Reviews and thoughts about movies, books, pop culture, and Doctor Who
Author: Peter Kanelis
I was born in Portland, Oregon and currently reside in Texas. I am an avid reader and movie watcher. I also am a long-time Doctor Who fan and collect the audio dramas as well as watch the television series. I have been writing reviews of this nature on social media for a few years now and want to expand on that practice.
The Chill is a supernatural thriller published in 2020 by Scott Carson and is one of the better reads for me in 2024. A village known as Galesburg, New York was drowned many decades ago, yet the souls of that lost town live on within the Chilewaukee Reservoir, and the town of Torrance is about the face them.
There is a dam that is about to break due to the onslaught of a relentless rainstorm, and it may release the spirits of the drowned Galesburg. A ghost is already influencing the engineer evaluating the integrity of the dam. A young man, who was recently discharged from the US Coast Guard Academy believes he had killed someone accidentally, however the apparent victim turned up alive. The spirits are still working under the reservoir to complete a work that was to be done while they still lived. The living and the dead meet when the dam breaks as prophesied.
I wish I had the gift of eloquence such as this author, Scott Carson, but I really enjoyed this novel. I dip into the horror genre occasionally, but I am often frustrated with resolutions in many tales in this form. This one really works. The characters are people I could like and stay interested in following. There are plenty of truly suspenseful scenes throughout. The twists were not that predictable. Carson is noted to be the pseudonym of an already well-known author. That does make sense in that this does appear to be written by someone with experience.
The Chill refers to the waters in the reservoir, but there were some chilling scenes that were quite effective. This particular novel is certainly a candidate for one of the better ones I am to read for 2024.
Next up, I was given the key to The House of Love and Death by author Andrew Klavan, so I will see what secrets await me.
Big Finish Productions has recently released the conclusion a Doctor Who audio saga entitled Once and Future. Paul McGann and Tom Baker are featured the most as the Eighth and Fourth Doctors, respectively. The conclusion does more to strum the heartstrings of nostalgia than actually aim for any real coherence in the story, but it’s still a pretty fun indulgence for the Whovians.
Ken Bentley returns to the director’s chair to coordinate the realization of the script written by Matt Fitton. Carole Ann Ford reprises her role of Susan, the Doctor’s granddaughter and the first companion he really wanted to impress. Alex Kingston also returns as the time travelling archeologist and the supposed wife of the Doctor’s. Maureen O’Brien, who would normally be playing the role of one of the Doctor’s early companions, Vicki, takes on the role of an adversary known as the Union. The Union turns out to be someone else who is quite familiar to the Doctor. Other Doctors also appear sporadically during this adventure since this was a release that celebrated the show’s fiftieth anniversary last year.
I have skipped out on reviewing the earlier episodes in this range, so I will offer a brief recap. The Doctor has been the victim of a weapon that destabilizes his regeneration cycle. As he has been trying to reconstruct what has happened to him, he has been suffering from something known as degeneration. He has been erratically returning to his past and sometimes his future incarnations as he has been chasing the cause of his condition through time and space.
Paul McGann and Tom Baker take on the bulk of this particular adventure. The Fourth Doctor rather amusedly referred to it as co-piloting. It was kind of touching and amusing to see Susan interact with other versions of her grandfather. Big Finish has already had the Eighth Doctor and Susan reunite in earlier episodes; however, it was pretty cool to get a taste of what she would make of the Fourth Doctor and his absurdly long scarf.
I have never been a real fan of multi-Doctor adventures like this because the story often takes a back seat to a quality plot. But I am still a fan and some of those scenes where the Doctor drags his other iterations is pretty funny most of the time.
There were times where I struggled to imagine what was going on based on the sound effects. It wasn’t always that clear as to what I should be conjuring up in my mind’s eye.
As usual, the actual performances were really good. McGann and Baker still portray their respective Doctors very effectively. It was still pretty fun to hear a bit of the other Doctors as well during the climax of the adventure even if the plot is a bit of the mess.
