Pulp Fiction (1994)

Gangsters Jules and Vincent are tasked with recovering a valuable package for their boss, Marcellus Wallace.  Vincent is also charged with taking the big man's wife out for the evening and keeping her from getting bored while the Marcellus attends to some business.  Vincent's rather nervous about this since the last guy to get too friendly with Mrs Wallace ended up being thrown off a 4th storey balcony.  But hopefully Marcellus's other business - rigging a boxing match - will go smoothly, which ought to put him in a good mood, right?

I loved Pulp Fiction when it came out.  It had a great cast, great music, and a non-linear narrative structure that actually tied together solidly.  It also had plenty of 'edgy' and confronting content, and Quentin Tarantino's trademark rambling, discursive, yet somehow cool and compelling dialogue. It was pretty much the perfect film for me at 21.

These days, I certainly still admire the cast and the clever structure, and oh man the soundtrack really is so good, but I find myself more aware of how the clever structure is masking the lack of a truly end-to-end story.  Plus I now find that the dialogue and 'edgy' content are sometimes trying just a bit too hard for their own good.  Finally, in the case of the content, there's an uncomfortable whiff of homophobia.  And yes, this is a nearly 25 year old film and a product of its time, but that's not a get out of jail free card, IMO.

So, there are some blemishes on the rose these days, but Pulp Fiction is still a very well-crafted film, from the time before Tarantino's particular peccadilloes became quite so overly familiar.  Worth a look if you don't mind that it's pretty much entirely about not very nice people doing not very nice things.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

As Xmas approaches, four archetypal teenagers - the jock, the nerd, the princess and the Daria - get stuck in detention after school.  Their job: to remove paperclips from thousands of old documents in the school storage room.  Hardly a recipe for excitement, but then they stumble across an old console system with a game called "Jumanji".  They decide to take a break from the humdrum busy work they've been saddled with ... and find themselves literally transformed into their characters inside the game.  Naturally, said game is filled with all the usual dangers you'd expect - rampaging beasts, evil mercenaries, and so forth.

Now the quartet must learn how to leverage the abilities of their characters - and how to work together - in order to escape the game.  If they fail ... well, none of them are really keen to find out what would happen then.

So obviously this is a sequel to the 1996 Robin Williams film.  Which I have never seen.  Fortunately, knowledge of the original film is completely unnecessary, as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is very much a standalone narrative.

Even more fortunately, this film is a whole lot of fun.  It's got a great cast and a fast-moving script that's liberally studded with both comedy and action sequences.  The tension between the characteristics of the in-game characters and the 'real life' people playing them is used to good effect throughout: even the potentially problematic angle of Jack Black playing a teenage woman suddenly stuck in a man's body is handled well.

I doubt you'll regret giving Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle a couple of hours of your time.

Megan Leavey (2017)

Frustrated with her dead-end job and difficult relationship with her parents, 19-year old Megan Leavey enlists with the Marines.  It's not an immediately successful decision.  Although she successfully completes basic training, Leavey still doesn't have a lot of direction in her life.  At least, she doesn't until a misdemeanor lands her with a week's punishment detail, cleaning the kennels of the bomb-sniffing dogs.

Leavey sets out to prove her worth and earn a place on the K9 unit, studying hard for exams, working on her fitness, and practising her marksmanship until she is rated 'expert' with a rifle.  On her eventual success, she is paired up with a German Shepherd named "Rex", and - once she and the highly-strung animal have bonded - they are deployed to Iraq.  It's dangerous work in a war zone, but for Leavey and Rex, the real battle will start when the deployment ends, and Leavey must fight to be able to give Rex a home.

As the image above says, this is based on a true story.  Megan Leavey is a real person (and has a cameo as a minor character in the film), who really did serve in Iraq, receiving the Achievement Medal with a "V" device for heroism in combat, and who waged a public (and successful) campaign to save Rex from being put to sleep when he was no longer able to work.

This film is a solid if perhaps slightly by the numbers biopic.  It perhaps spends a little too long getting to the point where Leavey and Rex team up, it glosses over some of the challenges faced by women in the military, and it's guilty of being a bit vague about dates in order to make the narrative more straightforward.  Still, I certainly don't regret watching it.  If you want a feel-good movie about a brave woman and her dog, it's certainly got you covered!

(If, on the other hand, you want something that does more to explore that it is like being a woman in the military, then I recommend the book Love My Rifle More Than You).

Dick Turpin, Season 4 (1982)

Dick Turpin and his occasionally bumbling sidekick Swiftnick are back for another series of adventures that whitewash the real life highwayman as a Robin Hood-esque figure who only ever robs from the rich, and who would never harm a woman or a child.  It's all very light and fluffy family-friendly entertainment where nobody ever dies in the swordfights, and where the plotlines are only a step above pantomime in their tone.  "Turpin is dressed up as a lady and the bad guy is flirting with him!  Such japes!".  I mean, I remember loving this show as a kid, but I would have been 8 when these episodes aired, and my tastes were frankly not very sophisticated at that age.

Those of you with exceptional memories, or who are browsing the archives some time in the future, may notice that I have gone straight from reviewing season 2 to season 4, and be wondering what happened to season 3.  Basically, it's because I'm using the Wikipedia/IMDB structure of the show, which puts these episodes as a separate season because they aired after season 3, whereas the DVD set I have actually counts them as the second half of season 2, since they were produced before season 3.  So I just stuck the next disc in the player, and got these episodes as a result.  It hardly matters, since this is definitely not a show that worries about continuity to any great extent.

I'll admit I am curious to see season 3, since it's all a single storyline, rather than the standalone episodes of this and other season.  It will be interesting to see if there's a noticeable shift in the entertainment value (for either better or worse) with the change in format.

The Jungle Book (1967)

Bagheera the Panther finds a human baby lost in the jungle, and takes it to a local wolf pack in hopes the new parents will adopt it.  Which they do.  Who knew panthers and wolves were so easily swayed by a child's laugh?

Ten years later, the child has grown into a strong and rather willful young man named Mowgli, who wants nothing more than to keep living in the forest with his friends.  Unfortunately, the fearsome Shere Khan, a deadly tiger who hates all humans, has returned to the area after a long absence.  The wolves decide that Mowgli must be sent back to his own people, as Shere Khan will surely hunt and kill the boy if he remains in the jungle.

Bagheera volunteers to escort the reluctant Mowgli in this journey, which leads to a variety of humorous and/or exciting encounters with various other denizens of the forest, be they bears, elephants, apes or ... well, you know Shere Khan will show up eventually, right?

The Jungle Book was a success for Disney, and it's not hard to see why.  It's got some good musical numbers ("Bare Necessities" and "I Wanna Be Like You" being the signature tunes) and plenty of laughs.  Plus at a snappy 78 minutes, it would be difficult for it to outstay its welcome.

