Fast Charlie is a crime thriller film that is some standard mob antics, but Pierce Brosnan in the lead does make this still quite watchable. Phillip Noyce directed this film. The screenplay was written by Richard Wenk, which was based on a novel by Victor Gischter.

Brosnan is joined by talented actors such as Morena Baccarrin, Toby Huss, Sharon Gless, and James Caan in his final role before his death.

Charlie Swift is a troubleshooter for a mob boss, played by Caan. The old man is getting a bit senile, but that doesn’t keep him off a hit list. When the mob boss is apparently murdered, Swift does what any loyal hit man would do and goes on a killing spree of his own to settle the score. It seems that there is something more complicated than a revenge plan. Swift is getting older and about to retire, but he is still as lethal as ever.

Brosnan affects a somewhat dubious southern accent here, but it’s not too distracting. The man himself still maintains that famous charisma and is still a solid choice in a lead role as this,.

The movie is a solid bit of entertainment, but it still lacks a sense of any real originality in the writing. It was largely Brosnan who made this quite a bit more than something to be merely tolerated.

Cruise Ship Murder is a barely adequate murder mystery aboard a cruise ship which takes three writers to pull off. Adam Rockoff, Jeffrey Schenck, and Peter Sullivam put their heads together to come up with this forgettable entry into the catalog of Lifetime movies. Randy Carter is the director of this film which stars Skye Coyne, Ryan Carnes, Carly Reeves, Gina Hiraizumi, and a few others.

A young journalist named Olivia has a close relationship with her aunt who is about to take a cruise with her husband. The vacation takes a troubling turn when Aunt Theresa apparently falls overboard. Olivia starts her own investigation and finds out all kinds of disturbing and cliched secrets about her aunt’s extracurricular activities. When the aunt’s body turns up, an autopsy reveals that she was actually strangled before being cast to the waves. Then the typically suspicious husband is also murdered, Olivia finds that she has a lot more digging to do in order find the truth of her aunt’s brutal demise.

This turned out to be an unremarkable film without it being terrible. Who doesn’t like a good cruise ship murder mystery though. I didn’t know it was a Lifetime movie until I got into it. It had a few interesting revelations as to the motivations. The performances were fairly competent by this pretty unknown cast. Olivia managed to not be that annoying as the lead character.

It’s a flick I didn’t mind trying, but it’s a typical Lifetime film which sort has an assembly line feel to its production. It’s not worthy of a lot of hate, but it is a far cry from meriting any enthuisasm.

Last Voyage is a quintessential British mystery novel by Anna Clarke and is not too bad. It is kind slow, but that’s a common characteristic with this type of novel.

Sally Livingstone was once aboard a ship from Cape Town to London as a child and had a rather startling experience in which she came across a man shoving a woman’s body through a porthole. Ten years later, Sally’s sister introduces the family fiancée, who has a very familiar face. Sally has developed a friendship with a doctor who she meets as an adult on a subsequent boat trip. As she starts to recall more about that long-ago trip, she is finding her memories to be a little unreliable and she may have identified the wrong man as a killer.

This was kind of a slow and somewhat unremarkable read, but it was still pretty good. I thought the plot was interesting enough to keep me engaged. It is a book that feels a little longer than it actually is.

Clarke is a pretty good writer, and I have a few more of her works I plan to get through eventually.

This is one of many shipboard murder mysteries floating around the literary landscape, and although it doesn’t really stand out as anything terribly unique or spectacular, it serves adequately as a pleasant diversion.

Next up, I return to something to something with a bit more grit with Lawrence Block’s Hit Man,

Dark Gallifrey: Missy Part Three is an audio drama that closes out another chaotic yet charming trilogy featuring Michelle Gomez as Missy. John Ainsworth directed this play that was written by Rochana Patel.

The talented cast members are Bruce Alexander, Jonathan Case, Jon Edgely Bond, and Paksie Vernon.

Missy has finally killed the Doctor, or some version of him in another dimension. A being known as the Malevolence is about to return. Missy has been reduced to a husk of her former self but is still alive. She gets some help from another version of herself. Missy still enjoys causing a good deal of chaos herself, but she may need to stop a force more diabolical than herself.

Gomez continues to chew up the scenery. The story is a little hard to follow on audio at times, but Gomez gives out an energy in her performance that is hard to match.

When Missy was first introduced in the Doctor Who television series, I had my reservations since I was never that fond of the Master being depicted as a female. I am still not a fan of the notion of Time Lords swapping genders, but it is a fantasy series, so I guess that kind of thing is fair game. Gomez is a very skilled comedic actress who can exude a certain menace that is required for a role like that.

Anyway, this phase of the Dark Gallifrey series has come to a hectic yet satisfying conclusion.

Fall 2: Deadpoint is an adequate sequel to the thriller Fall which was released in 2022. This seems to be a series about a couple of daredevil girls who get themselves marooned in some high, precarious ledge or something without a safe way to get down.

The film written by Scott Mann and Jonathan Frank and directed by Spieng Brothers. This time, the two hapless beauties are portrayed by Harriet Slater and Arsema Thomas. Tom Brittany is also on hand as the hunky guide who may or may not have a dangerous secret. Virginia Gardner reprises her role as the doomed Shiloh Hunter in various flashbacks because Slater plays her surviving sister.

Jax Hunter is convinced by an apparent friend of the late Shiloh Hunter named Luc to head over to Thailand to walk some planks attached 4,000 feet up to a mountain. There is apparently a stone dragon there that will greet them that is said to eat people’s fears. Anyway, the girls meet Jon, the aforementioned guide, who agrees to take them up and get them through the experience. Then an earthquake strikes, knocking Jon off the wall, and leaving the girls stranded on a couple of planks at something call the Devil’s Elbow. Jax has to find a courage similar to her deceased sister’s, but she has always been the more sensible of the two. Anyway, Luc has some secrets of her own. Jon may have his own ulterior motives as well.

As far as sequels go, this one wasn’t too bad. Slater does look like she could be Shiloh’s sister. There were a few twists in the story that were genuinely unexpected. The performances aren’t likely going to win many awards, but they got the job done.

Anyway, it turned out to be an adequate afternoon diversion.