The Return of Jo Jones is a Doctor Who collection of audio dramas from Big Finish Productions. Nicholas Briggs returns to the director’s seat for this trilogy of episodes starring Tim Treloar and Katy Manning. Treloar has been standing in for the late Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor for the past few years and continues to improve in his impression or performance. Katy Manning returns as a much older Jo Grant, who is now known as Jo Jones. Jo has been married and now widowed, but she does have a sizeable collection of descendants. She is reunited with the incarnation of the Doctor who is the most familiar to her. Guest stars in this series include Tom Alexander, Samuel Clemens, Poppy Miller, David O’Mahoney, and Corrine Wicks.

Matt Fitton gets the privilege of reuniting this TARDIS team with Supernature. On the Isle of Wight, the birds have mysteriously gotten more aggressive, and Jo Jones joins an old friend to help out with the investigation when a familiar stranger with a velvet jacket and frilly shirt appears to conduct his own assessment of the situation. This introductory story is pretty good. The best parts are the emotional moments between the Doctor and Jo. From the Doctor’s perspective, he has only parted ways with Jo pretty recently, where for her, it has been many decades. It’s a pretty good start. Birds and wildlife behaving strangely just seems like something that has been overused, but the performances of the leads are strong enough to forgive Fitton’s rather humdrum plot. He does capture the dynamic between the Doctor and Jo quite well, even though Jo has quite a bit more seasoning in this set.

The Conservitors is written by Felicia Barker and is rather more interesting. The Doctor and Jo arrive in the far future on a planet that has laws enforced by robots known as Conservitors. A rebellion against a tyrant is brewing, and the TARDIS team are in familiar territory, but no less dangerous territory. There is an interesting family dynamic among some of the supporting characters. Jo rediscovers the thrill of traveling to another planet, and her enthusiasm even at a much older age seems rather infectious and wonderfully performed by Manning. There is nothing terrible earth-shattering about the plot, but Barker presents a pretty entertaining story and exhibits a fair amount of competent world building in a pretty short story. The Doctor being inhibited by nanobots or something that is designed to keep him out of danger is rather amusing. I like that Barker made sure that the Doctor provided the solution to his own problem by the end.

Finally, it is Lizzie Hopley who closes out this collection with The Iron Shore. Manning gets to revive her narration skills as this story starts with the Doctor’s apparent death. The Doctor and Jo arrive on the planet known as Mercator where they encounter a man who is seen as cursed and an ancient creature in the depths of the ocean. It took me a bit to follow the plot as well, however I found myself getting drawn into the suspense.

Writing for a franchise as vast as Doctor Who makes it hard to capture that sense of having a classic moment, but the stories are all well written here. Even though the first story isn’t quite my favorite, Fitton is still a talented writer and has contributed a great deal to the Big Finish catalog over the years. Treloar has been getting better as he tries to capture the essence of Jon Pertwee’s performance. Katy Manning is still showing remarkable talent as she ages. I understand that she has to pitch her voice higher than usual when portraying younger Jo. At first, I was not exactly enamored with the idea of an older Jo gallivanting around time and space with the Doctor, but I found this to be more enjoyable than expected, and it appears this era may go on for a bit in the Third Doctor series.

Purity Unleashed is a Doctor Who audio anthology starring Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford. Helen Goldwyn serves as director in all three stories in this collection. Imogen Stubbs returns as the dubiously motivated Patricia McBride. Leah Brotherhood, Sophie-Louise Dann, Luke R Francis, and Jonny Weldon are included in the cast throughout this trilogy.

In the most recent sets, the Doctor and Mel have befriended a disabled, yet more than competent, marine biologist named Hebe Harrison, who ends joining them in the TARDIS. Consequences of some of their more recent adventures ended up having Hebe erased from existence with only the Doctor and Mel able to remember her. Of course, they like her well enough to correct the disruption to recover her, but that’s going to take three stories to accomplish.