All that said, I don't think it would be unfair to say this film is not in the top tier of Disney releases.  There's some obviously re-used animation (mainly involving the snake, Kaa, who is voice acted by the same guy that did Winnie the Pooh), and the film lacks a strong plot through-line or villain.  It's mostly just a series of scenes tenuously linked by the need to take Mowgli back to humanity, and Shere Khan barely even has time to show up before the film is over.  It's a light, fun film, but not ultimately a very emotionally deep one.

Into the Badlands, Season 2 (2017)

Sonny's attempt to rescue his family has failed.  He's been shipped out of the Badlands and sold as a slave, while they've disappeared.  Also vanished is his friend MK, who was dragged off by strange, super-powered monks and is now undergoing training in their secret temple.  Sonny must find his way home in the company of the cheerfully amoral Bajie (Nick Frost, basically playing himself but with mad martial arts skills), all the while hoping that the escalating war between the Barons of the Badlands won't kill everyone he cares about before he gets there.

The post-apocalyptic wuxia western antics of Into the Badlands continue in season 2, and despite how much I should love a show that blends those genres, I remain pretty ambivalent about the actual execution here.  The show desperately lacks a charismatic lead, for one thing.  The most engaging person on screen is easily Nick Frost, and as much as I enjoy seeing him cast as a ninja badass, he's not one of the ostensible leads.  Unfortunately, neither Sonny or MK is an interesting enough character for their capable, but not exceptional, actors to make them compelling, and the other good guys generally don't get enough screen time to really make a mark.

I also feel like the show also lacks a strong villain.  I mean, it has a whole lot of bad guys, many of whom will temporarily join forces with one or another of the heroes, but none of them are particularly memorable or interesting.  I shouldn't want to see your villains defeated because I'm bored of them.

For some people, the wuxia action and cool visual style of this show will more than make up for its limitations.  But I'm not one of those people.

The Disaster Artist (2017)

In 1998, Greg Sestero meets Tommy Wiseau at an acting class.  Tommy's older (though he claims not to be), very cagey about his past in general and clearly lying about where he's from.  He's also a terrible actor, but Greg is impressed by Tommy's complete fearlessness in front of an audience and the two set out to LA to try and make their fortunes.

Neither of them enjoy much success, leading to Greg's frustrated outburst "I wish we could just make our own movie".  To the younger man's surprise, Tommy seizes on the idea, producing a script and funding the production of a film.  Where Tommy got the money for this - the budget is estimated as $6 million - is still not known today.

Of course, Tommy intends to produce, direct and star in his film, despite his lack of knowledge of the technical aspects of movie-making and his bargain basement acting skills.  The resulting production would ramble through all kinds of strange behaviour - stranger even than the script, which was quite odd to begin with - emerging in 2003 as The Room, which is widely regarded as one of the most compellingly awful films ever made.

The Disaster Artist is a well-made film with good performances, quite unlike the travesty whose production it depicts, and yet I found it much less enjoyable than the weird and misshapen film that Wiseau produced.  Much of The Disaster Artist relies on the awkwardness that Wiseau's behaviour frequently creates, which is not really my kind of thing, and honestly I feel like watching Tommy Wiseau's actual madcap creation better captures what a strange individual he really is.

The Room is a fascinatingly dreadful film.  This is a competence one, but somehow less interesting for it.

South of Nowhere, Season 2 (2006)

Spencer and Ashley's relationship has finally and unequivocally moved from friendship to romance, but that's hardly the end of the drama in their lives.  Spencer isn't ready to share her sexuality with her parents, and even if she was, the sudden death of Ashley's father and revelation that he had a secret second daughter would probably mean it wasn't the best time.

Not that Spencer and Ashley are the only ones with problems.  Both of Spencer's brothers are dealing with challenges that threaten to derail the futures they had imagined for themselves, and her parents are going through a rough patch in their marriage that isn't going to get any smoother if the truth about Spencer's sexuality were to be revealed.  It's safe to say that Mrs Carlin isn't at all accepting of the idea that any of her children might be gay.

What it all adds up to is that everyone is going to have to dig deep and fight for what they want ... but at the end of the day, do Spencer and Ashley actually want the same thing?

So South of Nowhere ended season 1 with some pretty momentous events, and it repeats and embellishes that trick in season 2.  I'm not 100% a fan of what happens in the season finale, personally, though I certainly can't complain that it comes out of left field, as the writers foreshadow it pretty hard.

If a coming-of-age and coming out drama seems like it would be something you'd like, South of Nowhere is a solid example of the form.

Samurai: Musashi Miyamoto (1954)

When war arrives, local outcast Takezo resolves to join the army and find fame or death.  Takezo is joined in this adventure by his only friend, Matahachi, who leaves his mother and fiancee in order to seize a chance for glory.

It doesn't go so well.  Takezo ultimately proves a deadly warrior, but the battle is a crushing defeat and Matahachi is injured.  The pair manage to flee, staying half a step ahead of the enemy, but the whole territory is soon overrun by the victors, and Takezo's tendency to solve his problems with a sword isn't likely to let him live a quiet life ...

These days it's probably pretty safe to say that the most famous Samurai film of 1954 is Seven Samurai, but it was actually this film that picked up the Oscar for foreign-language film back at the time of release.  And from a technical sense, I can see why: it is certainly beautifully shot.  For modern western audiences though, I suspect it might prove a rather inaccessible film.  It's very deliberately paced, and characters act on motivations and cultural assumptions that are very different to those of a 21st century English-speaking person.  It's also the first film in a trilogy - and was always planned as such - and it rather has the feel of being a prologue.  Certainly the film ends just as it seems like Takezo, who has adopted the name Musashi Miyamoto, is finally beginning the journey toward the status he's always dreamed of.

Fortunately, I have the whole trilogy, so I'll be able to find out what happens next ...

Eureka, Season 1 (2006)

US Marshal Jack Carter is dragging his rebellious daughter Zoe back from her latest escapade when a car accident leaves them stranded for a few days in the seemingly unremarkable town of Eureka.  But as the show's tag line says "Small Town.  Big Secret."  Eureka is actually a secret government think tank, where the best scientists in the world work to deliver the cutting edge technology of the future.

Of course, this is a TV show, so "cutting edge" doesn't so much mean "more pixels on your phone's camera" so much as it does "quantum field generators" and other things that might accidentally end the world if there isn't someone around to help save it.

And if you thinking "Jack Carter is about to find himself in a new job", then you're exactly right.

Eureka is a light and breezy science fiction show with a likable cast and generally satisfying "mystery/disaster of the week" episodes.  It also has some longer term plotlines that are threaded through from episode to episode, but in season one these are still very much in the hints and foreshadowing stage, without a lot of follow through.

