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The Abominable Snowman (1957)
Lukewarm
Another film watched for the "House of Hammer" podcast, "The Abominable Snowman" sees a return for a lot of the aspects that had made recent Hammer films successful. For me though, despite the expensive looking shooting locations, this was a bit duller than I was hoping for.
Scientist Dr John Rollason (Peter Cushing) has been cataloguing Himalayan fauna with his wife Helen (Maureen Connell) and associate Peter (Richard Wattis). Rollason though is waiting for the arrival of American explorer Tom Friend (Forrest Tucker) and his group who are, to the annoyance of The Lama (Arnold Marle), going to try and track the illusive yeti.
Written by Nigel Kneale and, just like the successful Quatermass films, adapted from his BBC series, this sees Hammer go back to the horror well again, though this is another where 'man is the real monster!'. You also have a return for Forrest Tucker, who played 'brash American adventurer' Skip Morgan in "Break in The Circle" and here plays 'brash American Adventurer' Tom Friend. Richard Wattis is always a great edition, and we've not seen him in a Hammer film since "Blood Orange" four years earlier. Most importantly Peter Cushing returns, sort of, he actually filmed this before "The Curse of Frankenstein" though that film would come out first.
Shooting on location in the Pyrenees helps the film, as seeing them trudging around on mountains in actual snow looks good. The Monastery set looks impressive too, though I'm not sure that the mountainside scenes maintain that level of quality.
I suppose my real problem was that, despite Cushing and the mountain shots, I found the film to be a little duller than I was hoping for. I'm glad there wasn't an overuse of the Yeti outfit, and I'm OK with them being a hand here and a shadow there - but still the plot was slow and lacking in surprises and the film really struggled to hold my attention.
The Gentlemen: The Gospel According to Bobby Glass (2024)
Season One Review
I'm going to review this as being season one of a continuing show, though I'm less than convinced that the ducks will get in a row again for a second run. I'll shift this review to the main page if it's apparent that we aren't going to get any more. It's very much in the style of Guy Ritchie's other work, but its fun and funny and overall, I enjoyed it.
Following the death of his father, Edward Horniman (Theo James) inherits the title of Duke of Halstead, ahead of his older brother Freddy (Daniel Ings). He meets Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario) at his father's funeral, and she explains to him that his father supplemented his income by allowing her criminal organisation to grow Marijuana on his estate. Though Edward wants to remove his family from this situation, a need to raise money quickly leads him to lean further into Susie's business.
As I say, if you've ever seen anything by Ritchie you'll have to the tone, setting and frankly, most of the plot, of "The Gentlemen" and you'll probably know whether you'll like it or not. It's connections to the movie of the same name are tangential, there are ultimately some plot similarities, but no characters cross over, which has led to the idea of a shared universe. I could see perhaps leaning into that in the future, with Ritchie using the title for an anthology type series, maybe with some minor crossover. We'll see I guess.
Performances are generally good. Theo James is particularly strong and his chemistry with Scodelario is palpable. Daniel Ings continues to play bitter borderline sociopaths and the rest of the cast includes heavyweights like Ray Winstone, Joley Richardson and Giancarlo Esposito and a return to the Ritchie fold for Vinny Jones.
So yes, it's the same song played again, but it's a crowd pleaser and very few play it better.
Sous la Seine (2024)
Zut A-jaws
(Yes, I did spend a while trying to come up with a pun that I hadn't seen before).
As this film was gathering some traction on Twitter across the weekend, I decided that I should give it a go. Having assumed it would be an equivalent to the sort of film "The Asylum" make, I was surprised and interested to see that it was initially not that - though in all honesty it gets there by the end.
Having lost her crew, and husband, to Shark attack, on an expedition to the Pacific garbage patch, Sophia (Berenice Bejo) returns to Paris and works in an aquarium. Three years later she's contacted by an Environmentalist Mika (Lea Leviant) who explains that she's hacked shark tracking technology and that one has made it up the Seine, as far as Paris city centre. With Sophia refusing to help them, Mika and her associate Ben (Nagisa Morimoto) undertake the dive instead, with Mika being arrested. Mika, and later Sophia, try to convince River Patrol of the unlikely interloper, but with the Paris Triathlon imminent, the mayor (Anne Marivin) refuses to consider cancelling.
At the start the film is actually reasonably sensible. The shark is played as a looming threat, foreboding in the background or whipping through frame too quick to get a good look at. There's a clear environmental message, where climate change and sea pollution has changed the shark's natural habitats. Berenice Bejo, who was in "The Artist" is a decent lead and does have some chemistry with impossibly heroic Soldier turned River Police action man Adil, played by Nassim Lyes.
I guess the trouble with the film is that, towards the end it does drift into that 'Asylum' "Sharknado" territory with much more explicit use of the, now painfully cheap-looking, CGI Shark. I write my reviews without spoilers usually, and I'll continue to do so here, but I just don't understand how the ending happens. I liked how spectacular it was but where does the water come from?
You never know with Neflix just how well a film has actually done, but there's a chance from that ending that sequels, or sister films might be forthcoming. I'd hope they'd find a more consistent tone, either way, serious, or campy, to be satisfying. This is neither.
Silo: Outside (2023)
Season One Review
Whilst I suspect I'd probably haven't gotten around to "Silo" anyway, the show was elevated for me because it was on the Guardian's top TV of 2023 list. Whilst I think that the series was good, I'm not sure it was engaging enough for me to really love it.