Matthew Sweet starts off the crusade with Broadway Belongs to Me. The Doctor and Mel arrive in New York during the 1930’s where they meet future versions of themselves, and Mel finds herself cast in a Broadway play that should not exist. This one is supposed to explore the Fascism occurring in that period. Although Sweet doesn’t disrespect the seriousness of the subject, this ends up being absolutely hilarious when the real nature of the forces behind the play is revealed. Every now and then, Big Finish turns a story into a bit of a musical, and but they don’t overuse the gimmick. Anyway, not only are the twists pretty clever; they did also elicit a bit actual laughing out loud.

Chris Chapman brings his script, Purification, to the table, and the Doctor and Mel find a more serious and familiar adversary in 1910 New Zealand. The Doctor finds that this disruption centers on a famous expedition to Antarctica led by Captain Scott of the Terra Nova. It was a pretty good idea, but it just basically seems to serve only as a means to peel back some of the secrets of the plot. Imogen Stubbs shows up in this story as one of these people who may try to be well-meaning, but her obsessions end up getting the better of her, forcing the Doctor to intervene in a more dangerous manner than he would prefer.

Finally, Ian Potter closes out this set with Time-Burst where the Doctor and Mel have what may be their final confrontation with Patricia McBride and her fancy Time Suit in Sheffield, 1864 on the eve of a catastrophic flood. The Doctor is flitting between two time zones unwillingly. Everything is coming apart at the seams, and McBride is more of a loose cannon than ever. It’s a pretty good finale, however it appears that Big Finish is not quite done with Hebe Harrison.

My favorite in this trilogy appears to be the first one, although none of the entries come close to being bad. Of course, the chemistry and enthusiasm shared between Baker and Langford is what really makes this work. I struggled with liking Colin Baker’s Doctor during his television era, but Big Finish has spent the last twenty years improving on his development, so I look forward to hearing new Colin Baker episodes, and this set did nothing to dampen that anticipation. As I find myself noting in many of these musings, this isn’t quite a masterpiece, but it’s solidly entertaining, and the first story in particular is quite funny.

The Boogeyman is a horror movie directed by Rob Savage. Scott Beck, Bryan Woods, and Mark Heyman adapted the short story written by Stephen King. The story had first appeared in the anthology entitled Night Shift. The cast includes Sophie Thatcher, Chris Messina, Vivien Lyra Blair, and David Dastmalchian.

A therapist and his two daughters are grieving the recent death of his wife when a strange man appears at the office and wants to discuss the recent deaths of all three of his children. He is found hanging in the therapist’s closet soon after his impromptu session which introduces a strange, malevolent presence lurking in the dark shadows of the house. The man was trying to convince the therapist of the existence of this monstrosity. The daughters start seeing and experiencing the strange manifestation first and have a difficult time convincing their father. The older daughter begins her own investigation and finds there is something to the dead man’s claims. This something is of course something worthy of the dark imaginings of Stephen King.

I usually find myself quite disappointed in horror films individually even though I still indulge in the genre occasionally. I found this film to be almost pretty well done. The grief conveyed in the film over the tragic death of the wife and mother seemed pretty genuine. As someone going through profound mourning myself at the moment, I am a little sensitive about story points in this arena. I was not very familiar with these cast members, but that turned out to not be a detriment. It’s still a horror film, and I am skeptical of how faithful the screen writers were the original Stephen King story. Some of the usual exasperating horror tropes were there, but there was enough competency in the writing for me to not mind so much. Don’t get me wrong; it’s no cinematic masterpiece. It probably won’t be anything I will be in a hurry to rewatch; however, it was a little better than so many in this genre. The horror film industry has set the bar pretty low for many years, so my relatively positive experience of this particular film is not something I will count on too much.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is an animated super-hero film which is a follow-up to 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. For some reason, it took three directors to get this one on the screen. Joaquin Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson shared that duty, which probably made for a pretty crowded chair. Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and David Callaham share the writing credit. Shameik Moore returns to voice Miles Morales, a very different Spidey than the usual Peter Parker. Fortunately, Peter Parker does show up in this one, voiced by Jake Johnson. The cast is quite extensive, but it includes Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, and Oscar Isaac.

