mel gibson is remaking 'edge of darkness' as a film

Bob Peck and Joe Don Baker are STELLAR. So many classic scenes. Cops running round getting lost in the Barbican - "Where are you?" "I'm on the roof!" "I told you to follow the exit signs"! "I did!"; AZURE; terrifying moments in the underground nuclear base, tunnels getting flushed with radioactive water; "GET ME PENDLETON!!!"

Joe Don Baker going nutso with the plutonium in the press conference...

No-one? Really? I guess it was a long time ago and it's sadly missed out even on cult classic status... but it was soooo good.

Music by Eric Clapton!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eteUUZ8U4Bs

This has been on my Amazon rental list for months, think I'll bump it to the top so I can watch it before the film comes out.

Yes, absolutely blindingly classic. Bob Peck was a blindingly brilliant actor, sadly missed. Nice supporting performances from Zoe Wannamaker, the wonderful Brian Croucher and Tim Mcinerney IIRC.

Edge still seems to be recycled in pretty much every new political thriller on television, but have never seen anything come close to its intensity. Rewatched it recently and was struck just how slow (in a good way) and atmospheric it was compared with its bastard offspring.

Although I did like State of Play.

I just finished watching this. God, Bob Peck was amazing. I could watch him all day. But the same could be said for most of the people in it. Zoe Wanamaker's nose should be given an OBE.

Favorite other dude: Charles Kay, who played Pendleton. When we first see him, he seems like a classic fastidious old chap, you could almost imagine him with a monocle. But later we see other sides of him - at times he looks almost leonine. You could see him swirling his glass and brooding by a poolside on the Riviera.

This show really gives you no quarter. I always felt on the verge of totally losing my grip on what was actually happening, and to whom, and because of what.

Watched it again myself last week, for only the third time ever. On repeat viewing it actually seems quite slow-burn - most of the really whizz-bang dramatic memorable stuff only happens well after half way into its 5 hour run.

Found a good site on the show - check out the introduction for a piece by Troy Kennedy Martin on the genesis of the script, and some of the more esoteric symbolism hidden in it.

This looks interesting. Kind of like House of Cards or the like, except with nuclear warfare?

Dear Mel, any chance of you dying soon? That would be great, cheers.

t0rrenting this now based on this thread. i've never even heard of it before.

xxp not so much nuclear warfare, as plutonium and nuclear power/politics in general. A little politically dated, inevitably, but no less tense or disturbing.

"only the third time ever"! That's quite a lot of times to watch the same six-hour TV show!

Thanks for that site. There's something about this show that makes me want to READ about it, if that makes any sense.

xp yeah i guess, but some people are happy to watch the same two-hour film dozens and dozens of times! i think i'm in a routine now of watching it once every ten years.

lookin forward to this tbh

wont hold a candle to the original but ray winstone owns

all i could think of in the trailer is, mel gibson sure is an old man. (an angry old man, looks like.)

Can't see this being any more than a bog-standard thriller. Isn't much evidence in the trailer of the paranoia or intricacy of the original, and given it's about a third as long that's hardly surprising.

im reviewing this. no sign of a preview screening yet iirc but it's out soon so... hmm.

trying to go in with an open mind.

but really, is the gibs going to kiss his dead daughter's dildo? that is the question.

i'm trying to think of who could possibly pull off a credible joe don baker and it hits me - philip seymour hoffmann

just finished watching this, so terrific

bob peck is really well-dressed throughout the whole thing!! everyone is actually. terrific costumes for something set in 1985 or whenever

should i watch it

yeah slocks this shit is up your alley

psychosexual 1980s nuclear paranoia + joe don baker, how can you go wrong

sounds like a typical friday night at my place

but really, is the gibs going to kiss his dead daughter's dildo? that is the question.

― just someone who's l o s t (history mayne), Tuesday, January 5, 2010 11:37 AM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

aaaaaaand that's a no.

Any radioactive water sluicings in old mineshafts? Any sipping champagne in cobwebbed fallout bunker? Any AZURE? GET ME PENDLETON? Any nuclear paranoia whatsoever? The trailer (and the fact that nuclear paranoia is so 80s) made me think they'd taken a completely different turn.

Saw the poster this morning in Leicester Square. Rubbish.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kwtp0dDVKi1qzu9d8o1_500.jpg

LOL. Actually, that one's better than the 20ft billboard job up in the West End - Gibson grimacing, pointing a gun at something. No teddy bear.