In a dystopian future, Holston Becker (David Oyelowo), the sheriff of a giant underground city is distraught when his wife Allison (Rashida Jones) asks to leave the Silo. This request is always granted and, anyone that does leave, is killed by the poisonous atmosphere. Two years later, whilst investigating the death of George Watkins (Ferdinand Kingsley) he discovers a link to his wife and asks to leave the silo himself, controversially naming an engineer, Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson), as his replacement.
Killing off the biggest stars in the opening episodes is a not an uncommon way to go these days, killing two off in consecutive episodes is a bit rarer - but it does give the show the feeling that nobody (save perhaps Juliette) has the "plot armour" to survive this one. I suppose the issue I had with he show was that I only really cared about one aspect of it, which was the biggest one - what's the planet actually like outside the Silo? We take ten hours to get to the answer to that one and in between we're left with that Juliette wants, which is to investigate the murder of Wilkins who she was in a relationship with. If I'm honest, I didn't really care about that 'domestic' storyline as much as I did about the Macro ones, who built the Silo's and what happened to the Earth.
The production is good and, of course, just from the performers I've mentioned the cast is great. The only one I'm a bit iffy on was not Common, but Tim Robins who seems overly skittish from the start and never really convinces himself as being capable of running the Silo.
I think I'd have preferred a two-hour movie, is probably my short review of the series, but that's not going to stop me from watching Season two, when that lands later this year.
The Acolyte: Revenge/Justice (2024)
Acc-ountability
If the first episode of "The Acolyte" had a lot to do, introducing us to a litany of brand new characters and establishing a plot to hang the series on, episode two benefits from being able to be a little slower and deepening the story a little more, it's successful in that regard, but I can't say I'm entirely won over.
Mae (Amandla Stenberg) targets a second Jedi master, Torbin (Dean-Charles Chapman) on the planet Olega. She finds him though in a meditative state, with the Force providing a seemingly impenetrable forcefield around him. She goes to see Qimir (Manny Jacinto) who is assisting her with her quest and who provides her with different approach for a second attempt. Though nobody saw Mae specifically, news of the break in at the Jedi temple reaches Sol (Lee Jung-jae) who takes Osha (Amandla Stenberg) and his team to investigate.
So, we are at least a bit clearer on Mae's motivations. She blames the Jedi for the incident on Brendok that she (ironically) also believed killed her twin sister. She has been trained by a dark master and now targets four specific Jedi, Indara, Tobin, a wookie names Kelnacca and Sol. We also learn from the method of killing Tobin that whatever caused that fire on Brendok, at least he felt the Jedi should take the blame. Both sisters now know the other is alive and, in typical TV Show fashion, they avoid a conversation that might clear things up quicker. We also learned that Mae's master has challenged her to kill one of the Jedi without using a weapon.
There's still no crossover with the wider world of Star Wars, which I think is the way to go but we have learned that, like seemingly all the Jedi, Sol doesn't have much faith in his order for knowing what's actually best and will likely strike out on his own. The use of Kung Fu style fighting instead of breaking out the Sabre's is back, again it makes the show standout amongst the other Star Wars shows but I can't say I'm in favour of it over the more samurai style we've seen before.
I'm not usually particularly one to criticise the performance of an actor, but Dafne Keen is flatly delivering each of her lines as if the prosthetics don't really allow her to move her mouth. I'm also yet to see what she brings to Sol's gang which couldn't be done by Yord alone.
I'm not willing to throw myself in with the reviewing bombing bot-army, not yet anyway, as again this is fine, but we're still in the low gears and I'd like some improvement soon.
Inside No. 9 (2014)
Extraordinary Gentlemen!
As "Inside Number 9" is an anthology show I've written a review of each episode but, now that the series is over, I thought I'd put something here to sum up my thoughts about the show as a whole. Being a big fan of "The League of Gentlemen" and "Psychoville" I was perhaps predisposed to enjoy "Inside Number 9" but I have truly loved the mixture of comedy and horror that the series has provided.
In each episode, which is a unique and unconnected story, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton are joined by a host of guest stars for a story that often combines their particular brand of comedy, with horror moments and often involving a twist of some sort at the end. Over the years, some episodes have leaned more into the pathos and some further have exploited the meta-aspect of the form of television to provide surprises and shocks on a grander scale.
As with a lot of anthology style television, your particular proclivities will be attended to by several, if not perhaps all the episodes of the show. I, personally, like the ones that are more expressly horror based, such as "The Harrowing", "Séance Time" or "The Steakout", but others such as Seasons two's "The 12 Days of Christine" do take a more optimistic, romantic or grief ridden view. Then there are also the ones that impose a restriction on them such as "A Quiet Night In" which contains almost no dialogue, "Zanzibar" that is written in Iambic Pentameter or "Mulberry Close" that is filmed entirely as if shot by a doorbell camera.
Unlike a lot of other anthology shows though, with this many episodes certainly, I'd say there isn't a bad episode amongst them. There are certainly ones I like less than others, but I've not scored any edition lower than 6 out of 10 across the whole run. I'm so sad to see it end, but I'll book my tickets for the stage show and am looking forward to seeing what is in store for the boys after that.
Inside No. 9: Plodding On (2024)
Sweet Sorrow.
"Inside Number 9" ends aptly, with a twist. Having suggested that this last episode would be a guest star free two-hander, instead it's a cavalcade of almost everyone who ever been on the show reappearing for an episode as meta as the series has ever been.