All kinds of favors of Spider-Man show up in this film. Miles Morales encounters a villain known as the Spot, who is able to open portals to other dimensions. Anyway, young Miles encounters a society of Spider-Men, led by Miguel O’Hara. He finds that there are choices that could lead to dire consequences to all sorts of realities. He does get to reconnect with Gwen Stacy, and a nice little almost romantic connection plays out there. He also has some conflicts with parents, who I actually find pretty amusing. Luna Lauren Velez voices that role and does quite well, which is expected since she has been performing for quite a while now.

This movie is a frustrating mixture of some great moments and over-indulgence at times. The story gets rather muddled at times. There is just that sense the creators were just stuffing this thing with every element that would satiate every sort of Spider-Man fan. The performances were fine, and many of the quips were genuinely amusing. Moore does a great job in the lead, and I came to somewhat grudgingly like Miles Morales. I only say grudgingly because I am basically a Peter Parker purist fan, and I think multiple reality storylines can feel like cop-outs. There are important elements in the film that really work almost brilliantly, but there are other creative decisions that I found to be unnecessary and a bit frustrating. There is to be a follow-up to this one, and I am intrigued enough to make it to that one, so I guess the movie wasn’t a complete waste of time, which I guess one can call a victory for the producers.

Confess, Fletch is a comedy mystery film directed by Greg Mottola, who also co-wrote the script with Zev Borow. Jon Hamm takes on the lead role of Irwin M. Fletcher, freelance reporter. The script was based on the novel by Gregory McDonald. Fletch was first brought to the big screen by Chevy Chase in the 1980’s. The cast includes the talents of Roy Wood Jr., Lorenza Izzo, Marcia Gay Harden, and John Slattery. A newer actress named Ayden Mayeri has a pretty entertaining role as a young Boston detective named Griz.

Fletch is sent by his girlfriend in Italy to get her art collection as a ransom for her apparently kidnapped father. Fletch finds a dead woman in his rented apartment and himself as a number one murder suspect. Fletch is a former investigative reporter and dusts off some of his old skills to figure out how he has gotten into this mess and what to do about it.

I sort of like characters who have a somewhat unflappable demeanor in the midst of stressful situations. I am not sure how closely this film follows the novel, but it was reasonable enjoyable. Hamm does a competent job in the lead role that was popularized by a somewhat iconic comedic actor. Fletch remains charmingly aloof and irreverent in spite of some dire circumstances. The banter between him and the two detectives, played by Roy Wood Jr. and Mayeri, is pretty amusing. Although Hamm does get show his comedic abilities quite effectively, his version of Fletch still seems a little less outlandish than Chase’s performance and that actually works out well here. Confess, Fletch is one of the few cinematic reboots these days that turns out to not be a disastrous decision.

Murder Mystery 2 is a mystery comedy film reuniting Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston as Nick and Audrey Spitz, the power couple of private eyes. James Vanderbilt is the scriptwriter while Jeremy Garelick serves as director. John Kani, Adeel Akhtar, and Dany Boon return from the previous installment. Newer cast members include Mark Strong, Melanie Laurent, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Jillian Bell.

Nick and Audrey Spitz are working as full-time private detectives with somewhat mixed results. An old friend is having a rather lavish wedding on his private island and invites them to attend. A bodyguard is murdered, and the groom is kidnapped. There is quite an eclectic group of suspects, and the Spitz couple have a friend to rescue with their usual mix of clumsy luck and occasional moments of impressive deduction.

The plot needs some work, but the leads are actually pretty entertaining. Nick and Audrey end up being rather likeable for the audience. Mark Strong’s casting is rather interesting, but it works well in this somewhat madcap romp. It’s another film where the success of the jokes is a little spotty. I did like the moments where Nick seemed like he could actually hold his own in a fight at times. Jennifer Aniston doesn’t really show a lot of range here, but she was still fun to watch. Aniston and Sandler do seem to work well together. The movie overall isn’t all that great, but it’s still not a total disaster. It’s a reasonably enjoyable diversion that requires a massive yet somehow still manageable amount of suspension of disbelief. I would just say check it out, get a few chuckles for the day, and move on.

