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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Mark Kermode, the one and only

  
 
iKsolano100
13:26 / 06.07.07
Can I just point out for those who are not in the know, I think Mark Kermode is the most entertaining and interesting movie critic who speaks from the heart
He’s not really impressed by today deluge of crap up upon our movie screens, but I implore you to listen to the podcast for yourself.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/entertainment/kermode.shtml

Who else listen to him?
Kevin.
 
 
Twig the Wonder Kid
13:38 / 06.07.07
Seconded. It is a great double act with Mayo, lets give some credit to the straight man too.

Kermode is perhaps the only film critic I've heard who really understands genre.
 
 
Bandini
14:02 / 06.07.07
WHAT! Seriously?
 
 
iKsolano100
14:12 / 06.07.07
Kermode has a PHD in horror film =) and he's got a killer quiff..
You always listen to guy with a quiff.
 
 
Twig the Wonder Kid
14:14 / 06.07.07
Um, seriously. (I love the depth of argument on this forum)
 
 
COG
16:22 / 06.07.07
I listen, and mainly agree with his verdicts, But he is really starting to get on my tits. He seems to have become an over inflated version of himself, and his sense of humour is terrible. Has he got whinier lately as well? Anyway, I may have to un-subscribe soon, as it's really wearing me out.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
16:45 / 06.07.07
Kermode's not a bad critic by any stretch of the imagination, but he does need to stop saying EVERYTHING is not as good as The Exorcist. I mean, most of the time it's true, but he's been saying it about EVERYTHING for several years now, and it's really putting me off one of my favourite horror movies.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
16:46 / 06.07.07
God, it's just occurred to me how icky it would be to sleep with the guy.

"How was it for you, darling?"

"Well, not as good as the Exorcist, that's for sure".
 
 
Jack The Bodiless
17:11 / 06.07.07
His wife was my personal tutor at Uni. They rule.
 
 
iKsolano100
11:54 / 07.07.07
@Hellbunny was she foxy?
 
 
Olulabelle
12:03 / 07.07.07
FFS. How is that relevant?
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
12:22 / 07.07.07
How is that relevant?

Now THAT's a good question, unlike the one directly above it.


(Although my first instinct was to say "probably not as fit as The Exorcist", I am ashamed to admit).
 
 
iamus
12:28 / 07.07.07
Take solace in the fact that you're now no longer the only one.
 
 
Essential Dazzler
13:02 / 07.07.07
@iKsolano100 How does Mark Kermode compare to the film critics employed by Nuts, and/or Zoo? I assume they occupy a large amount of your time not spent being intellectual about films.

Also, do you posess qualities that I find physically attractive? Because If you don't I'm not sure I want to talk to you anymore.
 
 
Olulabelle
13:02 / 07.07.07
@Hellbunny was she foxy?

This originally read @Hellbunny was she fit? which is why Stoatie replied "probably not as fit as..."

I'm not quite sure why you have amended this iKsolano100 since the new word makes it no more relevant than the original.

But who cares, right? Foxy...fit...birds are all the same.
 
 
Essential Dazzler
13:05 / 07.07.07
Yes, that was a bizzare edit.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
15:36 / 07.07.07
iKsolano100, next time you take aim at the point, rest assured there's no shame in standing a bit closer, and next time you may not miss it quite so badly.
 
 
Bandini
16:50 / 07.07.07
I apologise for my short post earlier but i was leaving work and I was gobsmacked by the subtitle to this topic.

Most of my problems with Kermode have been mentioned, whiney, won't shut up about the Exorcist (great film but shhh...)etc.

I find his certain brand (and it really is a brand now) of film reviewing weaker and weaker and less and less intellectual. He seems to be more about unsubstantiated, unsupported, non-theoretical opinion and little else and it is certainly not what I look for in film criticism.

And if you thought he might have spoilt your enjoyment of The Exorcist try watching The Wicker Man with the commentary on!
 
 
Twig the Wonder Kid
08:48 / 09.07.07
Whether or not one agrees with a critic has less and less relevance in the YouTube age, as we have so many sources of opinion via the Net that we can pick and choose our opinion makers.

But in old media the critics role is more to be entertaining in what they say, which is what I think Kermode does very well with his weekly rants. His shtick is a comic performance, but with just enough intellectual grounding for him not to come across like a complete dancing monkey.

His love of the Exorcist, and hatred of Pirates of the Caribbean, and the way he endlessly harps on about them are really just the equivalent of comedy catchphrases, and shouldn't be taken too seriously.
 
 
Jack The Bodiless
20:28 / 09.07.07
Yeah - you have to bear in mind that he's not just a respected film critic and academic, he's also a radio and TV personality, and there's certain other things that come to bear there. One of those is that you develop a schtick, more through accretion than anything else, and a subset of that is that some people will find it annoying and/or tedious.