Overall, if you like your entertainment a little on the quirky and nerdy side, then check out Eureka.  You'll be able to say "I've found it!".




(Yes, that was a really nerdy joke.)

White Slave (1985)

Catherine Miles is on an Amazonian river cruise with her parents when their boat is attacked.  Mama and Papa Miles are both killed, and Catherine is abducted by the native tribe who appear to be behind the attack: a fate she naturally abhors.

Given that we first meet Catherine when she is back in civilisation and being tried for a double murder, however, it's not exactly a spoiler to reveal that the natives aren't actually responsible for her parents' deaths.

"Cannibal films" were a popular genre in Italian cinema in the 1970s and 1980s.  The titillating content was no doubt a factor, and I am sure that budget conscious film-makers appreciated the fact that you could pad the running time with documentary footage.  In fact, the first films in the genre purported to be documentaries, in much the same way that Fox purports to be news.  Pretty much all you needed to make one, in fact, was an attractive blonde willing to take her top off, and a bunch of extras to wear loin cloths.

White Slave is very much emblematic of the genre - at least my limited experience with it - and also presents a crash course in that age-old cheapie movie technique of never showing the actor's lips move if you can help it.  That lets you slap all the dialogue in during post production, and also alleviates the disconnect of mouth movements that are for a language other than that on the audio track.

The above is hopefully interesting, you you will probably notice that none of it addresses whether the movie is any good.  It isn't.

Avatar: The Last Airbender, Season 2 (2006)

The Avatar continues his quest to master the powers of all four elements so that he can thwart the imperialistic ambitions of the Fire Nation and restore peace between the realms of the land.  He's accompanied in this quest not just by his long term companions, but also by new allies he encounters during the course of his travels.

Of course, he's also accumulating new enemies.  Not only is he still the target of Prince Zuko, but Zuko's sociopathic sister Azula, and a variety of other third parties with their own agendas.

This is a worthy continuation of the show's overall story, and I actually like the characters more in this season than in the first: the Avatar in particular feels less selfish and childish in his behaviour.  Some of the weaknesses of the earlier season do still remain, though: the writing sometimes layers farce too heavily into the main plot, undermining the gravity of the supposedly life-and-death struggle of the war with the Fire Nation, and there are several episodes which feel like they're padding the story more than advancing it.  You could probably pare this season down from 20 episodes to 13 and not really lose all that much.

Still, overall this is a good 'epic fantasy' tale, and if that's your kind of thing, and you don't mind checking out a "kids' show", The Last Airbender is worth a try.  Especially anything involving Toph.  Toph is great.

The Lego Batman Movie (2017)

When Batman thwarts the Joker's latest scheme, all seems to be business as usual. But when the Caped Crusader brusquely dismisses the Joker's claim to be his nemesis, remarking that he's "fighting a few different people right now", the Clown Prince of Crime seizes on a new plan: he will trick Batman into sending him to the Phantom Zone, and team up with the villains currently trapped there to destroy Gotham.

Given that said villains include Sauron, Jaws, Voldemort and the Daleks, it is safe to say that this is not a particularly serious - or even very sensible - film.  But is safe to say that The Lego Batman Movie is a fun time.  It's full of action and gags, and rolics along with its tongue firmly planted in its cheek for pretty much all of its 100 minute run time.  I say "pretty much all" because there are some sub-plots that never pay off, like Bats's at-first-sight infatuation with Barbara Gordon, and the ending is a bit on the weak side.  It is the most Lego thing about the film, so I can why they went in the direction they did, I just think there were better ways to get "Lego-riffic" while wrapping things up.

At the end of the day I don't think this film is quite as clever or as funny or as heartfelt as the original Lego Movie - though I do appreciate the absence of an overly long 'live action' sequence - but I'm certainly glad I saw it.  If you're in the mood for an hour and a half or so of nerdy jokes and pop culture references, you could certainly do worse than this.

Veronica Mars, Season 1 (2004)

Veronica Mars used to be part of the 'in' crowd at Neptune High.  She might only be the son of the sheriff, but she was dating the coolest boy, and best friends with the coolest girl.  And then that best friend, Lilly Kane, was murdered.  Veronica's father accused Lilly's father of the murder, and the Mars family found itself ostracized.  Daddy Mars lost his job, and the new sheriff immediately found a new suspect for the murder.

Now an outsider, Veronica helps her dad at his new PI job, makes some pocket money on the side by doing freelance investigations for kids from school, and secretly tries to find proof of who really killed Lilly.

When it came out in 2004, Veronica Mars was quite unlike anything else that was on TV.  It not only featured a tough and feisty female lead who used her wits and skills to out-maneuver her enemies, but it combined solid episode-by-episode plots with a satisfying season-long arc that never felt like it 'cheated' to maintain the mystery.

Fourteen years later, the landscape of TV is very different, and this show is no longer so unique in its strengths.  Indeed, its feminist credentials in particular look a little tarnished: there's an uncomfortable amount of focus on proving Veronica's sexual 'purity'.  It's also undermined just a smidgen by the fact that later seasons of the show, as well as the 2014 film, didn't measure up to the same standard.

Still, even though it doesn't stand out quite so much any more, and despite the uneven quality later in the franchise, the first season of this show is still excellent television; well-written and with a great cast.  It's recommended.

The Secret of Kells (2009)

It is the height of the Viking age, with the Norse raiders striking across Ireland, burning and pillaging wherever they go.  In the community of Kells, the Abbot drives the villagers and monks to build an immense wall, in the hope of keeping the threat at bay.  This is not popular with the monks, who resent being taken away from their work as illuminators.  The beauty and knowledge contained in their books, they believe, are what is important.  If the Vikings come, these treasures can be carried away and continue to provide comfort and information to the people.

Caught in the middle of this is the Abbot's nephew, Brendan.  This young man marvels at the sumptuous beauty of the books, but must obey the orders of his uncle.  Mustn't he?

And what will happen when raiders finally do come?

Ironically, given the intricacy of the medieval manuscripts it is about, The Secret of Kells has a comparatively sparse and simple artistic style.  It's by no means crudely animated, but the stylised look may take some adjustment if you are used to Disney and Pixar's more opulent design.  I think it's worth the time and effort to make that adjustment, though, as the film is thoughtful, interesting, and quite artful.  It does definitely work better if you to give it your full attention, though.  Don't muck about with your phone while you're watching it.

Glee, Season 2 (2010)

If you want to be a social pariah at William McKinley High, the quickest route is still to join the show choir, AKA the Glee Club.  You can be confident of a full dance card of being throw into dumpsters and/or getting a daily face-full of slushie.

But the kids on the club persevere, because show choir remains one of the few places where they can be themselves, even if sometimes their fellow club members would prefer they were a little bit different to who they actually are.  It's something that brings them a sense of belonging, even as it also makes them social outcasts.