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 is the latest offering from Marvel Studios. The film is written and directed by James Gunn. Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementiaff, Bradley Cooper, and Vin Diesel return as the ragtag, eclectic team of self-styled protectors. New additions to the cast include Will Poulter, Chukwudi Iwuji, Nathan Fillion, and Elizabeth Dibicki.

Poulter plays this absurdly powerful, yet immature being named Adam Warlock who attacks the Guardians. He is warded off, but not before Rocket the Raccoon is critically injured. Pratt’s Peter Quill is mourning the loss of Gamora, who has returned as a younger version of herself and does not remember their previous relationship. The need to save Rocket, who is voiced by Bradley Cooper, does bring him back to sobriety and galvanizes Quill, aka Star-Lord, to his more familiar, reckless antics to save his friend. During this crisis, Rocket’s past is revealed. He was a simple raccoon who was experimented on by Iwuji’s mad scientist character known as the High Evolutionary. The audience gets an extended look at Rocket’s past before he became a founding member of the Guardians. The flashbacks are kind of interesting if one doesn’t mind a lot of talking animals.

The basic plot is a pretty simple, well-used one, but it works. The performances are quite solid, especially from the main cast, but they have been doing this a while. The humor is still mostly effective here. Not everything in the movie makes sense, but it is a comic book film, and this series can’t resist a gag, even if it distracts a little from the story. I wasn’t exactly welling up, but there were a few moments that were kind of moving in a somewhat surprising way. Bautista’s sometimes buffoonish Drax got a pretty unexpectedly sweet moment where the audience was reminded of what he had lost in his past before he became a Guardian.

This is being billed as the last film to feature the Guardians, and if so, it concludes on a mostly high note. It gets a little overstuffed with silly action sequences at times. I did rather like Iwuji’s performance as the High Evolutionary who actually was pretty convincing as his character went from seemingly contemplative compassion to murderous rage. The final confrontation between Rocket and the High Evolutionary did not disappoint.

Overall, the movie felt like it dragged on a bit too long at times, but it was mostly a pretty fun experience. The enjoyment of the chemistry between the cast does outweigh most of the criticisms I had of the film, and I think the more passionate fans of the series would have little reason to be disappointed.

The Pope’s Exorcist is a supernatural horror film directed by Julius Avery. Michael Petroni and Evan Spiliotopoulos. Russell Crowe stars in the lead role as Father Gabriele Amorth, who apparently served as the Pope’s head exorcist for many years. He wrote a couple of books, and this film is based on one of his recorded cases. I suspect it is very loosely based on one of these cases. Anyway, the cast includes Daniel Zovatto, Alex Essoe, Franco Nero, and Ralph Ineson.

A young widow brings her children to a Spanish abbey, which was bequeathed to her late husband. She plans to have it restored and sold. There is a demonic presence who has other ideas and takes possession of the young boy was with his father when he was killed in a car accident. Father Gabriele is sent at the request of a young local priest whose attempt at an exorcism did not go so well. Gabriele is facing his own challenges in the Church when he was being questioned about a supposed unauthorized exorcism. He is soon convinced that he is dealing with a very powerful demon, and the two priests will have their work cut out for them.

This falls short of being a remarkable film, but I sort of liked it because Father Gabriele is a bit more assured than many other protagonists in this sort of film. Gabriele also displays flashes of humor throughout the film. He is a man who carries some guilt over some past mistakes, as we all do. The younger priest has some skeletons of his own as well. Anyway, Crowe is a very competent actor and does well in spite of a somewhat inconsistent script. The special effects were pretty good. There was not much unique about the demon portrayed here. Some of the usual tropes showed up such as alarming bodily contortions and loads of profanity coming from the mouths of children. I did like there was a bit of a mystery to unravel as to the history of the abbey and of course, the identity of the demon. The story did affirm the power of faith in Jesus Christ, which was nice. Some of the gore seemed to be a bit unnecessary, but I am not one that is squeamish. Really, the whole thing was rather mediocre, but Russell Crow and a somewhat uniquely pleasant and humorous exorcist helps this stand out a little. As far as possession films go, The Pope’s Exorcist is one of the better ones.