And in relation to the previous query, Linda Ruth Williams is a fantastic lecturer on film and one of the only people writing and working in theory today who sees no line between so called high culture and low and can enthuse excitedly about any kind of cinematic text without a hint of irony or self-consciousness. Her film theory textbook on the erotic thriller in contemporary cinema is awesome. I hope that answers your question, mate.
 
 
sleazenation
21:20 / 09.07.07
Professor Williams' love of Basic Instinct 2, along with the presence of David Thewlis in the cast make me more curious to see the film than I might otherwise have been...
 
 
DaveBCooper
10:45 / 10.07.07
Kermode introduced a showing of 'Last House On The Left' I saw a few years ago, talking about how gruesome it was, and how there was no shame in finding it hard to watch. I was thinking it was going to be really grisly, and thought that 'going outside for some air' was a likely possibility. The film was, it turns out, shoddily made, and more risible than scary. Since then I've had my doubts about MK's comments.

There's a (probably made-up, but it seems fitting) story that on their wedding anniversary, he asked his wife what she wanted, saying she could have anything she wanted, anything at all… and she said she'd like him to stop going on about The Exorcist. A view, it seems, which resonates for various people on Barbelith...
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
12:40 / 10.07.07
His love of the Exorcist, and hatred of Pirates of the Caribbean, and the way he endlessly harps on about them are really just the equivalent of comedy catchphrases, and shouldn't be taken too seriously.

Thing is, comedy catchphrases can become very very irritating indeed!

Other than that, though, I like him as a critic. And to an extent (ie up until the point where it becomes annoying) I like that he makes no secret of what he actually likes, so it's easier to make an informed judgment after reading or hearing a piece by him because you know what his biases are.

DaveB- I LOVE that story. Thank you!
 
 
Mysterious Transfer Student
12:54 / 10.07.07
Which of DaveB's stories are you loving there, Stoatie? I sure enjoyed them both.

On one of our earliest ever dates, my girlfriend took me to a special screening of 'Last House on the Left' at Bristol's Watershed cinema. Dave is clearly made of sterner stuff than I because I nearly clawed through my armrests during the chiselling-out-the-bad-guy's-teeth scene. We're still together, largely thanks to my WUSSY TERROR.

I'd also like to invite kudos for the soubriquet she came up with for Morrissey: 'The Picture in Mark Kermode's Attic'.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
13:14 / 10.07.07
The second.

The only thing I find REALLY creepy about Last House... is David Hess himself. Seeing him interviewed on the DVD extras it's not hard to imagine why he always seems to be typecast as a rapist.
 
 
Mooot
13:47 / 10.07.07
Oh I really wish those who sustain his existance would do away with themselves. He's an overbearing tosser and a prig. He couldn't even begin to pull his wang out of Guillermo del Torro's arse. Why do people lap this guy up??!! Look at his hair?! Is there a PSB quota the BBC need to fill on flowery praise?
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
14:00 / 10.07.07
He's capable of stringing together paragraphs that contain some kind of content as their basis, and suggest that some engagement with the subject matter is going on, though. By way of contrast to... well, you see where this is going.
 
 
Mooot
14:07 / 10.07.07
Is Mark Kermode allowed to revert to a previous point that deserves addressing? I don't have anything to add about his girlfriend.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
14:19 / 10.07.07
A previous point that deserves addressing being... his hair? Your desire for people who like his work to kill themselves? Random insults, including the borderline homophobic?
 
 
Chew On Fat
20:01 / 10.07.07
When Kermode reviewed the Tony Blair episode of Simpsons he said that he'd never watched an episode of the Simpsons before in his life.

What kind of a dipstick says something like that on national television?

Christ.
 
 
sleazenation
20:21 / 10.07.07
Perhaps someone who hasn't seen an episode of the Simpsons before in their lives...
 
 
Chew On Fat
21:22 / 10.07.07
I strongly suspect he was lying through his teeth and choose to take offence at same.

In the extremely unlikely hapenstance that he was telling the truth, I'd have to wonder what kind of cultural commentator would put so much effort into ignoring something so well put together that has such mass appeal.

Avoiding reruns of the Simpsons is pretty hard work, but you'd have to admire his dedication to preserving the aesthetic purity of his mindspace.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
22:26 / 10.07.07
He says he doesn't watch episodic television, and does not see episodic television as necessarily relevant to the work of the film critic, as episodic television is not film. I don't see that as totally incredible. Obviously, you have a greater insight into his character and home life than I. Alternatively, you just wrote a little bit of Mark Kermode fanfiction.
 
 
Triplets
00:23 / 11.07.07
Just watching Mayo and Kermode's vodcast from Wimbledon. He's just used the phrase "I think the torture-porn-which-doesn't-exist genre is going out the window". Torture porn is a phrase been using in the negative since Saw 2 came out. I love him already.
 
  
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