Glee only started about 10 years ago, but structurally it feels like a show from an earlier era than that, before binge-watching DVDs (and now, Netflix) became common.  The writing ping pongs back and forth on character attributes and their motivations, manipulating them to serve the needs of the current episode and then discarding those elements in the next.  It makes the show a better 'week by week' watch than it is to watch in a concentrated block.

At the end of the day, though, the main reason to watch Glee is the song and dance numbers, on that front, the show continues (with occasional missteps like the awkward Rocky Horror episode) to deliver.

Silver Bullets (2011)

Ethan is a disaffected film maker resentful (even if he says he isn't) that his girlfriend Claire is more successful in her acting career than he is at writing and directing.  He's a joyless, angry man who frankly doesn't deserve the company of his own hand, let alone another human being.

She gets a good role, he casts her best friend as his lover, it make things awkward between them and she starts having feelings for the director of her new film.  Which is not surprising since he is about 200 times less of an ass than Ethan is.

The synopsis of the film on IMDB talks about Claire slipping into a fantasy world as the stress of the situation gets to her, but this is not well supported by what actually appears on screen.  Apparently the movie was largely improvised which would certainly go some way to explaining its sometimes rather vague sense of progression and development.

It's a shame in the end that the film wasn't produced from a more developed script: one in which the supposed synopsis was actually followed more strongly.  Or you know, one where some other actual plot was introduced and followed-through.  I say a shame because this is quite well shot and solidly acted.  The people involved are technically competent at the "putting things on the screen" part of the film-making equation, they just seem to have fatally neglected the "communicating the point of it all" aspect.

Dead Rising: Endgame (2016)

The United States is still gripped by fear of the zombie contagion, and certain shadowy forces are putting that fear to use for their own ends.  It's up to journalist Chase Carter, and the small handful of people he can trust, to try and expose the truth, and potentially save the lives of over a million infected people.

A couple of weeks back, when I reviewed the first Dead Rising film, I made a comment to the effect that the movie would profit from jettisoning much of its plot and just focusing on the zany undead action.  This film seems eager to prove the point.  There are a couple of great zombie-fighting action scenes in this film, but unfortunately they're buried in a movie that's 80% focused on tedious political conspiracy malarkey.  Malarkey that, at the end of the day, basically has no real pay-off or conclusion, and wastes some solid actors in the process.  The lack of a real ending here is, I suspect, quite deliberate.  For all that this is called Endgame, it seems likely that they originally hoped to do at least one more film after it.  I mean, Resident Evil has managed six films, after all, so why not Dead Rising?

If you're a hard core zombie genre fan, then this is probably worth checking out, at least for the 15-20 minutes where it remembers to actually be a zombie film.  Otherwise, you can skip it.

P2 (2007)

Angela is something of a workaholic.  This causes friction with her family, especially tonight, on Christmas Eve, when she's once again staying late at the office and not on her way to her sister's place for dinner.

And then when Angela finally does go to leave, wouldn't you know it?  Her car won't start.  The attendant in her underground car park tries to be helpful - in fact, if anything, he's a little too eager to please.  Still, it's surely not like he's a lunatic who's about to abduct her and subject her to a night of terror, right?

Right?

So it turns out that I've watched two Xmas-themed horror films this month.  That wasn't planned, but it almost makes me wish that I was intending to round out this October with Black Xmas.  But I'm not :)

P2 is a decent little cat and mouse, stalker and prey type film.  It doesn't really break any especially new ground or offer any surprises if you've ever seen this kind of thing before, but it has a couple of neat set pieces.  I particularly liked the elevator sequences.

The film is also helped a lot by the fact that Rachel Nichols is very good as Angela: she presents just the right combination of vulnerability and toughness.

Worth checking out if stalker movies are something you like.

Frozen (2010)

Dan, Joe and Parker con their way onto the ski slopes for a discounted rate, then further con their way into getting one extra run down the mountain when the resort starts to close for bad weather.

Unfortunately, there's a miscommunication among the staff on the ski lifts, and they shut the chair lift down while the trio are halfway up the mountain, suspended some forty feet or more in the air, while a blizzard rolls in.

Obviously, this is not the Disney Frozen.

What I liked about this film was that it's the kind of horror film that even people who aren't into horror films can enjoy.  At it's heart, it's a character study about three people caught in a situation where if they stay where they are, they will die ... but to try and get down from the chair lift carries a wealth of dangers of its own.  That's actually quite a horrifying situation to imagine yourself in, and most of us can probably relate to the scenario more easily than we can being stalked by an acid-blooded alien or an undead psycho in a hockey mask.

The writing and performances are also tight, with the script being sensibly constrained within a 90 minute window and the main trio all delivering believably fraught performances.

If you're in the market for a tense, character-driven film, check it out.

An American Werewolf in London (1981)

Jack and David are a pair of American students on vacation in the north of England.  One cold night they seek shelter in a village pub, only to find the locals distinctly unwelcome.  They are forced on with only "stay off the moors" to guide them.

This being a film, they fail to heed the warnings they're given and end up snack chow for a fierce beast.  Jack is killed, but David survives thanks to the villagers having a change of heart and killing the beast.

Three weeks later, he wakes up in London, being tended to by a pretty young nurse.  If only he could shake these terrible nightmares ...

An American Werewolf in London is a film with a number of memorable scenes, especially some of David's dreams.  On the other hand, it's definitely not one where you should think about the specific plot points too closely.  The villagers, in particular, act in ways that the plot requires rather than in ways that make much sense.  Also, the ending is a bit flat.  The Howling, which came out at a similar time, nails a similar climax much more strongly, to my mind.

Still, if you're up for a slightly comedic but still sometimes scary werewolf movie, and you don't mind that there's an indulgent moment or two along the way (John Landis, who wrote and directed this, also did The Blues Brothers, and this film will remind you of that), then this is worth your time.

To Let (2006)

Clara and Mario need to find a new apartment, and Mario drags the work-weary Clara well out of the city to check out a hot lead he's got on a place at a really good rate.  Clara's misgivings grow when she sees the building and its dilapidated state, but Mario is determined that they should give the place a real chance.

Mario may or may not live to regret ignoring Clara's misgivings, because being in this building is even more dangerous than its half-derelict state would suggest ...

To Let is a solid, taut bit of bloody horror violence, with a very lean run time and a pretty full tilt pace.  Basically the only weak points are those few moments where it does ease its grip on the throttle.

If you don't mind subtitles (or you can speak Spanish), gory violence, and a bleak overall tone, then this is one rental you might want to check out ...

Dark Reel (2008)

When Adam Waltz wins a walk-on role in the latest low budget schlockfest starring scream queen Cassie Blue, he doesn't expect to end up in a romance with the starlet, and he certainly doesn't expect to be a murder suspect or to be seeing ghosts.  But well, this bit part on "Pirate Wench" is going to lead to all those things in pretty short order.