It's the wrap party for "Inside Number 9" an anthology comedy series on the BBC, with many of the former guest stars gathered for an evening of drinks and the viewing of a "best of" video. But what's next for the shows writers and stars, Steve Pemberton (Steve Pemberton) and Reece Shearsmith (Reece Shearsmith). They've been given the green light to write a script for a police procedural show, which Reece is enthusiastic about but unbeknownst to him, Steve has auditioned for a big Amazon series based on "Dante's Inferno", which would instigate a move to America and likely the end of their partnership.
Brilliant. A funny finale, playing with the truth, the stories and mythology of the show. Starting the show as the opening episode began, with Katherine Parkinson and Tim Key squeezed into a small space, this time to escape from Anne Reid and snort some coke. Can't say I've ever struggled to tell Katherine and Amanda Abbington apart, but it made for a good gag. As did both Nick Mohammed and Rosie Cavaliero playing exaggerated versions of themselves.
The writing anticipates the "what comes next" questions that the guys have been getting in real life whilst promoting the series and presents tension between them about what the next step will be, it could only have been more meta had they suggested taking the show to the stage. I really want to go back to "CTRL, ALT, ESC" now and see if there is a scene where you can tell that Steve Pemberton's role is being played by a producer in a wig.
It's a truly fitting finale or a show I'm going to miss incredibly. Time to go back and watch "Psychoville" again, I think.
Doctor Who: Rogue (2024)
Nest of Vipers
After three episodes, each of which I enjoyed, we're back to a far more traditional structure for episode six of this first season of rebooted rebooted 'Who', perhaps notable for being the first episode not written by either Chibnall, Moffatt or Davies in four years.
Having seemingly detected a problem, The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby (Mille Gibson) arrive in the 1800's for the prestige and drama of a ball. Whilst Ruby is engaging her Bridgeton fantasies, the Doctor meets Rogue (Jonathan Groff) an intergalactic bounty hunter who quickly comes to believe that The Doctor is the cause of nearby deaths, and not here to help. The deaths are, in fact, being caused by The Chuldur, a shapeshifting race that have plans to infiltrate and influence all of UK society.
If I sounded dismissive in calling this a return to traditional structure, I should say that I quite enjoyed this one too. It was oddly familiar to the "Family of Blood" double bill from David Tennant time. A family of aliens pretending to be human's want to take the Doctors power. I would say that despite a good performance from Indira Varma, these aliens weren't anything like as scary and I didn't really care for the bird effects that much. What I did like was Jonathan Groff's character Rogue. It's a little on the nose to draw a direct parallel with Captain Jack Harkness, but he felt like a more restrained version of that character and his flirty capture and subsequent release of The Doctor is great. No spoilers but I'd be surprised if this is the last time we ever see the character.
We again get an appearance by Susan Twist, this time in the form of a portrait on the wall and her reappearance is commented on by Ruby. I like these easter egg turning into plot ideas that Davies works into his season arcs, such as the "Bad Wolf" throughput of his first run. No meta winks or magic this time though.
My only complaint is that there was a bit of inconsistency in how the space trap works for me, not that it ruined the episode entirely, just that it gave me pause.
After a run of episodes that played with the form, going back to the classic structure makes for a welcome change and another strong episode. Now into the two-part finale.
Dead Boy Detectives: The Case of the Hungry Snake (2024)
Season One Review
I liked Netflix's adaptation of Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman" and that was enough for me to overcome general distaste with the rather twee title and give this series a chance. I'm glad I did as, whilst not quite matching up to the main event, this was pretty good stuff.
Two ghosts, Edwin (George Rexstrew) and Charles (Jayden Revri) manage to successfully, though not entirely, exorcise a demon from Crystal Palace (Kassius Nelson). Crystal has lost all her memories but has gained a psychic power to 'read' items and people. Together the three travel to Washington, to investigate the disappearance of a young girl, which puts them at odds with a witch, Esther Finch (Jenn Lyon). Their investigation methods also lead to them popping up on the afterlife's radar and Night Nurse (Ruth Connell) begins an investigation.
Whilst the series name is not particularly promising, proposing a twee whimsy that doesn't really match the series often dark tone I did end up liking the series. It helps that the main cast quickly overcome the potential clichés of their roles and settle into being a likable team. Jenn Lyon makes Esther Finch a fun but clearly vile big bad for the season. The first episode is a bit of a muddle, with too much happening but it settles down after that into a plot that's similar to the sort of dark Y-A fiction that's popular on Netflix, like "Wednesday" for example. Unlike that show though, "Dead Boy Detectives" is a little harder, in terms of the violence sure but certainly with the swearing.
You never quite know which way Netflix is going to go with a renewal, but it does feel like there's other stories that could be told in this world and that's without crossing over into "The Sandman" any more than they have already. I'd certainly like more.
Star Trek: Discovery: Life, Itself (2024)
Season Five Review
After five seasons of controversy, back door pilots, shifting networks, seismic time jumps, artificial intelligences, and David Cronenberg "Star Trek Discovery" comes to an end. I might continue to be alone in this idea, but for me, after the departure of Bryan Fuller - Discovery was steadily dragged into line with the rest of the "Star Trek" output, so was fine - but less interesting.
Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the Discovery head to investigate an old Romulan starship. They are beaten to the ship by Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis), couriers and scavengers who take a puzzle box from the ship. The box contains information leading to the source of power for the Progenitors, a race who seeded much of the life in the galaxy. Not wanting that power to fall into the wrong hands, Discovery undertake a scavenger hunt across the known universe to track down clues leading to its location.
