do all that now I may just make it to half a human being by 2012 - just in time for the end of the world!

Gold Coast suffered another flogging on the weekend, this time by Melbourne 9.15.69 - 23.21.159, and all over the air, internet, and print media people were taking every opportunity to talk down the Suns and how hopeless they are - especially Rugby convert Karmichael Hunt.

But far from joining in the kicking-whilst-down frenzy, I'm far more surprised at how quickly they are improving. They have played 3 teams who all fancy themselves a chance to snag 4th spot (Carlton, Bulldogs, Dees), so floggings were on the cards from the get-go, and their opponents would have been highly motivated to deliver a flogging as well given the chance at a cheap percentage boost that could deliver them a premium final come round 24. The Suns are a brand-spanking new team, very few of their experienced players have ever played together before, and half their team are experiencing AFL footy for the first time - any other club in this position would more than likely suffer the same results. Add to that the fact that they have had a number of changes to their starting line-up already, using 28 players so far I think, losing their two leaders in Ablett and Brown for the weekend, and you begin to understand that this is a team that hasn't even figured out its own best 18 yet, let alone how to beat hardened finals aspirants.

Continue reading why everyone was wrong.

It's late in the night and I've just got home from "work", but dammit if that will stop me publicly making a fool of myself - so here it is (finally)... the official launch of teknokryptik.com!

This is my personal website/blog where, if you haven't familiarised yourself with the navigation links on the right yet, I'll be posting regularly about everything I'm doing, from the nifty little web comic/graphic novel I wrote being drawn by Nick Kirkham called Train Girl, to reviews on all the entertainment media I consume covering films, television, books, comics, music, and video games. Follow closely and you're bound to gain some insights into my fractured psyche - or at the very least, a tip off in the direction of something cool that you might be interested in, but never heard of.

It's likely to be a bumpy ride, and the only person who'll get real satisfaction out of this might be me (and even that's debatable), but you'll never know unless you give it a go!

S. Gerry

P.S: I am now on twitter

Oscar winning Irish film writer and director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Interview With The Vampire, Michael Collins) marks his first foray into television with The Borgias, Showtime's latest high profile series about the Italian Renaissance Papacy of Rodrigo Borgia/Pope Alexander VI and the evils committed by him and his family in the name of power and wealth.

The 95 minute premiere episode, essentially the first two episodes edited together, were written and directed by Neil Jordan himself and star Jeremy Irons (The Mission, Dead Ringers, Die Hard: With A Vengeance) as Rodrigo Borgia. It begins with the death of Pope Innocent VIII and the resultant election for the new Pope by the College of Cardinals of which Rodrigo is hell-bent on winning at any cost. He employs his son Cesare Borgia (François Arnaud, J'ai tué ma mère, Les grandes chaleurs), himself a Bishop, to set about bribing as many of the Cardinals as possible in secret to vote for him in the election to secure the Papacy.

Continue reading The Borgias review.

Looking to repeat the success of their recent Spartacus television series and cash in on the current popularity of costumed soap operas, American premium cable channel Starz has given us a new interpretation of the King Arthur legend with Camelot, created by Michael Hirst (Elizabeth, The Tudors) and Chris Chibnall (Torchwood, Law & Order: UK), and starring Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love, FlashForward) and Eva Green (The Dreamers, Casino Royale).

Set in medieval Britain, the story embraces a lot of the Arthurian legend, from the boy who pulls the sword from the stone to become king, his trusted wizard-friend Merlin, and of course the establishment of his court at Camelot. Arthur is played by relative newcomer Jamie Campbell Bower, with Fiennes as a very prominent Merlin, and Green as Arthur's evil witch step-sister Morgan. Together they're a solid core trio that seem more than capable of carrying the series, if not perhaps a little over-qualified for this type of soapy drama (Green especially).

Continue reading the Camelot review.

Great news everyone!

The long anticipated soft launch of the Nick Kirkham drawn comic, TRAIN GIRL, has well and truly happened.

While the official website is still very much in an early "alpha" stage of development, it's still wide open for anyone and everyone to check out and get a bit of a sense of what we're trying to achieve.

If you have an interest, however slim, please become a fan on facebook, or follow the twitter feed to stay informed of all future updates.

With pre-emptive thanks,

S.

Things are looking pretty good so far with the little comic project I've been working on recently, however; as I was in the middle of making lots of cool shiz for the official website the hard-drive of my computer died. That's the reason the proposed "soft launch" hasn't gone ahead yet - I haven't had the equipment to do it.

As a bit of a surprise for those who check this page every now and then here's a sneak peek at what was going down before the crash.

The Official, Not Even Remotely Finished, Train Girl Website!

Before you draw those judging pistols and fire, understand that everything you see there (at least until further notice) is just simply placeholding for much cooler shiz, except for the artwork, which itself isn't 100%, but still pretty good.

So there you go: proof that it's still happening!

So, here's some concept art from the awesome Nick Kirkham for our upcoming comic - Train Girl! The script is all finished, so now it's all down to developing the design and finally producing some work!

Yeah, that's what I've been up to lately - trading fictionally on the Hollywood Stock Exchange. For some reason I find making fake money so much more satisfying than making real money.

At the moment it seems pretty easy to pick winners and make money, but I guess the real test is trying to match the "traders" who have made it to the billions in fake money. I dunno? We'll see how things are going after a couple of weeks, but so far it looks like an interesting site worth keeping an eye on and messing around with.

The 6th and last volume of Bryan Lee O'Malley's soon-to-be-film Scott Pilgrim series dropped today. I probably won't end up reading it until my cousin gets his copy and I borrow it from him, but still, I'm excited to see how it all ends.

The film? Not so much. Though I won't judge it before I see it.

Hey everyone, I'm going to be messing around with some new website design and shit in anticipation of actually finishing something creative and getting around to producing/publishing it for once.

Do stay tuned for more.