Dark Reel is not a good film, but it's kind of engagingly stupid one in many ways.  Like, in a film where multiple "scream queen" characters get killed by a masked killer, why on Earth is it that none of them scream?  Heck, in one case the film actually sets up that she won't be heard if she does, as the only other person around has music blaring out of the headphones he is wearing, yet she still doesn't make any effort to call for help.

Or there's the way that it tries to stitch together both a ghost film and a spree killer film, ultimately reveals a strong connection between the two elements, and yet never really seems to make them - or really care about making them - gel together in a logical fashion. Or its many attempts to be 'funny' or to have 'witty' dialogue that are mostly just perplexingly weird and silly moments.

With some extensive re-writes and a much stronger leading man (Edward Furlong peaked in his very first role and has only headed downhill after that, poor chap), this could actually have been a snappy little slasher.  The killer's got a good "look", and the ultimate motivations behind the slashings is sound enough (though let down by the execution of its reveal).  Plus (Furlong aside) the cast are a dependable crew of B-listers who could actually have made a better script work.

The Blame (2006)

Nurse and single mom Gloria moves in with her hospital colleague, Dr Ana Torres.  Though it soon becomes obvious that Ana wants more than to just be flatmates, Gloria remains at the house because the only rent she has to pay is to help the Doctor run her small gynaecological practice: a practice that also functions as a secret abortion clinic.  This is a fact that may well become important when Gloria finds herself pregnant with her new boyfriend's baby.

Of course, this is a horror film, so whether Gloria chooses to keep the child or not, you can bet the decision will end badly.

The Blame is well shot, well acted (at least as far as I can tell, given it is in Spanish) and has some nice creepy parts scattered throughout it, but I found it hard to warm to given the 'predatory lesbian' vibe they establish with Ana.  I suspect a lot of people will find it glacially slow, as well.  I was actually okay with the pace, at least until the final few minutes when they really seemed to rush through things to finally wedge in the pay-off for all the set-up.

Said pay-off .... ehhh.  It follows on logically from what we've seen, but it didn't really work for me, probably because the film's various misdirections all actually seemed more interesting than the "true" story.

Dead Rising: Watchtower (2015)

The first zombie outbreak in the US was a traumatic experience.  The second much less so, mostly due to the invention of Zombrex, a drug which - if administered daily - will prevent those who have been bitten from becoming zombies themselves.  This significantly reduced the death count and allowed many infected to continue to lead their lives.

So when the third outbreak occurs, the authorities seal off the area, ship in lots of Zombrex, and confidently predict the problem will be resolved in a few days.  Only the most desperate of journalists - bottom feeders like Chase Carter - would bother to turn up to cover it in person.

And if you're thinking to yourself, "Self, I bet everything is about to go horribly, horribly wrong and ol' Chase will be at ground zero for it all", then clearly you have at least two brain cells to rub together.

So when the original Dead Rising game came out, a friend of mine had a real love/hate relationship with the game.  On the one hand slaughtering hordes of zombies with all manner of improvised weapons - baseball bats, shovels, lawn mowers, you name it - was fun, but the game kept interrupting his gleeful carnage of the living dead with plot-related cut scenes and boss battles that he found much less enjoyable.

In this regard, the film accurately captures the game experience.  It's fun when it's being gonzo, and letting Chase and his allies run amok with all kinds of silly zombie-slaying antics, but falls flat whenever it tries to bring in more depth.  There's an ongoing plot regarding why things have escalated this time which is honestly not as interesting or engaging as the film-makers evidently hoped.

The zombie-fighting action here is good (if oftentimes a bit goofy).  For fans of the genre it is definitely worth a look, and I had fun, but it's not even the best zombie movie based on a video game (that's still Resident Evil) so I can't really recommend it to anyone who isn't already a fan of either the franchise or of zombie media in general.

A Christmas Tale (2005)

This is going to be a very spoilery review.  You have been warned.

It is 1985.  Five kids find a woman who has fallen into a pit, in the woods outside their town.  At first they intend to help her, but then they learn she's a bank robber.  She has two million pesetas stashed somewhere, and as far as they're concerned, she's not getting out of that pit until she tells them where it is.

Of course, sooner or later she is going to get out of the pit, even if she has to die first to do it ...

So the real problem with this film is its insistence on being a zombie film.  If it was just the world's most messed up version of The Goonies, I'd actually give it a qualified recommendation.  And I didn't even particularly like The Goonies when I saw it (it's on the 'to be re-watched one day' list to see if it was mediocre as I thought it at the time).

Now if you turn the film off about five minutes before its actual end, basically right after the 'fist pump' moment (you'll know it if you see it) then you can actually enjoy the film on that basis, and forget the badly integrated zombie angle.  I mean, the movie would be better still if it was wholly "realistic" and jettisoned the zombie angle entirely in favour of "homicidally angry criminal chases resourceful but kind of nasty kids around a fun park", but I'd have been much more positive about it.  Alas, the actual conclusion robs the film of a lot of its (admittedly oddball) entertainment value.

Wreckage (2010)

Four friends get stuck miles out of town when their car blows a gasket during a drag race.  Rather than hike all the way home, they decide to check out a much nearer junk yard for parts.  And as you might have surmised from the DVD cover, from there things go horribly, gorily wrong from there for them, and for their would be rescuers.

Wholly structural messes, Batman!  This film is an organisational schimozzle.  First off, it's got not just one but two prologues, the first of which pretty much spoils the identity of the killer and the second of which has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the film.  And which, given the whole thing is only 83 minutes, smacks of a desperate attempt to pad out the run time.

Then there's the secondary characters.  Even excepting those from the second prologue, who are never seen again, an awful lot of minor roles in this film kind of show up, engage just enough to make it seem like they're relevant to what's going on, and then completely vanish from proceedings without any kind of resolution.  A few do stick around to dutifully get killed off, which let's face it is the main point of secondary characters in a slasher film, but there's an unusually high proportion of walk-on roles that also walk off alive.  Maybe they ran out of fake blood on set, or something.

This is a decidedly mediocre and messy film that wastes a better-than-average for this sort of thing cast and a potentially interesting slasher location on a whole lot of nothing much.  You'd be far better off re-watching Cold Prey, Halloween or Friday the 13th for the Nth time than bothering with this.

The Dead (2010)

The dead start rising from the grave and attacking the living in West Africa.  Those that can - mostly foreigners - evacuate, attempting to escape the chaos.  The locals of course, have no choice but to stay and fight.

Also stranded is a US engineer/mercenary whose evacuation flight crashed just off the coast.  Teaming up with a local soldier who is searching for this son, the two attempt to stay alive.