John Wick: Chapter 4 is an action film with Keanu Reeves reprising his role of John Wick, one of the most prolific retired assassins in cinematic lore. The script, such as it is, is written by Shay Hatten and Michael Finch. Chad Stahelski is in the director’s chair. Ian McShane, Laurence Fishburne, Bill Skarsgard, Donnie Yen, and the recently deceased Lance Reddick are included in the cast. This film and continues and probably concludes John Wick’s efforts to break free from the secret, deadly organization known as the High Table.

The High Table is still gunning for John Wick after his wife’s murder. Wick decides that he can only be free from this group if he puts down a leader known as Marquis de Gramont, played by Bill Skarsgard. He also has to dodge a hefty bounty on his head. Old friends, like Donnie Yen’s Caine, are also dispatched to take Wick off the board. Another anonymous tracker joins in the chase alongside an obedient, yet vicious canine. This whole thing is just insane with the number of bullets flying and bodies dropping.

In spite of occasional drifts into incoherence, I found myself enjoying the impossible spectacle. John Wick is a somewhat interesting character even though he says very little. My favorite supporting character is the blind, yet still deadly Caine. Caine is pretty reluctant to be pitted against his old friend, Wick, but ends up unleashing his lethal talents, nonetheless. It was also good to see Clancy Brown as someone called the Harbinger. The whole movie is completely absurd and makes little sense, but the performances help keep it strangely engaging. The over complicated fight scenes were hilarious and captivating. I found myself imagining the challenge of rehearsing all of those antics. The caliber of actors involved in this installment of the franchise was interesting.

The movie is a little long, and I did get a little worn out with the length of some of the action sequences. I understand that the producers wanted to make this an epic addition to the franchise, but films of this genre have a tendency to risk the wavering of an audience’s attention the closer the run time gets to the three-hour mark.

In spite of the relentless violence and absurd plot, one can still have a good time with this in the right frame of mind and is part of a particular fanbase.

Brahms: The Boy II is a horror film written by Stacey Menear and directed by William Brent Bell. Katie Holmes, Owain Yeoman, Christopher Convery, and Ralph Ineson are included in the cast. It is a sequel to a film called The Boy, in case that was not obvious to anyone.’

A young family has a quite nice life England that is abruptly shattered by a violent home invasion. The young boy, Jude, is stricken with selective mutism and now communicates by pen and paper. The concerned father convinces his family to try a respite in the countryside. Of course, there is a spooky, abandoned mansion nearby. That should have been the first clue for this family. Jude finds an antique, porcelain doll buried in the ground. The mother cleans it off and straightens the tie and finds that it seems to be harmless, welcome company for her traumatized son. She certainly gets that wrong. The doll is known as Brahms and houses an ancient evil behind its blank stare. The trouble brought on by a couple of house breakers is pretty small potatoes compared to the chaos Brahms can bring down on this family.

Demonic dolls are not really a new trick for this genre, and there is no real genius behind the conception of Brahms. I have a soft spot in my heart for spooky English mansions, so I can’t bring myself to totally trash this film. Unfortunately, there is not enough to really encourage anyone to put much of an effort to see this thing either. The visual effects were well done, but that’s hardly a surprise these days. I was reading that Katie Holmes was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for worst actress. I am not sure that is really fair, since I fault the writing more than the performances. Nobody really stood out as a brilliant actor; however, I think they tried. I am not exactly sure that I can buy into the selective mutism being the result of the trauma at the beginning of the film. I understand this genre requires an incredible amount of suspension of disbelief, but I just couldn’t muster up the interest.