2nd December, 2013.
You know, last month was a bit of a git.
No, really … !
As you’ve possibly know — by hitting the aerial tag at the bottom of the page — the communal aerial in my building: and took a week to get repaired.
The job’s still not finished: there are — to the best of my current knowledge — still three flats with no Sky signal.
What’s more … ?
What’s more, during that week, I seriously caned my broadband allowance: using the BBC’s catch-up service, the BBC iPlayer. With the net result that I was seriously close to incurring extra charges, for going over that limit.
That close-run thing … ?
Meant I didn’t actually use the little credit I had left on my iTunes account: that would DEFINITELY have put me over the edge.
Until last night, that it. The limit gets reset, every month.
That reset meant I could happily download a rental movie, without paying any extra.
And, given I fancied watching a film: one not dictated by simply what I had on an external drive, OR was on a catch-up service, or my shelf … ?
Well, I went ahead and rented a flick.
If you hadn’t guessed from the poster, the 1996, David Twohy directed, The Arrival.
And, yes … I think ‘hokum’ is possibly the word …
The Arrival sees Charlie Sheen as Zane Zaminsky, a radio astronomer who — whilst talking simultaneously to his girlfriend on the phone, and a colleague sitting next to him — starts receiving a signal: from the star, Wolf 336, one seemingly from an intelligent life form.
It’s only when he reports this to his boss — Phil Gordian, played by Ron Silver — that he get’s fired: and, whilst working as a satellite tv installer, finds himself slowly being blacklisted by other telescopes.
That’s when his problems REALLY start … !
~≈Î≈~
Now, I was saying about hokum … ?
Yes … I think I can safely say The Arrival really is a load of old hokum: the plot does seem to kangaroo down the road like a learner driver, the script seems workable, if not stunning, and bar Charlie Sheen, the acting’s craftsman-like, rather than Oscar winning.
Actually … ?
Charlie does manage to describe himself as ‘looking like a can of smashed arseholes’, at one point: which worked a lot better than some lines. And summed up his performance quite well … …
Saying that … ?
Saying that, I do know this.
The Arrival is actually surprisingly entertaining hokum. Just don’t expect much*!
The Arrival
★☆☆☆
* No, really, don’t expect much! Saying that … ? There’s a scene where Sheen descends into the aliens underground base: that got me thinking that possibly the films makers had been reading Dante’s Inferno and wanted to do a sci-fi retelling.
Alien Secrets
The Arrival
— MOVIECLIPS.com
And the film also has some interesting ways of cleaning a place up …
Oy, vey …
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