The Dead has no time for your revisionist modern zombie films and their new-fangled "fast" zombies: it's Romero-style shamblers all the way here, with the undead shuffling and plodding after their victims, slowly but tirelessly and implacably.  The film-makers actually do a good job of using the lumbering nature of their undead to the film's advantage, with several scenes being a race against time as the undead slowly encroach while the living attempt to resolve some issue they're facing.  It's smart work.

I'll also give them points for setting their film outside of American suburbia.  The movie was filmed on location: a decision they probably had some cause to regret as their lead (who is regrettably a grizzled white guy) contracted a serious case of malaria.

Really I only have two complaints with the film, but they're enough to make me degrade the rating from a qualified recommendation to a not recommended.  The first is that the lack of other characters outside of the two mains undermines some of the tension and restricts the interactions you can have.  The second is the final act, which falls apart a bit.  It looks to me like they're once more trying to emulate Romero but they do it a loss less successfully on this occasion (mind you, old George himself hasn't hit the mark in a while).

Ultimately, if you're a zombie buff it is probably worth your time, but it's not going to convert you to the genre if you aren't already a fan.

A Darker Fifty Shades: The Fetish Set (2015)

Four fetish models are attending a convention.  Reyna, Mai and Jo are old acquaintances (friends might be too strong a word) while the fourth is Reyna's new girlfriend, Angel.

When Angel is raped, Reyna and Jo (probably accurately) decide that the cops aren't going to help women with their careers, and instead set out to exact some revenge themselves.  Unfortunately, taking the law into their own hands is going to go to some very, very bad places for them all.  The attack on Angel wasn't a random one, and now they're all in the sights of a very bad man ...

I suspect that titillation (and obviously some coat-tailing on E L James's success) were the primary marketing levers for The Fetish Set, but in practice it doesn't turn out to have all that much sexy stuff in it.  I mean, it's no Ninja Cheerleaders - this isn't a PG-13 film that's had a couple of moments of random nudity spliced in - but there's a lot more of the characters freaking out about the horrible stuff that's happening to them than "oh my top fell off" action going on here.

There's also a lot more of the characters freaking out about the horrible stuff than the actual horrible stuff happening on screen.  Which in some ways is a good thing - I have no interest in watching Hostel - but it does make me wonder who's actually going to enjoy this movie.  Is there a fetish market for "women freaking out"?  (please note: this is a rhetorical question, I do not want an answer)

For myself, I bought the film because I thought it would be interesting to see Bill Oberst, Jr (who credibly portrayed the US president in Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies) tackle the role of a vicious killer.  Alas, the film doesn't give him a lot to do, on screen.

Whether you're looking or nudity, gore, or Bill Oberst Jr, look elsewhere.  (also look elsewhere if you're looking for a nuanced or respectful portrayal of fetish models, but that probably goes without saying)

The Signal (2007)

A strange signal blankets the airwaves, overriding TVs, phones and radio.  Anyone who spends too much time watching it becomes paranoid and violent, and soon there is anarchy across the city as assaults and murders spiral out of control.  The handful of people not affected by the signal must try to survive as their neighbours become violent sociopaths.

So far, so "rage zombie 101".  Where The Signal at least tries to be a little out of the ordinary is that not everyone exhibits the same symptoms after becoming infected.  Or at least, not to the same degree.  They all become homicidally violent but some retain the ability to speak and interact and even to some extent to control their actions.  Though it's generally a tenuous grip at best.  What that means is that the guy who seems relatively calm and says that he's just looking for his wife might actually be far more dangerous than the nutter with the crowbar who is hammering at your door.

Written and directed as three short films that connect to and follow on from one another, The Signal suffers from some tonal inconsistencies (much of the middle section has a blackly comic tone that's not supported by the other parts at all) and from some dubious continuity.  It also has an ending that wikipedia tells me is meant to be ambiguous, but which feels to me more like it's just cadged straight off Brazil.

If you're a hardcore zombie apocalypse fan, this might be worth your time.  Otherwise you can safely skip it.

2018 October Schedule

During October, I'll be posting reviews on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, for a total of 13 reviews over the course of the month.  They'll all be horror-themed reviews, so if nominally scary movies aren't your thing, then feel free to take a month's break from this blog :)

The normal Tuesday and Friday schedule will resume in November, with the first review for that month appearing on the 2nd.

On the Town (1949)

Three sailors start a one-day furlough in New York determined to see the sights and find some dates.  Not necessarily in that order.  Shenanigans ensue.

That's pretty much the whole plot of this very slight Gene Kelly / Frank Sinatra musical.  It's a total marshmallow of a film, the script relying heavily on happenstance, schmaltz and the charisma of its cast to carry it along.  It can't even rely on the strength of the musical numbers, which frankly didn't do much for me.

Prehistoric Man is about as catchy as it gets.  And boy oh boy does it get offensive around the 2 minute mark.

So it's a mediocre musical with a very slight plot.  None of this stopped it from being well-received at the time of its release, mind you, but certainly it's not aged as well as say Singin' in the Rain in any metric.  If you've a hankering to visit the heyday of the musical, I'd suggest you look there rather than On the Town.

Californication, Season 1 (2007)

Hank Moody used to be on top of the world.  He was in a long term relationship, he had a smart and mature young daughter, he'd written three critically and commercially acclaimed novels, and production on a movie adaptation in the works.

And then it all went to hell.  Hank stopped writing.  His relationship broke up.  He even hated the movie they made, though the residuals from it are more or less what's keeping him financially afloat.  His daughter was still a bright point for him, but not enough to stop him from descending into an empty, embittered regimen of drinking and casual sex.

Hank is, in other words, pretty much the archetypal TV version of a novelist, though since this is a premium cable show, his sexual shenanigans are more explicit than the norm.  Not that you'll see his junk, of course.  Californication is much less egalitarian about its nudity than say Spartacus: Blood & Sand.  

A failure to be egalitarian is certainly something of an issue with the show in general, actually.  This could be some smart writing: for all Hank's angry diatribes about how LA society treats women, he treats them badly himself, and maybe we're supposed to notice that.  Maybe.  But I'm honestly not convinced.  Hank's the kind of guy who thinks that being okay with female pubic hair makes him enlightened, and - at least in season 1 - I'm not convinced the show's actual creators don't feel the same way.

All that said, Californication is in many ways an easy and entertaining watch.  David Duchovny (who had real life sex and relationship issues that I'm sure the show didn't help) has the on screen charisma to make Hank's misadventures pretty engaging, and the program isn't afraid to let us laugh at Hank himself, at least some of the time.  Plus the supporting cast is really solid.

Descendants (2015)

After Beast's curse was broken by Beauty's love, he led a crusade that swept the magical kingdom of Auradon.  All the villains and their sidekicks were banished to an island off the coast, sealed behind an impregnable barrier beyond which there was neither magic nor wifi.