This is another sprawling, nonsensical episode that still manages to be entertaining just because the heartstrings of nostalgia are strummed with enough of the right notes. Multi-Doctor storylines do make less sense than a regular episode, but they are usually pretty fun, especially if Big Finish is on the job.
Big Finish Productions has continued their range of Doctor Who audio dramas with the Seventh Doctor in a reasonably entertaining release entitled Sullivan and Cross-AWOL. The Doctor is reunited with former companions, Harry Sullivan and Naomi Cross in two new episodes directed by Bethany Weimers.
Christopher Naylor returns to the role of Harry Sullivan, who was originally played by the late Ian Marter in the television series alongside Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor. Eleanor Crooks plays a new Big Finish created companion named Naomi Cross. Nicholas Briggs is back behind the voice modulated mic voicing the Daleks in the second story. Sam Stafford, Saffron Coomber, Carly Day, and Hywel Morgan are included in the guest cast.
Long-time Big Finish contributor, John Dorney, provides the script to the first story entitled London Orbital. The story starts off with a young Harry Sullivan discovering a peculiar massacre at a house, which influenced his decision to join UNIT many decades ago. Harry and his colleague, Naomi Cross, have been misplaced in time several years in the future. Strange elves are appearing, and a killer is stalking the streets and recognizes Harry from a previous encounter. The Doctor has returned as well, but in a different form from which Naomi and Harry are familiar. They find a different London the shadows of the familiar one. Another dimension has crossed into ours, and the Doctor and his friends find themselves trying to head off an unearthly war.
Dorney has delivered a pretty reliable story here. I enjoyed the new dynamic between the Seventh Doctor and his two companions. Sylvester McCoy still sounds great as his iteration of the Time Lord. Familiar companions with a different Doctor never fails to intrigue a fan such as yours truly. It’s a fun story, but I didn’t find it to be all that memorable. Naylor does fine with his version of Harry Sullivan. Naomi Cross is supposed to be another fearless, no-nonsense, woman traveling with the Doctor. She’s fine too, but not much feels terribly unique or interesting about her character. There are some expected amusing moments with the companions, and Naylor and Crooks have pretty good chemistry. Dorney has some interesting ideas and threw in some decent lines, but I don’t consider this to be one of his better contributions.
Scream of the Daleks by Lisa McMullin is actually the better entry here even though the Daleks are a bit overused, in my opinion. The Doctor, Harry, and Naomi arrive during a Halloween festival in 1969 and find that nightmares are coming to life. The Doctor and Naomi trace the cause over centuries and find that the Daleks are trapped in some kind of dimensional portal and are trying to manipulate the Time Lord into lending a reluctant hand.
The second story is better, but it’s not really a standout among all of Big Finish’s output. It’s another reasonably enjoyable episode with a few clever quips that did actually make me laugh out loud. I like the plot for the most part. The performances are quite good, as usual. Of course, the sound effects are convincing. Nicholas Briggs does his usual compelling job voicing the Daleks.
On the whole, the set is enjoyable and has some interesting ideas and characters, but I doubt there is much I will remember in the next couple of days. As with all of my Doctor Who collection, I will likely listen to it again in the not-so-distant future.
The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves was first published in 1999 and was quite a solid introduction of Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope to the extensive gallery of fictional detectives. There has been a very successful British television series based on the series created by Cleeves. Obviously, Cleeves has enjoyed great success and recognition for her contribution to the mystery genre. Now that I have completed my first read of a Cleeves novel, time for me to weigh in.
Vera Stanhope is brought in to investigate the death of woman who was part of a group environmental study. There had already been a suicide, but the death of Grace Fulwell was certainly murder. Vera is having to dig through years of secrets to arrive at the truth quickly because another death soon occurs.
