It's been a few years since we had a Saw film and with the killer having been dead for the last few films it seems odd that the makers would try to bring him back for one more. But they have and if you're a fan of the series then they have you hooked in, such is our behaviour to not leave a list incomplete; something that that gets easier to do the larger the franchise gets, and I think this is the 8th of 9th film.
I can't give too much away but they do find a way to bring Jigsaw back, credit to them and so we get another assortment of sick traps, some better than others and some odd choice of cameos. One of the cast has already played another character earlier in the series. Also I quite liked what appeared to obvious plot holes turned out not to be the case.
If you haven't seen a Saw film, watch the first one. Don't start with this one.
Bug had their 10th Anniversary this week, and I was able to pop along to one of the shows. With close to 800 videos played over the years it must have been hard to choose which ones to show, but here's the ones they went for.
They started with the first video they played back in 2007, "Atlas" by Battles. I'd not seen this video before but I had definitely heard the track before and it wasn't until I got home I realised it featured in Sony's "Little Big Planet". It's a cool track, the video does have a nod to Superman 2 though and why is the drummer's cymbal so high up?
Next up we had Wiley's "Cash in my Pocket". I know this track from the cheesy film Streetdance. The odd music video was produced by Mark Ronson and is filmed in Southwark. It was released during the credit crunch, so the timing is good and apparently the Office Lip Dub was a thing back in 2007; I don't remember it
We had a Cyriak double bill next with his excellent video for Bonobo and his track "Cirrus" followed up by one he did for Adam's Bug show which is superb. There were quite a few people in the audience who hadn't seen the latter video.
We then had a section on the Johnny Cash Project, a piece of work put together by Chris Milk and Google where people can redraw individual frames from the video. It's not on youtube because it's a dynamic piece that is different everytime you play it. It's pretty clever!
It was obvious Radiohead would feature in this Bug, such is the strength of their videos. The first that was shown was a competition winner for the track "Weird Fishes". The director Tobias Stretch specialises in stop-motion compositions but unique in that they're taken outdoors where the weather and time of day can usually mess up this style of shooting. Whilst I didn't like the track, I did quite like the video.
Next up, "Until the Quiet Comes", a short film that uses the track by Flying Lotus to show life in Compton. I wasn't that impressed by this one and would have preferred to have seen the video to one of his other tracks, "Never Catch Me", which is so much better. (link to that one here)
Next up we had a great composition from Swede Mason which chops up Masterchef to create a stupidly silly dance track. It's a video that went viral a few years ago.
"70 Million" by "Hold Your Horses features the band recreating famous painting with cheap props. A clever idea and the lighting to get some of these right is very well done.
"Witness (1 Hope)" by Roots Manuva is still a funny video and has him returning to his primary school to take part in his school sports day with the 3-legged race being funny enough for Monty Python. The video, originally released in 2001 is so old that the kids are now probably at university age.
I like M.I.A.'s stuff but not too sure about this video for "Bad Girls" which is obviously a message to middle east regimes and their treatment of women. The drifting in the video is a common "hobby" for men in that area. Change is happening there as Adam reminded us the Saudi's have just recently allowed women to drive. I'm not sure if they're ok to drift like this though.
Another Buggles video next as we had his explosive performance in the video to "Summer Time Blues" by Japanese punk band Guitar Wolf. Like the Counting Song, this was done for the Bug show that aired briefly on Sky in 2010 (they're on youtube now). There's a nice little cameo by Bad Dad too.
My video of the night was probably this one by Etienne de Crecy. "No Brain" is a simple video but trippy as; not one for the epileptics I'm afraid. It was directed by Fleur & Manu who have featured heavily on Bug over the years so a good choice. I also like that the video appears to have run out of budget at the end.
Los Mujeres video for their track "L.A." isn't on youtube but here's a link to it here. It features rotoscoped footage from Little Women superimposed over footage. Clever but a bit trippy.
The next video was "Simple Math" by Manchester Orchestra and features a guy having flashbacks to his past as he crashes his car. I probably need to watch this a few times before I decide if I like it or not. The track doesn't do anything for me and the video was a bit involved and I guess I didn't pay attention to it on the night. (I was tired)
The final video was Grimes' "Oblivion" and I like her stuff and she was surprisingly good, if shy, when I saw her live a few years ago. This video was done guerilla style at a couple of local sporting events and was her attempting to get her confidence back following an assault by putting herself into testosterone filled environments and having fun.
The final video was Adam's kid playing with a crazy daisy to the sound of "Out of Space" by The Prodigy. Given the content it'll never be uploaded to Youtube so I can't link it but those that have seen it will know the one I mean ;)
For completeness I've included the videos that were part of the Youtube comment sections as there were quite a few of them and the videos are great too. All of the comments chosen feature on the Bug shows mentioned earlier should you wish to see what was said.
OK Go have done a number of great videos all that have featured in Bug shows over the years. Chosen for the special was their first "Here it goes Again".
MGMT "Kids" features a kid terrorised by monsters and was a video I hadn't seen before and I can see why there would be a lot of comments on youtube about it although the band did also post a making of that shows things weren't as bad as came across in the video.
Plan B's "Love Goes Down" is not my thing at all. Whatever happened to Plan B?
The second Radiohead track was "No Surprises", the one in which Thom nearly drowned. It's a classic video even if the track does want to make you throw yourself under a car.
and a Bug special wouldn't be one without a Bjork video. "Crystalline" was chosen for the Youtube comments. Odd video but a great musical ending, and having seen this live it's a great revitalising change of tempo.
Just a quick post to record the fact I attended the ever-excellent QEDcon event in Manchester, a sceptic/science event full of excellent speakers over a fun weekend. With too much to see I ended seeing the following.
Dave Alnwick was this year's MC.
Emma McClure took us through the Phantom of Heilbronn.
Caroline Rance presented on the history of quack medicine
Charlotte Hardman, Kavin Senapathy, Anthony Warner and Andy Wilson held a panel on Dietary Pseudoscience.
Chris French, Carol Tavris, Richard Wiseman and Deborah Hyde held a second panel on Cognitive Biases.
Sophie Wilson gave a talk on the history and predicted future of Microprocessors
Anthony Magnabusco held a workshop on Street Epistomology
Anthony Warner also gave a speech on the science of weight gain.
Phil Scraton gave an emotional talk on the Hillsborough Disaster and the challenge he faced in getting the truth of what happened. A stunning way to end day 1.
Helen Czerski gave a presentation on the ocean and our attitude to it
Simon Singh gave a fun talk on the science of secrecy including a demonstration of a working Enigma Machine
Katie Steckles took us through some math based life hacks. This was fun!
David Gorski gave a talk on integrative medicine
and day 2 finished with Tim O'Brien giving a talk on the universe.
Ryan Babygoose fixes a piano, finds a sock and sticks his hand in a beehive. Han Solo gives a speech on the subject of cheese.
It doesn't deserve to win the "Best Editing" Oscar but the visuals are great so it might win something in that space.
I may need to give this film another go. On the first viewing it just dragged on and we were waving it on to hurry up, but I think I had a similar experience with the first film. I can't fault it visually and have enjoyed watching behind the scenes footage. It's probably a film that'll be more celebrated for the way it was made rather than the content.