Twenty years later, the Beast is ready to hand over the crown to his son, Prince Ben.  For his first royal proclamation (despite not actually being king, yet ...) the young Prince announces that he will allow four of the children of the villains back into Auradon.  After all, he reasons, they are not responsible for the actions of their parents.

And so we met Jay, son of Jafar; Evie, daughter of the Evil Queen; Carlos, son of Cruella de Vil; and Mal, the ringleader of the quartet and daughter of Maleficent - who despite being redeemed in the Angelina Jolie film is "the worst of the worst" in this.

Of course, being raised by embittered villains is not the kind of thing to make you a totally well-adjusted young person, and the foursome arrive in Auradon set on proving their bad guy bonafides (and more importantly to them, winning the approval of their parents) by finding a way to breach the barrier and allowing villainkind to run amok once more.  And nothing the good guys can do is gonna stop them, right?

Unless you've never seen a film before you probably already have a very good idea of how the movie will play out from there.  Descendants is not going to surprise you with its innovative plot.  It executes well on its familiar beats, though, and as I have recently opined on goodreads, sound execution often trumps innovation.  Probably the only part of the execution that's a little iffy here is the musical numbers, which didn't exactly rock my world.  It's otherwise a solid and entertaining, albeit entirely predictable, 90-some minutes.

Banshee, Season 3 (2015)

The man pretending to be Sheriff Lucas Hood almost seems like he might be in a pretty good place.  He's getting to know the teenage daughter he only recently learned he had, he's in a relatively healthy relationship for once (except for the fact that he's lying to her about who he is) and the man who has actively been trying to ruin his life - the father of this ex - is finally dead.

But of course, Banshee has always been about morally compromised people making bad personal decisions, so you can bet that "Lucas" and his friends will find a way to make their own lives way, way more complicated and dangerous than they need to be.

This third season of the show suffers from a couple of significant issues.  The first is that it comes after a season with a pretty satisfying ending.  You could stop watching this show at the end of season 2 and it would hold together pretty well.  In fact, I suggest you should stop watching at the end of season 2.  This season has a cliffhanger-ish ending instead, and while that's successful in that it makes my wife want to find out what happens, it feels a bit under-cooked, just kind of appearing in the back end of the run.

"Feels a bit under-cooked" is probably a good short hand summary of the whole season, actually, and it's a major flaw.  There's a lot going on here; many different stories at once; but they're not interwoven well and none of the villains are all that engaging or interesting and the people you want to see clash are generally not intersecting that much.  It feels unfocused and at times padded - which a season of only 10 episodes never should, and sub-plots seem to appear abruptly and then get dropped again an episode or two later for no real value other than "we wanted to give character X something to do for a few scenes".

Writing has never been Banshee's strong point, but it is actively a weakness in this season.

Catch That Kid (2004)

12 year old Maddy is a climbing enthusiast whose best friends are a go-kart mechanic and a wannabe film-maker.  When Maddy's dad loses the use of his legs, and the only solution requires a $250,000 medical procedure, the three youngsters set out to rob a bank: one that rather implausibly suspends its vault a hundred feet in the air, so that Maddy will have to climb something.

So four years before she would start raking in the big bucks (and enduring the flak) that comes with playing the lead in the Twilight series, Kristen Stewart played the lead in this tween-targeted bit of nonsense.

Catch That Kid is harmless fun, especially if you have the sense of humour of a twelve year old, but it suffers from some pretty lazy writing.  For instance, a couple of pretty major plot points rest on the fact that everyone loves Maddy's dad ... but we only know this to be the case because one of Maddy's friends says "Everyone loves your dad!".  You're supposed to show, not tell, guys.  And the fact that you're a silly kids film doesn't excuse you from that.

I mean, you want me to suspend my disbelief that three pre-teens are going to rob a bank with a supposedly state of the art (if incomplete) security system, and a vault that's ten storeys in the air (begging the question of how you actually put anything in it)?  Sure, I'm willing to go with that.  And you want me to accept go-karts that can outrun cop cars, because something something nitrous oxide?  No problem.  But don't cheap out on setting up the emotional beats of your movie.  And it's the emotional connection that's missing from Catch That Kid, making it ultimately feel a bit empty as a film.

Weeds, Season 6 (2010)

Married to a mobster and running from a murder she did not commit (but for which she is nonetheless significantly responsible), Nancy Botwin swears to herself and her family that she's going to just live a quiet, normal life from this point on.

It's a promise that lasts maybe half of one 22 minute episode of the show.

Nancy's life has been spiralling from crisis to crisis ever since she decided to turn to drug dealing in order to support her family after her husband's death.  There are few situations so dire that Nancy can't make a decision that will render it worse, and the "Nancy Effect" is in full force here in season 6 of Weeds.  I mean sure, the final moments of season 5 left her with very few good options, but when stuck between a rock and a hard place, Nancy does tend to set herself (and often those around her) on fire and then dare both sides to smash her between them.

Your schadenfreude at Nancy's self-destructive ways will be the primary determinant of how much entertainment you get from this season of Weeds.  Because boy oh boy an awful lot of the drama and comedy comes from her self-inflicted misery.  Not that she's alone in making terrible choices mind you: she's surrounded by a bunch of enablers, when you get down to it.

There were two more seasons of Weeds after this one, but this is where I leave the show.  This season has a solid ending that feels like a good place to stop, and season seven actively winds back the little bit of decency Nancy does show in the finale of this one.

Gods of Egypt (2016)

In ancient Egypt, the narrator of this film tells us, the gods lived among humanity and ruled over it.  Larger and stronger than us, the gods bled gold and were possessed of great powers.  For many years, under the rule of Osiris, it was a golden age for man and god alike.

But then the day came for Osiris to hand over power to his son Horus, only for his brother Set to seize the throne.  Osiris was killed, Horus blinded, and a dark age of war and slavery descended over the land.

At the time, our narrator was a street thief with a girlfriend whom he loved very much, and at her urging he attempts to steal Horus's eyes back from Set, unintentionally precipitating a sprawling quest that travels all over this world, the heavens, and the land of the dead.

My hypothesis is that someone responsible for this film loved Ray Harryhausen's Clash of the Titans, because oh my does it remind me of that film: we're got a pretty main cast that simply doesn't have the chops to make the purple prose of the film actually work, not just one but two very attractive women whose only real role is to motivate the menfolk, a plethora of extravagant monsters and action scenes that the film never really has time to set up or pay off on properly, and oh yes, we have massive stunt casting on the gods, presumably in an attempt to make the film seem more high brow than it actually is.

We've also got the whitest bunch of "Egyptians" you're ever likely to see, visual effects that frequently looked far less 'real' than Harryhausen's near 40-year old stop motion creations ever did, and a script that's significantly less convincing than the effects: it's a film that fails on almost ever level as a creative work, really.