So again, I thought this season was good, standard, "Star Trek" fare. Each episode pushes them closer to the power source, with another clue and section of a map. Each mission pushed one member of the crew to the fore, and they experience or learn something in order to get the clue. The experience as a whole also tests their worthiness as to getting the power. I thought the story was reasonably clever and there's some impressive visual work once we reach the progenitor's structure. It did feel a little like the ending came a bit abruptly - even with the feature length of the final episode. Then much of that was given to a "Return of the King-esque" series of endings involving reveals, time jumps and slightly underwhelming aging makeup.
Despite all the criticism over the years, some of it valid, more of it motivated by the same cultural complaints, from those that apparently never learned anything from older "Star Trek" either, overall, I think Discovery has been a success, particularly in opening "Star Trek" up to being a more varied and interesting property, especially when some legacy returns have failed. I hope this doesn't make the start of a contraction.
The Watchers (2024)
Offaly Big Adventure.
Interesting. I have thoughts about "The Watched". I don't think it's particularly successful but at the same time I wouldn't say I hated it either.
Mina (Dakota Fanning) an American living in Ireland, is travelling through ancient woods when her car suddenly breaks down. After becoming disorientated and with the sun setting, she sees Madeline (Olwen Fouere) who encourages her to join her in an isolated construction. The construction is a room with a wall that is entirely made of one-way glass, allowing people to see in, but showing the inhabitants only their reflection. Along with two other inhabitants, Clara (Georgina Campbell) and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan) the four are watched through the window by an unseen group. Whilst they can roam safely about the forest during the day, to hunt or gather supplies, they must be back at "The Coop" before it goes dark.
Interestingly, as soon as I learned that the film takes place in Ireland I guessed immediately what the Watchers were. I'm going to talk without spoilers though for the rest of the review. I will say a lot rests on the reveal of the watchers and there are good and bad elements to it. Generally, they are kept in the dark, a hand here or a movement there. There's one scene at night when they gather in silhouette that is very creepy. Later though you get a much better look, and their CGI blandness I found to be disappointing.
The films principle failing is that ultimately, it's not that scary. The creepier moments are generally played in the trailer, the Theremin record, the applause moment. I wonder if perhaps one of the problems was Dakota Fanning's aloof and rather non-plussed reaction to all that happens to her. I also think there's an aspect of "elevated horror" that the film wants to engage with, with Mina's undealt with response to the death of her mother being part of her reaction.
I think I've sounded pretty negative about the film so far, but there were some small positive elements. Generally, I liked the direction and, cinematography. For the second film this year, Olwen Fouere is left dishing out horror movie exposition and does a good job with it.
I probably sits uneasily in the "I don't recommend this, but I didn't hate it" category and I do look forward to seeing what Ishana Night Shyamalan does next.
The Acolyte: Lost/Found (2024)
Acc-usations
I've done episode reviews for "Star Wars" shows before, notably on "Book of Boba Fett" so perhaps I don't have the best track record with it - but, I have free time so I might as well do it again with "The Acolyte" which I started last night. As with quite a few first episodes of shows, this has too much to establish to really form much of an opinion about it.
A century before Republics would shift to Empires, Osha (Amandla Stenberg) is arrested for the murder of a Jedi Master. She protests her innocence to the crime but is identified by a witness and set for transport to Coruscant. The transport vessel is taken over by the other convicts and crashes on an ice planet. Earlier in her life Osha was a trainee at the Jedi academy and her former master Sol (Lee Jung-Jae) leads a team to recover her. At the crash site, Osha sees a vision of her twin sister Mae, long thought dead and apparently the true perpetrator of the crime.
I'll keep this review a spoiler free as I can, but perhaps the most notable thing that the show does is kill off someone who you might have considered one of its key characters, from the advertising if nothing else, in the opening scene. Perhaps flashbacks will give us another opportunity to see them, there is certainly some story to be mined in how Osha left the academy, if not exactly why, but still it's a surprising twist. Her relationship with the Jedis pursuing her is interesting, Sol clearly wants to save and clear her; Yord, played by Charlie Barnett from Headland's hit series "Russian Doll" warily draws his sabre and Jecki - played by an unrecognisable Dafne Keen in prosthetics curiously watches on.
Interesting to see the usage of Neimoidian's in the series and the Jedi temple looks like it has in previous incarnations. No other links to the preexisting Star Wars story, which I'd suggest is probably the right way to go.
As I said, hard to really judge the episode as it's got so many characters to introduce as well as the inciting incident, but I'd describe the episode as being fine. I'm not particularly blown away, but neither am I considering not watching the next one.
Inside No. 9: The Curse of the Ninth (2024)
From The New World.
I don't know whether to be happy that I've got another horror episode of "Inside Number 9" now, or slightly disappointed that they are perhaps not holding back to end on one. I've said in my other reviews that the more horror an episode has, the more that I like it and that was certainly true here, though admittedly I'd have preferred just one more notch up on the scary scale.
Whilst struggling with producing his 9th symphony, a disturbed Nathaniel Burnham (Eddie Marsan) locks himself in his room and then takes his own life. Several years later, Jonah (Reece Shearsmith) a piano tuner and fan of Burnham's work comes to the house to work on the same piano that he used to produce his masterworks. He finds some musical notation inside the piano and presents it to Burnham's widow, Lillian (Natalie Dormer). Along with her lawyer Dickie (Steve Pemberton) they explain about the curse of the 9th symphonies, which has affected many composers, and reveal that Burnham is buried with the rest of his final, unplayed, work. Later the maid, Devonshire (Hayley Squires) presents Jonah with a horrible idea.