This novel has a few unusual features such as Vera really is not introduced to the reader or the other characters properly until about two hundred pages in. There are a couple of glimpses in the earlier scenes, but Cleeves spent an inordinate time really setting up the supporting characters. She also does a third person narrative but focused on a certain character through portions of the book. I was sort of excited when I got to Vera’s take which occurred in the last few chapters of the novel. Also, this novel turned out to contain 535 pages, so it’s a big one.
Cleeves is a little overly fond of exposition, especially in the early chapters, which at times slows the plot down a bit. She does have a distinctive enough prose style where I appreciated the care she puts in descriptions of the environment and the characters. Cleeves also divides the novel into portions where the main supporting characters receive a chance to shine a bit before Vera has her section which garners the reader’s attention. This method reminded me a little of George R.R. Martin’s style of storytelling in the Song of Ice and Fire series, and Cleeves does it quite well.
A curmudgeonly middle-aged female detective isn’t exactly as fresh one would think, but Vera Stanhope is still an interesting enough protagonist. I ended up anxiously looking forward to the moment when Vera gets more involved in the story, and I was not disappointed when that finally happened.
I also noticed that there is a certain eloquence in Cleeves’ prose that is hard to describe. It reminded me somewhat of the stylings of the mid-twentieth century authors such as Agatha Christie or Dorothy L. Sayers.
Overall, I can see why Cleeves has the following that she does, and I do plan to revisit her works in the not-so-distant future. From what I have noticed, she has quite a catalog that will take some time to get through. Either way, this is my first trip into her literary universe, but it is not to be my last.
The seasons are getting warmer, but it’s still a few days before Spring officially arrives. Therefore, it still seems fitting to dive into The Chill by Scott Carson.
Bob Marley: One Love is not a terrible biographical film about the legendary reggae artist, but it is rather underwhelming overall. It has a few bright moments and could have been something special if some different production choices were made.
Reinaldo Marcus Green directed the film which he co-wrote with Terence Winter, Frank E. Flowers, and Zach Baylin. Kingsley Ben-Adir stars in the lead alongside Lashana Lynch, James Norton, Tosin Cole, and several other talented enough actors. One of those actors was none other than Michael Gandolfini, son of the late James Gandolfini.
Ben-Adir is a charismatic enough performer and likely captured the essence of Bob Marley pretty well. As near as I could tell, he did his homework when it came to breathing life into the role. The cast did appear to be well-chosen. Lynch was quite compelling as Rita Marley, Bob’s wife. I have no real issue with how the film was cast.
The film largely focused on a three-year period not too long before Marley’ s death in 1981. There is some political upheaval going on during this time, and Marley has decided to appoint himself as some kind of peacemaker through his music. Near the beginning of the film. he and his wife are shot but only wounded. His fame grows across the globe as he sends his wife and children to stay with his mother in Delaware. The film is leading up to a famous event called the One Love Peace Concert which occurred in 1978.
Critics of the film raise have some valid points, however. Because of the Jamaican dialect, much of the dialogue was hard to make out, which was quite distracting. When characters got excited and were a little irate with each other, it was particularly difficult to follow what was going on in those moments. The progression of the story was a little disjointed at times. I was not sure what was behind the unrest in Jamaica at the time. I know I could look that up and figure that out, but the film could have done its part and explained it. I just knew that Jamaica was on a powder keg at the time, and there was quite a bit of violence and crime erupting all over the place. The writers could have been a bit more generous with the background information without bogging the film down.
The music that was chosen was pretty good. There were a couple of scenes with Marley kind of jamming with his band during house parties or rehearsals that were quite engaging. The concert scenes were captivating as well. I did enjoy the music even though reggae isn’t really something I have gone out of my way to listen to.
Anyway, I left the theater a little disappointed that Bob Marley didn’t have a better cinematic depiction. This was produced by his son and members of his family, so it seems that some more complicated or unflattering aspects of Marley’s background were glossed over. That’s kind of understandable, I suppose, but there are not enough merits here to let that slide without comment.
I have obviously seen worse films, but I was hoping that this one would stir me a little more than it did. I did appreciate some more exposure to Marley’s music, and I do concur with the general impression of his musical talent. I may need to add him to my Pandora playlist, but I wish the latest film about Bob Marley left a more favorable impression as well.