Any radioactive water sluicings in old mineshafts?

yes.

but it's -- seriously -- a truther film.

last night i was about to post a link here to the trailer, but i didn't have the heart

instead i'll quote the opening line of the actor charles kay's 1965 royal shakespeare company bio (he played pendleton in EoD):

Charles Kay is probably the only professional actor in the country, and perhaps in the world, who is also a qualified dental surgeon.

I might be intrigued enough to torr3nt this.

Series is £6 in Fopp; picked it up on Sunday.

I just got it for £4 from Amazon. Never seen it, looking forward to it! Has it ever been repeated? I sure I would've watched it if it had.

it must have been repeated at some point. almost a quarter-century old now!

just looked on amazon ---dddamn. how could i not? they have tinker tailor soldier spy for a knock-down price too.

I worked on the subs for the NTSC release last summer; some toe-curlingly awful Debb1e Gr33nw00d/Fr4nk B0ugh Breakfast Time action among the extras. Pebble Mill too.

Damnit now I'm tempted to buy it again. I have the 1999 release sans extras.

xp maybe now i'm not so tempted.

Is any other Troy Kennedy Martin stuff remotely as good as EoD? Z-Cars I suppose... Looking at his wiki page, it seems like the last thing he did was an adaptation of Bravo Two Zero! His sitcom looks intriguing though - has it been wiped?

i've seen as many wednesday plays as i've been able to over the years, but none of the names pop out. almost saw him talk a couple of years ago at college. he knows l4ura mulv3y. died last year.

Michael Jones, are you Michael Jones from D3LUX3? If so I've had many dealings with you in the past.

Uh-oh! I better be careful what I say in here then! Who are you, antexit?

btw it didn't get into the guardian's top 50 tv shows of all time. comnplaints followed. so they're blogging it:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2010/jan/20/edge-darkness-drama

interesting to note that the guardian put brideshead (which really is bad. i tried to watch it a couple of years ago but just had to stop.) at no. 2, and put this nowhere. staunch paper of the liberal-left that it is.

but it's -- seriously -- a truther film.

wait wait wait for real?

Mel Gibson should really have stuck to not being in films

to the point!

There was another recently that made me nostalgic for when the BBC was good at these things, was it called The Last Enemy?

yeah i wasn't keen on this. gave up.

max -- have watched a fair bit of it and im p sure the lack of subtitles is deliberate! knowing the whole thing, i think it adds to the effect. it's a LOT slower than any TV show now, but in a good way. there was a whole seven minute bit with no english dialogue at all, but it cranks the tension up.

In a misguided burst of 80s/90s tv nostalgia I picked up a copy of GBH recently, but found I couldn't make it past the second episode. Had a similar problem trying to watch Pennies From Heaven a while back. So much of this stuff has not aged well.

In a misguided burst of 80s/90s tv nostalgia I picked up a copy of GBH recently, but found I couldn't make it past the second episode.

ha me too! exact same experience. id never seen it before. slow in a bad way -- it got to 43 minutes and i was just -- come on. but each episode was about an hour and a half!

even the appearance of lindsay duncan couldn't save it.

max -- have watched a fair bit of it and im p sure the lack of subtitles is deliberate! knowing the whole thing, i think it adds to the effect. it's a LOT slower than any TV show now, but in a good way. there was a whole seven minute bit with no english dialogue at all, but it cranks the tension up.

― the highest per-vote vag so far (history mayne), Friday, February 5, 2010 8:10 AM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

all right ill give it another go

i would. basically shit pops off at c. 24min in.

it's probably my fave stand-alone series of all time so im biased.

poppage

Tinker Tailor is just fine, watch a proper disc max.

had never heard of the original EoD til now.

ur username it is in a dublin accent y/n

Y. I don't remember why tho. I have been pretty drunk all day.

love tinker tailor. wish i could remember who borrowed my dvds of it.

tht reminds me former ilxor ally c has my brideshead revisited

and me that former ilxor Starry Sarah has my Céline and Julie Go Boating.

tht reminds me former ilxor ally c has my brideshead revisited

― cozen, Friday, February 5, 2010 5:00 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark

wtf man

Akshully Elephant was 89? Didn't see it on first broadcast - lol drunk student - but in that context it must've blown minds even more than it wd now.

The Points of View the week after was fu'in amazing. iirc the whole prog was about Elephant.

In a misguided burst of 80s/90s tv nostalgia I picked up a copy of GBH recently, but found I couldn't make it past the second episode.