Horror and Natalie Dormer. They're really spoiling us with this one. I really liked it from the moment that .. something .. steps out of the shadows behind a working Nathaniel. Anything you don't get a good look at helps in horror stories and with the embodiment of The Curse largely kept in the shadows, or only seen in reflections it is very effective. There's quite a horrific effect at the end that's really well done for the relatively small budget the show would have. Performances are great as you'd imagine from a stellar trio of guest stars. Hayley Squires, who appeared with Reece in Ben Wheatley's "In The Earth" has been great in everything but this is the nearest thing to a comedy she's done and genuinely appears to be able to do it all.
The plot twists backwards and forwards in ways you might have anticipated and in ways you might not and there were some comedy lines that made me laugh. If it was just that tiny bit scarier then it would have been an absolutely top tier episode. As it was it's probably the strongest of this season so far - and with only one last chance to beat it!
Quatermass 2 (1957)
Quite-a-miss too
Another film watched for the "House of Hammer" podcast. I watched the first Quatermass film a couple of weeks ago and whilst I thought it was solid, I had a few issues with its pace and with Brian Donlevy's characterisation of Quatermass. Though I was a little warmer to Donlevy this time I do feel like this was an inferior film.
Whilst investigating a prolific meteorite shower, Professor Quatermass (Brian Donlevy) discovers a mysterious industrial plant that looks oddly similar to plans for moon colonisation that he submitted and was recently refused funding for. During his investigation, Quatermass' colleague Marsh (Bryan Forbes) is infected by one of the meteors and carried into the complex by armed hazmat suited guards. Quatermass tries various methods to get inside the building and see what's happening but meets resistance from all sources.
Yes, Donlevy is a little bit more tolerable in this film. It perhaps helps that, unlike in the previous film, this is not all his fault - but rather a situation he stumbles into, so his frustration and lack of contrition is understandable. He is still unbelievably short with his staff though. The only other member of the cast I recognised was Sid James, who returns to Hammer to play a perpetually drunk journalist, albeit one who comes good towards the end.
I wasn't overly fussed about the film though. "Invasion of the Body Snatches" had been released the previous year and this feels like it borrows liberally from that, though in truth the bulk of the plot was present in Kneale's own Quatermass 2 TV series, which included ideas of Alien infiltration a few years earlier. Whilst this film has some good special effects, particularly the melting man, it was again a little slower than I was hoping for - maybe it's watching it through the prism of a thousand movies on a simar theme, but I found myself thinking - 'OK, I get this' quite a bit and wanting the film to move on.
Whilst this isn't the end of Hammer's sci fi period, nor even its last "Quatermass" film, Frankenstein had shown them the profitable way forward and they're leaning that way from now on.
Challengers (2024)
15 - Love
For my sins, I've not seen any of Luca Guadagnino previous films. "Call Me by Your Name" is obviously a big miss, but for me it's the "Susperia" remake that is the most egregious failure as I love the Argento original. I made the effort to see "Challengers" last night though, before the film closes in the UK. I can see what some people have disliked about it, but I quite enjoyed it.
Coming back from an injury, and lacking in confidence, Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) is enrolled in a regional Tennis tournament by his wife and manager Tashi (Zendaya). The aim is an easy victory to get on a roll ahead of the upcoming US Masters, but unfortunately, also in the tournament is Patrick Zweig (Josh O'Connor). Art and Patrick were friends since childhood and looked to be on a similar track for Tennis success until they both fell in love with Tashi and over the years their complicated love triangle drove wedges between them.
I say I understand the criticism, but actually I think it largely seems to rest on the fact our three leads aren't particularly likeable, which I think is true, but also a rather childish view of the world. It's a complicated series of relationships between them, which includes the fact that Art and Patrick have love and desire for each other as well. You then factor in professional jealously, and living vicariously through failed dreams and it starts to explain why they aren't great to each other all the time.
I was impressed with Guadagnino's style. I dislike Tennis as a televised sport but there's a dynamic artificiality provided in this, mixing both CGI work and practical shooting techniques that makes it way more interesting. He loves a big sexy close up on a sweaty face too, and there are lots of those in this. The score, by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is perhaps most memorable for the way that Guadagnino uses it, pushing the thumping baselines into scenes with dialogue, occasionally overshadowing the words. It's a fascinating way of using music to heighten the emotions of the scene.
I really enjoyed "Challengers" and I'm going to have to work harder to dig into Guadagnino's back catalogue.
Gulliver's Travels (2010)
Keep on travelling.
I have a certain number of Blu Rays now that I'm not proud of. Films that I actively don't like but keep so the collection is bigger and more impressive than it otherwise would be. One such film is 2010's "Gulliver's Travels" - a thoroughly unlikable vehicle for Jack Black that seemingly has no target audience.
Whilst heading to a remote location for a travel report, Lemuel Gulliver (Jack Black) is caught in a storm. He washes up on the beach of the island of lilliput and discovers that population are tiny, relative to him. He's imprisoned, as they are fearful of his size and in the prison he meets Horatio (Jason Segal). . . . even as I write this, I'm too bored to get through it.
It's just not funny - that ultimately is the problem with "Gulliver's Travels". Black is gurning and dancing and singing about and there's a little bit of amusement in the scenes where he recreates "Guitar Hero" or tells the people his life story via a bunch of film moments. But those scenes are few and far between and are mixed in with some of the more tedious and nonsensical elements that I've experience in a while. The scene at the end when he starts to sing "War" by Norman Whitfield and the rest of the cast join in is one of the worst things I've ever seen, I physically cringed when it happened.