Cabrini is probably one of the best biographical films I have seen in some way even if there were some artistic liberties taken. I am not sure what those liberties may have entailed, but I don’t trust any studio to remain that faithful to the true events and people depicted.
Cabrini is directed by Alejandro Monteverde with Rod Barr providing the screenplay. This is the latest offering from Angel Studios, which have been actually producing some higher quality faith-based films. Christiana Dell’Anna is playing the lead role of Mother Francesca Cabrini, an Italian immigrant who was canonized as a saint, for founding a missionary that helped immigrants to the United States, many of whom were orphaned children. David Morse, John Lithgow, and Giancarlo Giannini are included the cast alongside with a slew of Italian actors.
The story begins in 1899 when Mother Cabrini goes to the Vatican to receive permission to start a new missionary order in the East. The Pope finally allows her to plant a mission but in New York instead. Mother Cabrini takes six other nuns with her across the ocean and sets up in Five Points, which is the slums of New York. It turns out that Italian immigrants are one of those groups facing the most discrimination from the more established Americans. Cabrini is also having to face some troubling health issues as she navigates her way through crime infested streets and hostile city leaders to fulfill her mission. It’s a heartbreaking yet inspiring journey to watch this.
First of all, the casting is very well considered. Dell’Anna is a new talent to me, but she seems to have been the perfect one for the role of Mother Cabrini. David Morse and John Lithgow are talented and fascinating actors, and this film did nothing to diminish that impression. I also enjoyed that the Italian roles were played by actual Italians. Much of the movie was spoken in Italian with the assistance of subtitles, which really bolstered the authenticity of the story.
The set designs were just gorgeous. Early twentieth century New York was really brought to life. Even the slums were well realized. Cabrini is all over the city in this film, and care was shown in all of the sets. The exterior shots were amazing. I could almost smell the horses clopping down the streets during some of those brief scenes.
There is very little that goes wrong with this film, but it sometimes drags a little. It’s a pretty long movie, and I sometimes could feel that. Also, the timeline really wasn’t all that clear. It felt like that the beginning of the film and the conclusion would have taken a few years, but that was not really mapped out or explained very well.
Another notable character was the former prostitute, who becomes a close ally to Cabrini and the other nuns. Romana Maggiora Vergano plays Vittoria and is quite good as well.
I sort of enjoyed the surprise of a mostly unknown cast to American audiences working alongside with more recognized performers such as Lithgow and Morse. It does appear that many of the Italians are actually well-known in Italy. Dell’Anna herself seems to be one of those actors, but this film may help her gain a bit more name recognition which would be well-deserved. It was a bit of a thrill to be impressed with performances by people who are not as well-known as those in Hollywood, but who likely have more raw talent than many of those with the absurd amount of fame.
This is an important story that should have been told long ago. It touches on prejudices that were rampant in a particular era, which today’s audiences may find surprising. It seems like Mother Cabrini is someone with whom I would have enjoyed interacting. Since that is not possible in this world, this film is a pretty good way to be introduced to her and be inspired by the mission she started.
Trophy Hunt by C.J. Box is the fourth thriller to feature game warden Joe Pickett and turns out to be pretty good but not groundbreaking. The novel was first published in 2004.
Joe Pickett finds the mutilated corpse of a moose and learns of some ranchers having similar discoveries among their cattle. Two men are killed and inflicted with similar gruesome wounds which prompts the local law enforcement in Wyoming to form a task force. Pickett is a somewhat controversial inclusion in this, but his instincts and experience with unexpected murder investigations manage to help them land on the proper solution.
I like Joe Pickett because he’s not a disheveled alcoholic or a social misfit. I don’t mind characters like that, but the trope gets a little overused by many crime writers. Pickett is a bit of an odd one out in today’s detective fiction for being quite conventional. He is a loving husband and father, and his wife, Marybeth, supports him and worries about him when he’s the midst of a misadventure. He has two daughters who are depicted quite charmingly as well. Pickett is a character who is easy to root for because he remains steadfast in the midst of often tragic challenges. His family has already endured a pretty serious tragedy so early in the series.
