Sight and Sound

Yesterday evening I was watching a 1995 episode of the re-made series of The Outer Limits called 'I, Robot'. It's based on a short story by Eando Binder and is absolutely unconnected to the Isaac Asimov book of the same name and the Will Smith movie. This one is about a robot which kills it's creator and a lawyer (Leonard Nimoy) tries to prove that the robot has enough of a conciousness to stand trial for murder. It was pretty good.

I managed to watch the episode of Life on Mars that I missed on Friday evening, so that was good. It turned out that it was available on the TV On Demand service. I was also reading a Harlan Ellison short story from the Essential Ellison collection called '"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman' which was set in the future where every aspect of life is run to a strict schedule and being late is actually a severe crime, basically if your late you lose that amount of time from your life (i.e. if your ten minutes late for something, you lose ten minutes of your life) but if your persistently late then your killed by the feared Master Timekeeper, nicknamed "The Ticktockman" . However, an anarchist known as the Harlequin is determined to destroy the sytem by ruining the schedule. Aparently it is one of the most frequently reprinted short stories in the English language.

I also watched a film last night called A Guide to Recognising Your Saints, written and directed by Dito Montiel and based on his memoir. In the present day, California-based writer Montiel (played as an adult by Robert Downey Jr. and as a teenager by Shia LaBeouf) learns that his estranged father (Chazz Palminteri) is seriously ill, and so he travels back to his home in New York while remembering his tough, violent teenage years in the mid 1980s. It is a good film, but kind of familiar territory. The acting was very good.

I went to my parent's house for lunch today, as usual. The latest issue of Sight and Sound magazine had arrived during the week. The main article was about whether mainstream print film critics are necessary or relevant in these days of amateur reviewers on the internet. In the afternoon I went along to a computer store to get some new print cartridges for my printer. I also tried to get some games in a three for two offer only to be told when I got to the counter that depsite the signs and stickers everywhere the three for two thing wasn't on, and so I just left it.