Nobody looks like they're having any fun with this, particularly Emily Blunt, whose contractual obligation to the film meant that she couldn't play Natasha Romanov in "Iron Man 2". The only supporting person to escape with any credit is probably Chris O'Dowd - who at least gets to play an actual character which almost nobody else does.
I suppose the target audience is supposed to be kids, really young kids probably, but I can't imagine they'd be very into it, and it's certainly a bad time for everyone else.
Doctor Who: Dot and Bubble (2024)
Slug and Fiddle
This season of "Doctor Who" has really been on a strong run after the shaky opening and this episode, that refused to settle into the conventions and attacks bigotry and stupidity in an increasingly effective way, is another good one.
Lindy Pepper-Bean (Callie Cooke) has a great life living in a walled off colony city on an alien planet. Ensconced in a world of social media, for all her waking hours, she's oblivious to the fact that some of her friends haven't been online recently. That is until her feed is interrupted by Ruby (Millie Gibson) and The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) who encourage her to drop the A. R façade for a moment and take an actual look around. She discovers that their city has been infested with giant slug like creatures, who are eating the inhabitants.
A little derided ahead of it's release as being a "Black Mirror" knock off, the extrapolation of social media to an almost absurd level is admitedly one that both shows have explored. Another episode written to accommodate Gatwa's "Sex Education" commitments, the show largely focuses on Lindy - played in a make up effect to give her an almost CGI look - by Callie Cooke - who I know primarily from the BBC sitcom "Cheaters". She lives "literally" in social media bubble and the camera is focused on her face and her reactions a lot of the time. The bubble is designed to not turn off, even as they walk around their world, they don't look at it and are instead guided by a sat nav style instructions. The scathing indictment of a society that sacrifices experiences for shallow connections is not particularly subtle.
In another episode Lindy would change from a victim to the heroine of the episode, but I think the episodes masterstroke is not going that way. Without specific spoilers, our opinion of her worsens across the run as her selfishness comes to the fore. Then there is the ending, when the Doctors help is refused by the group. I have to admit initially I thought that it was just a critique on the arrogance of privilege, that sort of "I went to Eton" class assuming that they know best because of who they are - but, in retrospect, of course there's a racial aspect to that. The look on their faces and the use of the word "contamination" makes it horrifically apparent and the dawning reaction on the Doctors face as to why they're refusing his assistance is brilliantly performed.
We're on a great little run at the moment, long may it last.
Inside No. 9: Ctrl Alt Esc (2024)
Doctor Death Steve Williams
Gah... almost. I really liked this episode up to the reveal of what was actually happening. I didn't hate it after that, but I was much less interested in it from that point on.
A family, Jason (Steve Pemberton), his wife Lynne (Katherine Kelly) and their daughters Millie (Kalli Tant) and Amy (Maddie Evans) are doing an escape room together, as one final family outing before the aloof Millie goes to University. Having been introduced to the setting by the enthusiastic Doug (Reece Shearsmith) they begin "The serial killers lair" but are told that should anyone come into the room, it will be the killer returning and they should hide.
Really loved the characters in this one. Katherine Kelly is always great, and she is again here, and the two girls were good too. There were lots of funny lines between them, though not without an immediate sense that something is off in the dynamic. It felt a little like a callback's episode, with Doug's struggling actor not a million miles away from Olly Plimsoles. The escape room environment gave them a chance to show some clever writing ideas, like they did with the earlier episode "The Riddle of Sphinx" and I imagine that Steve Pemberton in particular enjoyed coming up with that. I want to keep this review spoiler free, so I won't be specific about the twist, but it also reminded me of another piece of work, a certain play and film written by another "League of Gentlemen" alumnus Jeremy Dyson.
I have written in other reviews that the horror episodes are my favourite, so its when they deviate away from there that the show shook me loose a little bit. Only a bit though, I won't say that it ruined it for me and there were still more clever elements in the reveals of the ending that I did enjoy.
Can't believe that there's only two more to go.
The Young Offenders: Episode #4.6 (2024)
Season Four Review
It feels quite unusual for a series to take four years off between production years and then to continue as if nothing has happened but that's what's occured with "Young Offenders". To be fair to them, they've not missed a beat even though one actors schedule has caused for the dynamics to be different.
Having both been arrested for inadvertent drug smuggling, Jock (Chris Walley) is in Colombia, and is serving an eight-year prison term. Connor (Alex Murphy) makes is back to Cork but is also arrested there and sentenced to six years. Three years later Connor is released to find that his beloved Linda (Demi Isacc Oviawe) is engaged to Gavin Madigan (Daniel Power). His Mother, Mairead (Hilary Rose) has married his former nemesis, Garda Tony Healy (Dominic MacHale) and they are living together. Without his best friend for at least five more years, Connor ends up with explosive Billy Murphy (Shane Casey) as his replacement.
This was another really good season of "Young Offenders" even with the dynamics between the characters being changed by Jock's absence, caused as I understand it, by Chris Walley's schedule in particular Netflix's "Bodkin" series. This restricts him to only really featuring in the final couple of episodes of this run. The new dynamic sees Shane Casey promoted from just being a part time headcase to trying to be Connors new best friend. There's also an elevated role for Dominic MacHale too and a heartwarming episode that sees him bond with both Connor and reunite with his father.
As ever, the grossout elements of the series, of which there are less this time, are still mixed in with these touching moments, especially the season finale that puts almost all the shows conflicts to bed. (So much so you wonder if that might serve as a series finale - though there is clearly story to be mined when Jock returns to Cork).
Be Cool (2005)
Cool-onic Irrigation.