Anyway, there are some pretty decent twists in the story. The other thing I appreciate about Pickett is that he sometimes makes mistakes during an investigation, and Box is not afraid to show that his protagonist is not an experienced detective. Indeed, Pickett seems to be a reluctant detective at times. Some of these elements does make Pickett a bit more endearing and relatable.
Box is not really an extraordinary writer, but he is competent. I am still reading the earlier entries in this series, so I look forward to seeing how the characters and plots evolve. Basically, Box is good enough to keep me interested enough to try out some more Pickett novels.
I have watched some of the television series, but it’s now time to meet the print version of Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope in the first novel, The Crow Trap, by Ann Cleeves.
Revolution in Space, the latest Doctor Who audio drama to feature the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith, is quite entertaining even though it does seem to drag on a little too long sometimes.
Big Finish Productions continues its efforts to bring new adventures for the Third Doctor, who is continued to be performed by Tim Treloar. Sadie Miller takes on the role of Sarah Jane Smith, who was originally portrayed by her mother, Elisabeth Sladen. Prolific Doctor Who contributor Jonathan Morris brings another solid script to the range with Nicholas Briggs returning to the director’s chair. The guest cast includes Juliet Aubrey, Richard James, Barry Aird, and Charlie Norfolk.
The story takes place on a colonized asteroid in the furthest reaches of Earth’s solar system. While the asteroid is being mined for vital minerals, a prisoner with growing and terrifying psychic powers is planning her escape. The denizens are also plotting a revolution to break the control that the Earth government exerts on them. The Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith arrive just in time to get swept up into the maelstrom of fear and discontent. The psychic abilities that some of the people, including Sarah, comes at a fatal price, and the Doctor has his hands full in his efforts to stop an unhinged prisoner from wreaking havoc and saving Sarah’s life.
There is a lot to appreciate about this release. Tim Treloar’s impression of Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor continues to improve. Sadie Miller is able to emulate her mother as well, while showing her own acting abilities. Juliet Aubrey is perfect casting as the villain, Zyla Kalstein. The sound effects are, as usual, quite effective. The effort to emulate the Third Doctor’s is quite successful.
Big Finish Productions usually are quite successful with the quality of writing, and Morris is certainly one of their more reliable contributors. Revolution In Space is a solid addition to the range, and many elements work nicely, but it is not really a unique adventure. In some ways, I rather wish Big Finish would not necessarily stay devoted to the somewhat cheesy, grating musical score of the Third Doctor era.
This story has six episodes and does feel a little strained at times, which was often a problem noted in the television series. Still, there is a good chance I will appreciate it more when I listen to it again. Once again, the performances and some of the dialogue really helps with forgiving the downfalls here. Doctor Who does require some forgiveness and grace in order to properly enjoy it, but Revolution in Space, in spite of its flaws, is still one of the better adventures. Jonathan Morris still proves himself to be an interesting and capable writer, and I hope he still has plenty of time to bring many more ideas to the table of Big Finish.
Ruth Ware’s thriller, One By One, does have a bit of an overused setting and mystery plot device, however it still ends up being an effectively hair-raising literary roller-coaster ride.
A group from a popular app company decide to get away for a ski trip on the French Alps and rent a chalet nestled in the mountains. They meet the two employees, a chef and a housekeeper, who turns out to have complicated past. An unexpected avalanche traps them within the luxurious cottage, however one of the guests has gone already gone missing, and others soon start dying as buried secrets come to the surface.
