‘The games industry and press have been going gaga for Titanfall’
STAYING IN
STAYING IN REVIEWS TV and DVDs to enjoy from the comfort of your sofa TV THE SMOKE Sky 1, Thu 20 Feb, 9pm ●●●●●
‘Tell you what: I’d rather have Kev Allison on a bad day than anyone else on a good one.’ This is what purports to be stirring dialogue in the world of The Smoke, a brand new British drama pitched somewhere between Backdraft and London’s Burning. ‘I’m in international finance!’ yells an irritated girlfriend at her useless, firefighting bloke, meanwhile, before adding, ‘You made me look a right muppet.’
Having perhaps realised that they won’t be able to dazzle us with craft, the writers chuck in some emergency service jargon to make the viewer feel inadequate. You too might have to look up ‘RTC’, while the constant yelling about getting an ‘ALP’ on the scene as quickly as possible slightly derails the tension of an otherwise blistering opening sequence as you reach for Google instead of losing yourself in the excitement.
Still, a firefighter’s lot isn’t all a bed of scorched roses: for every teenage girl willing to flash their chest at you, there’s a dangerous-dog wielding villain with nothing better to do than torment an everyday hero going about his heroic business. And here, the valiant Kev (Jamie Bamber, a brave morass of rugged lines and third-degree burns), limps back to work after that traumatic opening scene to remain marginally patient with colleagues who have names such as Little Al and Billy the Mince. Though there’s just enough to make you want to keep an eye on the next couple of episodes, it will need a serious step-up in the non-action segments for this to do anything other than meekly fizzle out. (Brian Donaldson)
DVD PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (Arrow Video) ●●●●● DVD DEAD OF NIGHT (StudioCanal) ●●●●●
and movement in the genre,’ explains game director Steve Fukuda. ‘Titanfall is unique in the way that it places equal emphasis on two drastically different and new ways to move and i ght in a i rst-person shooter. The intersection of the two is a big part of what gives Titanfall its iconic identity.’ Since it was i rst announced, the games industry and press have been going gaga for Titanfall. It picked up over 60 awards at 2013’s prestigious E3 showcase in Los Angeles, including a record-breaking six E3 Critics Awards (including Best in Show, Best Original Game and Best Action Game). It looks set to be the i rst must-have game of 2014. ‘Since we revealed the game in June we’ve been absolutely blown away by the reaction to Titanfall,’ said Zampella. ‘The feedback we’re getting from fans around the world is fuelling our team as we head towards March and motivating us to deliver an experience that lives up to the hype.’
Titanfall (EA) PC / Xbox 360 / Xbox One, Fri 14 Mar.
As teenagers, Daft Punk were apparently massive fans of Brian De Palma’s gaudy alternative musical. A schlocky mix of Faust, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Frankenstein and, of course, The Phantom of the Opera (though this pre-dates Lloyd Webber’s musical by 12 years). Geeky musical prodigy Winslow Leach (William Finley) has his masterwork stolen from him by mysterious music mogul Swan (Paul Williams). After being sent to prison and later disfigured, Leach becomes the Phantom and plots revenge, only to be tempted into selling his soul and signing a deal with the devil. Musician / composer Williams had written for the Carpenters, David Bowie and the Muppets and penned this soundtrack himself, a trashy mix of rockabilly, glam and pop. There’s nothing here that rivals its more popular contemporary, The Rocky Horror Show, but it still earned Williams a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination. The film has everything a cult classic needs: eccentric plotting, weird characters (watch out for Gerrit Graham as Beef), bizarre costumes and a rocking soundtrack. (Henry Northmore)
One of the finest horror films ever made and one of the best British movies of all time? Grand claims, but this 1945 portmanteau film (here restored for re-release), produced by Ealing Studios and featuring some of their most talented regulars, certainly stands the test of time. One of the first British horror films, Dead of
Night was made by Ealing in an attempt to escape the wartime realist dramas for which it had become famous and before the comedies that would make it even more so: the result is one of the most influential movies of its kind.
Five tales of the supernatural are framed by a linking narrative in which an odd assortment of people gather in a country house. There, they tell uncanny stories to a new arrival who is experiencing a perplexing case of déjà vu. The strength of the film lies not just in the terrific performances and superb writing and direction, but in the fiendishly clever way in which all six narratives (none of them weak) are pulled together. Dead of Night is by turns eerie, funny, macabre and utterly chilling. (Miles Fielder)
20 Feb–20 Mar 2014 THE LIST 27