Another DVD watched out of the door, in this case, straight into the bin was "Be Cool", sequel to 1995's "Get Shorty". I'd never seen the film before and, if I'm honest, wish I hadn't seen it now.
Eager to get out of the film business and into the music world, Chilli Palmer (John Travolta) is inadvertently present for the murder of Tommy Athens (James Woods). Witnessing the hit makes him a target for the Russian Mafia, but Palmer also makes himself a target for producers Raji Lowenthal (Vince Vaughn) and Nick Carr (Harvey Keitel) by poaching talented singer Linda Moon (Christina Milian) away from them. In teaming up with Athen's widow, Edie (Uma Thurman) in their music studio, Palmer lands himself another issue, as Tommy owed money to gangster rap mogul Sin LaSalle (Cedric The Entertainer).
A lot of the blame for the failure went on the late decision to switch from an R Rating to a PG13 certificate and, truth be told, that doesn't help. It lends a level of artificiality to a story about murderous gangsters and rappers, as they can't swear that much. But it's really killed by the terrible performances from literally everyone in it. Admittedly, time has not been kind to the not one, but at least three white performers who inexplicably talk like their playing at being black gangsters. I'll accept that was in the culture at the time, but it does leave Vince Vaughn giving the most offensive and unlikeable performance of his career - which is strong when you consider he also played Norman Bates. But everyone, even Thurman and Travolta are aful.
These terrible performances give the film a semi-improvised feel, a fact that is further compounded by the crowbarring in of whatever musical artists were contractually obligated to appear in the film. "Do you want to go and see the Black-Eyed Peas tonight?" "I mean, there's several variations of organised crime trying to kill us, but sure!". This is also true for the dance scene with Palmer and Edie which clearly only exists to call back the scene between the two in "Pulp Fiction".
It's a tedious, self-indulgent mess that has only gotten more offensive with age.
Doctor Who: 73 Yards (2024)
Long distance relationship.
've given myself a little bit more time to sit and think about this episode of "Doctor Who" as it's one of the more divisive and considered that they've done in a while. Choosing not to give answers to questions is going to be seen as either a cop out, or a master stroke depending on the viewer; perhaps those answers are only being held for a later episode?
Arriving on the Welsh coast, The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) accidentally breaks a spell circle and vanishes. Ruby (Mille Gibson) is alone, save for a woman on the horizon who seems to be exactly the same distance away from her, regardless of which direction she moves in. Unable to find the Doctor, Ruby eventually heads back to London with her otherworldly follower maintaining the distance. Decades pass and it's not until the emergence of a politician, Roger ap Gwilliam (Aneurin Barnard), that Ruby gains any idea what it all might all be about.
What's undeniable is that, whilst watching the episode, the woman in the distance is terrifying. She moves through a loop of actions seemingly uncontrollably; it reminded me of Reece Shearsmith's Silent Singer from "Psychoville". It only worsens when she interacts with another person and tells them something so horrific about Ruby that that they run away screaming. We never get to hear what that piece of information is and according to Davies, we never will - but it's masterfully sold by Michelle Greeidge and by the returning Jemma Redgrave. Other questions of the episode, like what happens to the Doctor, aren't answered either. It interesting though that they're still building "Doctor's Day Off" episodes into the show, even though it's now only 8 episodes.
There are other themes that continue. Susan Twist appears in the episode, again in a new role and Ruby seems to half recognise her this time - showing that perhaps there is something going on there beyond a casting director reusing an actress. Also, we're again, as with the "The Devil's Chord", rather more in the world of magic, than science fiction, with no rational explanation given for any of the events.
I can see why some people didn't like the fact that it's not providing those answers, and even I'm not sure exactly what the point of letting Marti stumble into Roger's clutches was, but whilst the episode was happening, I can't say I was anything less than enthralled.
La Brea (2021)
It's the (tar) pits.
I've reviewed each season of "La Brea" and you can find those lodged against the final episode of each run. Now it's (mercifully) over, I thought I'd put something here too - a warning if you will, to avoid like a hole; a hole in the plot or a hole through time, there are dozens of both.
A giant sinkhole opens in Los Angeles and the people who fall down it awaken still in the same place, but in 10,000 BC. This divides the Harris family, with Eve (Natalie Zea) and her son Josh (Jack Martin) in the past and her estranged husband Gavin (Eoin Macken) and Daughter Izzy (Zyra Gorecki) in 2022. Gavin has, for years, suffered from strange visions, which has driven a wedge into his family but now the visions seem inexplicably linked to the new location his wife and son find themselves in.
I mean, let's be clear, this is garbage. On a both a conceptual and technical level. The acting is bad, the characters are boring, and the CGI work is usually pretty terrible. It's the latest in a long line of shows to try and recapture "LOST's" zeitgeist impact, but it's trying to do it without spending the same amount of money, either in terms of promotion, or calibre of performer, and just having a weird, high concept, plot isn't enough to get you there. It's also really bad at two key aspects of telling a story like this, which are - I've no idea where we are geographically, by which I mean the distances between places seems to change to suit the story. One set of people will travel all night to reach a place and another group will be there in minutes. And also, I've no idea how much time has actually passed since they arrived through the timehole, it feels like days, but they've really not done much, but nor are they fighting over what meagre resources they do have.
It all has no consequence because it doesn't feel real. By which I mean not that I can't parse the high concept of it, but more that nobody seems to be struggling with the lack of running water, or getting enough to eat, or really anything, other than the occasional wild animal.