Ruth Ware has been called today’s Agatha Christie, which may be a little too generous, however she is a talented and engaging enough writer for me to not be too critical of the comparison. The novel is told from a first-person perspective with two characters alternating chapters on relating the story. The housekeeper, Erin, turns out to be a bit more than one would usually expect from a housekeeper is one of the narrators. Liz, a former employee and current shareholder in the company known as Snoop, is the other narrator. Liz is awkward and shy, easily able to fade into the background. I am not usually a fan of this idea of having more than one first-person narrator, but Ware makes it work pretty well once the story takes off, and corpses are discovered.
There are some coincidental and unlikely occurrences that are somewhat distracting, but the plot and setting are strong enough for me to be forgiving of those minor lapses. To be fair, I am like most mystery fans and cannot turn away from a good, claustrophobic thriller where the characters are isolated and cannot get any outside assistance as they contend with a murdered in their midst. As I mentioned before, it’s a pretty common set-up, but that’s because it can work so well. The characters are unique and interesting enough for me to want to see it through to the last word of the last page.
I actually doubt that Ruth Ware herself would consider herself to be the new Agatha Christie, however her rising popularity does appear to be well-deserved if this novel is anything to go by.
Next up, I will be checking in on game warden, Joe Pickett and his family, with Trophy Hunt written by the prolific and reliable C.J. Box.
Ordinary Angels is a drama film directed by Jon Gunn, that is somewhat predictable and often implausible, but it still manages to hit the heartstrings just right.
The screenplay was written by Meg Tilly and Kelly Fremon Craig. Oscar winner Hilary Swank is paired with Alan Ritchson as the leads. Nancy Travis and Tamala Jones are included in the cast with Amy Acker, who is onscreen too briefly as the deceased wife and mother. Two young daughters of Ritchson’s character are played by Skywalker Hughes and Emily Mitchell and are very well cast.
The storyline concerns a widowed father of a young girl in dire need of a liver transplant. The bills are crushing his spirit and his ability to better provide for his family. Swank plays an alcoholic hairdresser named Sharon Stevens who is moved by the family’s plight and takes it upon herself to shake the community into helping in the most extraordinary ways. Sharon comes across as bombastic and stubborn, but she is carrying a secret heartache of her own. The motivations behind this sudden altruism bear a bit of scrutiny, however there is no denying that she knows how to get results.
The plot is pretty simple, and films like this are not in short supply. Once again, the performances really make it work. Swank, in particular, had a role that could too easily become a caricature, but she manages to show enough restraint to not go too far over the top. Ritchson, who has recently found further fame as the stoic, indomitable Jack Reacher, also demonstrates a somewhat unexpected range in a captivating performance as the hapless, prideful father who feels a bit out of his depth when dealing with the bossy, but well-meaning hairdresser who has barged in his family’s tragedy.
Everyone in the cast delivers a solid, heartfelt performance. The two girls playing the daughters were quite believable and charming. There were times where it was easy to believe that Ed Schmitt, played by Ritchson, could have a moment where he could put his worries aside and just love his children in spite of the apparent oncoming heartbreak that is hovering over them.
There is so much to appreciate about this film, but it is not without some drawbacks. Some of the circumstances surrounding the girl’s illness and the coincidences depicted that ended up helping to resolve the crisis seems a little too implausible at times.
I have yet to read the comparison between the film and what actually happened in the real world, but it was too easy to get distracted by the apparent artistic liberties at times.
The Schmitt family and their unexpected friendship with Sharon is really a true story, but some elements in the film still felt a little exaggerated, which is a par for the course for anything coming out of Hollywood.’
I do wish that the writers were able to make more use of Amy Acker. I understand that she has the character who dies at the beginning, but there could have been some flashback moments or something. Acker seems to have enough of a filmography and more than enough talent that should require more than two minutes of screen time, and I just think there could have been more of an effort to have her audience spend a little more time with her.
The overall experience is a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, and although it’s not always a fun ride, it’s memorable and ultimately enjoyable.
I was also pleased that God was acknowledged in a way that felt genuine and reverent without going into some cartoonish depiction that Hollywood usually goes with when presenting Christian values.
The film has a few flaws, but the merits here outnumber those considerably.
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