While Soylent Green may be one of the many dystopian visions of the future, the film stands out because it's one of the few titles that addresses current environmental issues head on. Adapted from Harry Harrison's novel Make Room, Make Room, it gives us a nightmarish vision of an over-populated, polluted future on the brink of collapse--a vision that gets uncomfortably closer every year. Charlton Heston as police officer Thorn investigates a murder in between suppressing food riots and uncovers the nightmarish truth about Soylent Green, the new foodstuff being sold to the poor. The film neatly combines police procedural with conspiracy thriller. Heston's scenes are counterpointed by more elegiac ones in which the centenarian Edward G Robinson as his friend Sol broods on the world he has outlived--his death in a euthanasia chamber is a gloriously lachrymose moment, which he plays to the hilt. Heston, too, is good as Thorn, a morally equivocal cop who loots the apartments of the victims whose deaths he investigates--he's a man just getting by in an impossible world. On the DVD: Soylent Green on disc comes with a commentary from director Richard Fleischer, the highpoint of which is a memorable description of what it was like to work with the brilliant ailing, entirely deaf Robinson. He is joined by Leigh Taylor-Young whose work on the film as heroine led to years of serious environmentalist commitment. It has a useful contemporary making-of documentary and touching shots of Robinson's 100th birthday party with telegrams from Sinatra and others. The feature itself is presented in anamorphic widescreen with its original mono sound. --Roz Kaveney
TBC
Celebrity stalker Avid Merrion returns with a third instalment of Bo' Selecta! featuring a host of brand new celebrities immortalised in latex including Kat 'Slater' Moon from EastEnders the over-sized Jordan Justin from The Darkness and Simply Red's Mick Hucknall. And there'll be a very welcome return of old favourites including Craig David Michael Jackson and Mel B. And Avid takes on the role of the chat show host with guest appearances from real celebrities as well as backstage
Aided by 'The Bear' and various rubber-masked celebrities obsessive fan Avid Merrion hosts the third series of Bo' Selecta! as well as the Christmas Special episode!
Featuring Avid Merrion as the Scandinavian stalker/host and sketches in which he plays the parts of pop stars like Craig David and Britney Spears in lurid, latex masks, Bo' Selecta! is a brilliantly surreal take on celebrity culture. This first series (originally broadcast in 2002) features a number of cameos and guest appearances from minor celebs: Boyzone's Keith Duffy, Davina McCall, Vanessa Feltz and the hapless Christine Hamilton, one of numerous guests to be interviewed by a puppet bear played by Merrion whose feverish line of questioning invariably results in him sprouting a little erection. Another character is hauled up in a neckbrace (following an altercation with Lisa Tarbuck), but Merrion's innocent broken English can't conceal the fact that he's a psychotic sex maniac who explicitly lusts after celebs who "make me do a sex wee", keeps Craig from Big Brother locked in a cupboard and his dead mother in a wardrobe. Merrion's pop spoofs are also masterly: rather than mimic the stars, he reinvents them--Mel B and Britney Spears--as farting, hairy-chested Northerners, slobbing out on fry-up breakfasts washed down with lager and, most improbably, Michael Jackson as a cussing, jive-talking black dude à la Huggy Bear. Bo' Selecta! doesn't so much satirise celebrities as debase them, exposing their humiliating none-dimensionality by drawing them into a vortex of vulgar absurdity, not unlike Vic Reeves' Shooting Stars. Of course, they play along--they're on television. Although initially off-putting to some, once you get into Bo' Selecta! there is, as for Big Brother's Craig, no escape. On the DVD: Bo' Selecta! on disc features numerous extras, including a behind the scenes feature in which the production team discuss making the show ("like directing a squirrel on roller-skates"), deleted scenes including Gareth Gates as a Tourette's victim, which was deemed a little beyond the pale, some unfunny bloopers and a feature on the life story of "Craig David" with Kate Thornton, including an unmissable nativity scene in which the infant Craig plays Jesus. There's also a commentary, with Merrion as his stalker self watching himself with consternation (It's strange seeing yourself on TV"). It's a pity we don't get to hear from the "real" Merrion. --David Stubbs
Aided by ""The Bear"" and rubber masked celebrities obsessive fan Avid Merrion hosts two full series of Bo' Selecta! from the squalor of his bedroom guiding us through an eclectic mix of celebrity stories interviews and gossip.
Aided by ""The Bear"" and rubber masked celebrities obsessive fan Avid Merrion hosts another series of Bo' Selecta! from the squalor of his bedroom guiding us through an eclectic mix of celebrity stories interviews and gossip.
Soylent Green is landmark science fiction film, a cautionary tale that holds a mirror to a tomorrow rife with ecological disaster. Working well again in the futuristic genre following Planet of the Apes and The Omega Man, action titan Charlton Heston portrays Thom, a detective prowling the dank streets of a polluted, overpopulated Big Apple gone rotten in 2022.He's trailing a murderer and the trail leads to a stunning discovery. Vividly realised, Soylent Green's world gains its power not just from its special effects but from its heart a human dimension magnified by the performance of legendary Edward G.Robinson in his moving screen farewell.Product FeaturesCommentary by Richard Fleischer and Leigh Taylor-YoungA Look at The World of Soylent GreenMGM's Tribute to Edward G.Robinson's 101st FilmDebossed finish on the title treatment of the Steelbook
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