The early part of GBH is the good bit. By the end it's like a Ray Cooney farce but without the laffs.

I have v. fond memories of GBH but am wary of going back to it for fear of Bleasdale's dialogue clunking to me like a lot of his earlier stuff does nowadays.

i really liked this

will i get much more by watching the original? i would assume the conspiracy is pretty different

also tl;dr

i can't lie, mel gibson is extremely charismatic onscreen. so is this movie any good? should i bother?

mel gibson as a human being seems nearly beneath contempt.

if you liked taken and you want to see it again with new characters...

it was a little strange at first to watch mel the antisemite, but then i was more concerned with his accent. soon enough, bodies started dropping and it was ALL GOOD

there was a whole seven minute bit with no english dialogue at all, but it cranks the tension up.

Isn't there a lengthy scene in The Quiller Memorandum with Segal in West Berlin - German with no subs? I probably only remember this because I was trying to subtitle the bloody thing. Pinter, eh?

i really liked this

will i get much more by watching the original?

y u maek the babby jesus cry

soon enough, bodies started dropping and it was ALL GOOD

no... it just wasn't, it was bad.

the action was all filmed very competently. no actual complaints there.

but everything else was bad.

i thought i was reviewing it but it turned out i wasn't.

there isn't very much to say, though. the plot is: mel's daughter gets killed. mel kills all the people involved in her murder. the end.

also: jews did 9/11

nah jokes, but the CIA, in league with defence contractors, etc., did 9/11

mel gibson is extremely charismatic onscreen

i guess he was in 'lethal weapon' (1987), but in this he is just a gruff, concentratin' on his accent, slightly weird about the notion of his daughter having boyfriends, kind of guy.

throughout the whole film he's all like, my daughter fell in with a crowd of wrong'uns, but at the same time, what they discover is something he also disapproves of. mello hates the government for doing 9/11, but can't get fully behind the idea of anti-nuke activism either. so there's nothing very interesting to report on, it's just mel killing lotsa people.

at one point he is captured, taken to the bad guys' lair, then escapes by killing a medical orderly -- about 90 seconds later he is free. all p stupid imo.

the idea of bob peck (as craven) killing a medical orderly to get free, even if it were in a bad guys' lair, is just o_O ... it wouldn't happen

he would brood his way out... with extreme prejudice

he couldn't be more different from bob peck. it's nothing like the brit series. came up with this hilarious line for the review: remaking EoD in massachusetts (wait for it) makes about as much sense (here we go) as doing A VERY AMERICAN COUP. boo-yah.

it's a reference to another late 80s british tv series that isn't 'the singing detective'.

"house of blackjack"

"tinker, tailor, soldier, hot dogs"

"boys from the bible belt"

"zee cars"

"UpperEastSiders"

"gbh: miami"

'primary suspect'

'sherlock homes'

'dr. whom'

"newhart"

"have you done got SURVED?"

was this discussed anywhere else? http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49619

it made me feel bad for how little 2000s uk drama i actually saw. i should watch some.

nrq your thoughts

There may be problems with this, but it is unfair to fail to acknowledge the power and breadth of work like Boy A, Dirty Filthy Love, Donovan Quick, Endgame, England Expects, Faith, Five Minutes of Heaven, Flesh and Blood, The Government Inspector, The Mark of Cain, Out of Control, Second Generation, Secret Life, Shoot the Messenger, Tina Goes Shopping and White Girl – and that’s in singles alone (and only one work per writer).

i've only seen 'boy a' out of this lot iirc so can't comment

think it's fair enough to say that golden ages are always a bit illusory

kind of disagree with some specific stuff he says w/r/t but shd maybe google these titles

my first impression of that piece is that everything he mentions as being good (except State of Play) is Extremely Worthy - not that there's anything wrong with that, but i don't think great television usually is Worthy actually. to take American examples - like Breaking Bad, the Sopranos, The Wire - none of those are "issues" shows in the traditional sense.

(and neither was Edge of Darkness)

this might be the worst movie I've seen this year.

imagine '80s Clint Eastwood crossed with Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting

pretty sure Danny Huston was trying harder in Wolverine

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y109/fez_/kilmer-pendleton.png

this is the best idea ever proposed by a random text generator.

GET ME PENDLETON!!!!!

http://imstars.aufeminin.com/stars/fan/val-kilmer/val-kilmer-20060626-140085.jpg