The Year So Far...

So the first quarter of 2008 has been and gone and what a quarter of a year it has been. First of all it has been as much of a quarter of a year as possible thanks to February taking up the slack and managing to squeeze out a twenty ninth day this year. That's one more than the first quarter of 2007, impressive I'm sure you'll agree. Congratulations February!

As it was the first quarter there were a load of awards ceremonies and loads of people won stuff. A big round of applause to all of them. But in Hollywood if you weren't winning an award you were dead or dying. God's cull of celebrities has been brutal in the first quarter of 2008.

As for films, ooft (is that a word?)! The pre-blockbuster period has thrown up some fantastic wee pictures. No matter which you think should have gotten the Oscar, No Country For Old Men and There Will be Blood both arrived over here in January and instantly staked a claim for not only film of the year, but the decade. And there was me walking out of No Country thinking "I won't see anything better than that this year". Within a fortnight I had seen a film that easily equals it and possibly surpasses it (I still want to see both again on DVD before making a snap decision).

On the comedy front Juno was sweet and very funny, although a little too smart for it's own good, while Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story was hilarious if a little confused as to its tone. And we saw the return of many of the MST3K alumni with Cinematic Titanic's first outing The Oozing Skull which was a welcome return to the slacker early Joel-era of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

On the horror front The Orphanage is right up there as one of the best films of the first couple of months of the year. Hopefully it'll stick in there until the end of quarter four. It does the quiet, subtle mindfuck think with aplomb. The complete opposite of Cloverfield which managed to underwhelm in its attempts to overwhelm the viewer, mainly because the film's major problem is that it isn't scary.

So that's the first bit of 2008. Now it's blockbuster season. Let's hope it's good or Splice will revert to reviewing whatever DVDs we could get in HMV in the 5 for £20 offer!