Personally, I had a ball with it, because I have something of a soft spot for terrible films that are blithely unaware of how bad they are, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it.

The New Statesman, Season 2 (1989)

The corrupt and venal Alan B'Stard MP is back for another series of dirty political chicanery.  These seven episodes see the New Money Tory attempt to strip the poor of the vote, get implicated in a sex scandal involving underage girls, and re-inventing himself as a Nazi-Hunter (it turns out there's money to be made from it, and it's easy to find the Nazis when you're the one who has been helping them hide all along).

This second series of The New Statesman continues the anarchic mix of comedic absurdism, smuttiness and cynicism that characterised the first.  Rik Mayall mugs his way through the scripts as the "ridiculosuly handsome" (in his own mind, at least) B'Stard, managing to endow his character with just enough charisma that his venal self-importance and utter lack of empathy for anyone else stay just on the 'humorous' side of the humorous/horrible divide.

If you want a version of House of Cards that is entirely aware of the silliness of its own plotlines, and which doesn't give a wick for good taste, then this is worth a look.

The White Buffalo (1977)

Plagued by nightmares of a giant white buffalo, Wild Bill Hickok leaves his comfortable live back east and heads into the Black Hills in search of the beast he is sure lurks there.  He's joined on his quest by an irascible old friend and a mysterious native who calls himself "Worm", but whom the audience knows is Crazy Horse, and who has his own reasons for seeking the white buffalo.

The success of Jaws launched a great many "killer critter" films, and in 1977 Dino De Launrentiis made not one but two stabs at the genre, with the notoriously awful Orca and this offering, which features a somnambulistic Charles Bronson in the lead role and owes more than a dash of debt to Melville's Moby Dick, most obviously in the colour of the animal but also in the sticky ends that come to those who seek revenge during the course of the film.

The film also owes a debt to revisionist westerns such as Soldier Blue or De Launrentiis's own Mandingo, though it rather tries to both have its cake and eat it too, on that front.  The US cavalry are corrupt and incompetent, and the seizing of native land is shown as a question of greed and force ("we want the land, and we have more people and better weapons" Hickok tells Crazy Horse), but the action scenes are straight out of John Wayne's heyday.

A bigger problem is that the film's also rather confused as to the nature of its titular character.  There's plenty to suggest that the white buffalo is a demon or other kind of malevolent supernatural force - Hickok's dreams, what it does to make Crazy Horse hunt it, and its seeming ability to teleport around to wherever the script needs it - but at other times it's treated as a purely mundane (albeit unusually big and powerful) creature.  Ambiguity on a question like that has the potential to be powerful when used carefully and in a planned and strategic manner, but in the case of this film it comes across as confused and muddled instead.

Dexter, Season 4 (2009)

Most serial killers are loners, and as Dexter Morgan struggles to adjust to life as a husband and father of three, he's seeing the wisdom of that strategy.  It's hard to sneak out at all hours of the day to murder folks when your wife needs you to run to the store, or the kids need help with their homework. 

As stifled and trapped as he frequently feels, however, Dexter doesn't want to lose his family.  So when he discovers the identity of "the Trinity Killer", a serial murderer with crimes dating back 30 years, and then also learns that the man has an apparently happy home life with a wife and two teenagers, he postpones his plans to execute the man in favour of trying to learn his secrets for being a sociopath with a functional family.

Season 4 is widely considered the last "good" season of Dexter, and I certainly don't remember a lot noteworthy about season 5 or 6, off-hand (while I quite liked 7, and the less said of 8, the better).  And it's a fun ride.

But (because this is me, so of course there is a "but"), with the benefit of hindsight it is easier to see the developing cracks in the show's quality.  Performances remain good, but the writing certainly relies on some pretty hefty contrivances, and the very climax of the season - while a powerful moment of TV, and probably something they had to do, for off-screen reasons - opened a gap in the show's fabric that I think hurt it over the longer term and certainly put a premature end to some interesting hints they'd been developing over the course of the last couple of years.

At the end of the day, though, if the 'serial killer with a code' concept of Dexter is one that appeals to you, you should have a good time with season 4.

Doctor Mordrid (1992)

Anton Mordrid is a wizard sent to Earth by a being called the Monitor, to stop the evil wizard Kabal from opening the gate to Hell.  When a series of strange robberies occur, targeting powerful magical reagents, Mordrid knows that the time has come for a final battle with his nemesis.

And if you know your comic books at all, or possibly just the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you might immediately be thinking "Gosh, sounds a bit like a Doctor Strange knock-off", and indeed Full Moon Entertainment initially developed it as an adaptation of the Marvel comic, but their option expired before production began.  Never mind, though: change a few names, slap in a topless lady so the target market of teenage boys will be happy, and Doctor Mordrid will be ready for his cut price adventures at your local video rental store!

Honestly, I'm not being entirely fair to Full Moon, here.  This film comes from their early years of operation, when the (unexpected) commercial success of the first few Puppet Master films allowed them some genuine ambition in their productions.  Ambition beyond their ability to actually deliver, mind you, but ambition nonetheless.  I mean, I kind of can't be too down on a film that has "animated T Rex skeleton vs animated Mammoth skeleton" as its plan for a climactic magical showdown.

Doctor Mordrid is not a good film, but it's a bad film with a level of passion and verve that the hallmark of "so bad it's good" straight-to-video schlock from the late 80s and early 90s.  If only the work of The Asylum, and other modern day schlockmeisters, had half this much energy.

Burn Notice, Season 6 (2012)

Five years ago, the shadowy conspiracy known as "The Organization" burned Michael Westen as the first step of a plan to recruit him as their newest operative.  Instead, they created their own most implacable enemy.

Westen has dedicated himself to tearing the Organization to pieces; a task made almost Sisyphean by the many secret layers of the Organization's ... well, organisation.  Seriously, this conspiracy has more heads than a hydra, and look at me rocking the Greek myth references today.

So with any TV show there almost inevitably comes a time of diminishing returns, and with season 6, it feels to me like Burn Notice has crossed that Rubicon (hey, a reference to Roman history rather than Greek myth this time).  The story-line about the Organization is feeling very stretched by now, and the pattern of introducing a new "maybe this is really the big boss this time" antagonist for a few episodes before they are defeated is getting very worn.  The show does make some effort in the final third of this season to shift direction, but I don't feel it worked very well.  It feels rather forced (particularly in the interpersonal drama between Westen and his girlfriend) and it doesn't seem to be setting up an especially distinctive or interesting new "status quo".

Right now, I feel like they would have been better served simply wrapping up the show with season 4 or 5, but we'll see if season 7 - which really is the last season - can pull a rabbit out of the hat and give us a satisfactory conclusion after all.