As if realising that their selected time period was boring, they later find the excuse to bring dinosaurs into the mix, which feels like it should have been the decision made when pitching the show in the first place. Also, almost none of the cast end up having to stay in 10,000 BC, coming and going with the new dual portals. Characters I don't care about appear from nowhere and switch sides, from a side I don't understand to a faction I'm not interested in. It would all be OK if the show just committed to being campy fun, but it doesn't, it's suddenly all about confused paramilitary organisations that have ludicrously impractical plans.
I don't normally hate watch shows, life isn't long enough, but I did with "La Brea" which I think has to take the crown as the worst series I've watched all the way through.
La Brea: The Road Home, Part 2 (2024)
Season Three Review
Free at last ! I really hated "La Brea" from start to finish, watching it has been one of the most painful televisual experiences I've ever had. It was awful and it was only my own stupid sense of duty that kept dragging me back.
The destruction of the portal machine leads to random portals being created and for prehistoric creatures to end up in 10,000 BC also. The destruction of their camp sees the survivors form an uneasy but closer alliance with the nearby village. Gavin (Eoin Macken) is desperate to find out what happened to Eve (Natalie Zea) and tries to track down Maya Schmidt (Claudia Ware) who he believes may know something about it.
I feel like I'm flogging a dead horse here but "La Brea" remains terrible by any metric you care to weigh it against. The performances are awful, the effects are poor, the story is confused and nonsensical and it continues to ignore its own established rules of time travel, let alone proposed ideas from other (better) science fiction stories.
As if realising that their selected time period was boring, they find the excuse to bring dinosaurs into the mix, which feels like it should have been the decision made when pitching the show in the first place. Also almost none of the cast end up having to stay in 10,000 BC, coming and going with the new dual portals. Characters I don't care about appear from nowhere and switch sides, from a side I don't understand to a faction I'm not interested in. It would all be OK if the show just committed to being campy fun, but it doesn't it's suddenly all about confused paramilitary organisations that have ludicrously impractical plans.
I don't normally hate watch shows, life isn't long enough, but I did with "La Brea" which I think has to take the crown as the worst series I've watched all the way through.
The Steel Bayonet (1957)
Real Steel
Another film watched for The House of Hammer" podcast, "The Steel Bayonet" sees Hammer still flicking between low budget black and white films and full colour expensive affairs like "The Curse of Frankenstein". Despite being one of the former, I quite enjoyed "The Steel Bayonet" and thought it prime for a remake. I should also say that there are two versions of the film on Youtube at the moment. I'd suggest that, if possible, you should watch the colourised version. (Normally I hate those, but the overall quality of both the visual print and audio track are far superior).
Towards the end of the North African campaign of World War 2, a depleted force, led by Major Alan Gerrard (Leo Genn) is tasked with securing and defending a small farmstead. The farm is of key strategic importance as Military intelligence believes that the Germans are massing a larger army to lead a counterattack. From the farms water tower, Artillery Captain Mead (Kieron Moore) can call in strikes on the advancing Afrika Korps, but they eventually become aware of his position.
I thought that this was a really good war film, betrayed slightly by its filming location being somewhere in rural England and certainly not the North African desert. The main performances are really good, though on the version I watched it was unfortunate that the poor stock meant I couldn't tell a lot of the soldiers apart, so when they began to die it didn't mean as much to me as it might have. (I had no idea Michael Caine was in it until I read the Wikipedia page). It's a good story though, of heroism and sacrifice, and is perhaps surprisingly critical of the war office, given how soon after the conflict the film was made.
It's the first of these Hammer films that I've thought was crying out for a remake. A more genuine filming location and a little more realism in the dying acting is all that's required. As it was though it was a nice surprise and one of the few I'd actively recommend.
Lawmen: Bass Reeves (2023)
Bass Hunter
I've been watching "Yellowstone" and its historical spinoffs over the last few years and whilst, no longer technically taking place in the same universe (whatever that means in an historical old west context) I, of course, settled in to watch "Lawman: Bass Reeves" too.
Having escaped from his 'owner', Confederate Colonel George Reeves (Shea Whigham), Bass Reeves (David Oyelowo) eventually establishes a life for himself and his family on a struggling farm. He meets a Deputy US Marshal, Sherrill Lynn (Dennis Quaid) who he assists on the capture of a criminal. Seeing an aptitude for it, he becomes a Deputy himself, earning quite a reputation for bringing people to justice. Though it's not directly his responsibility, he comes to wonder if justice delivered here is truly that, particularly for African Americans.
Despite not being in the world, tonally the show is pretty similar to the rest of "Yellowstone". It's a grim story of violence, threats and retribution with little in the way of humour. Taylor Sheridan can still pull in a good cast though, including smaller but key roles for Quaid, Barry Pepper, Donald Sutherland, Paula Malcomson and Dale Dickey. The second strand of the story is the home life that Reeves leaves behind. His wife is played by Lauren Banks who clashes with their eldest daughter, played by Demi Singleton, about the relative safety Reeves position gives them, so soon after emancipation.
I will say that perhaps the show includes a bit too much of the home life, especially as, assuming this is the end of the series as is, it doesn't really go anywhere. The subplot to that subplot, involving Grantham Coleman as a man with a vision of black sovereignty in the future also doesn't really go anywhere. Much of this feels like it suffered due to the decision to switch the show from an ongoing series, to a one and done.
However, it's great whenever David Oyelowo is on screen. Bass Reeves is a smart and capable hero, albeit one struggling with the result of his skill and Oyelowo displays the duality of all of it. If it was just a little more consistently focused on him, I think I'd have thought even higher of the series as a whole. Instead, it was just good, rather than great.