“Horrors of War” is a Doctor Who audio story from BBC Audio.  Justin Richards follows up the temporal mystery that was introduced in “Men of War”.  Katy Manning lends her vocal talents to the presentation of this particular installment.

A young nurse serving in Belgium in 1914 has noticed a peculiar tendency of patients to up and disappear.  She comes across an eccentric man with a mane of white hair wearing something similar to a fancy cocktail suit complete with a cloak.  A young, pretty girl named Jo Grant is accompanying the Doctor as he explores alterations in the history of the First World War, most notably the survival of Archduke Franz Ferdinand whose assassination was credited as to sparking that horrendous conflict.

Richards once again makes the decision to have a supporting character narrate the story. Annie Grantham is the nurse who is drawn into the Doctor’s investigation.

It’s an interesting idea but not really one of Richards’ most riveting of works.  It’s not really bad, but it provokes just a little better than mild curiosity as to how this will all conclude in “Fortunes of War”.

“The Selachian Gambit” is a Doctor Who audio play from the Companion Chronicles range released by Big Finish Productions.  Frazer Hines returns to perform as Jamie McCrimmon, narrator, and his rendition of the Second Doctor, who was originally portrayed by the late Patrick Troughton.  Anneke Wills helps out as narrator and reprises her role of Polly.  Steve Lyons concocts a new adventure revisiting the alien shark-like Selachians.

The Doctor and his companions need to pay off a fine to retrieve the TARDIS after a parking violation.  A trip to some kind of cosmic bank is in order, however they arrive in time to get involved in a heist conducted by the Selachians.

The performances are typically engaging.  Hines continues to honor his deceased friend, Troughton, with a great impression.  I also thought the voice modulation was quite effective when Hines had to perform as the Selachians.

There is nothing groundbreaking here, but it’s a fairly enjoyable episode.  The Selachians were first created by Lyons several years ago for a couple of original Doctor Who novels. They later appeared in a previous audio release with the Seventh Doctor entitled “The Architects of History”.  They are not the most iconic of Doctor Who villains, but an occasional appearance isn’t unwelcome.

“Ravenous 1” is a Doctor Who audio boxset from Big Finish Productions and is the beginning for four sets in this saga.  Paul McGann returns as the Doctor’s eighth incarnation.  As usual there are four episodes in this collection and follows on from the series know as “Doom Coalition”.

The creature known as the Ravenous doesn’t really make a profound appearance, but this set is a pretty engaging set-up so fans can explore what the latest threat will entail.

Writers John Dorney and Matt Fitton once again split credit for this series.  They are Big Finish’s more reliable scribes and once again prove why they get consistent work.

When “Doom Coalition” ended, one of the Doctor’s companions, Helen Sinclair, had been whisked off into time and space with the deranged Time Lord known as the Eleven.  So, this series starts off with the Doctor and Live Chenka on the standard mission of trying to retrieve her.  As any fan would expect, of course, the Doctor gets somewhat distracted.

In John Dorney’s “Their Finest Hour”, the first interruption comes in the form of one Prime Minister of Britain Winston Churchill, with a welcome reprisal from Ian McNeice. Nicola Walker has also returned as Liv Chenka, the med tech from Kaldor on the far future.  It seems that Polish squadron of fighter pilots have discovered a gap in the sky which is a clearly cloaked spaceship.  The Doctor finds an alien race with a rather unique of settling way waging war as well.  I guess fans would dub this a fairly traditional Doctor Who plot, and they would be right.  It’s pretty fun overall.  It can be interesting to see or rather hear Churchill encounter the Doctor’s earlier incarnations before the McNeice version came on the scene in the television series when Matt Smith had the lead role.  Of course, the nature of the series opens all kinds of doors there and has in other releases I have yet to hear.  So far, an entertaining start to this particular collection.

Dorney then takes a more darkly comedic turn with “How To Make A Killing In Time Travel”.  The Doctor and Liv haven’t quite caught up to Helen and the Eleven yet.  They instead find a dangerous experiment in time travel financed by a rather odious character named Cornelius Morningstar.  I think I would be rather odious with a name like that.  Roger May brings Morningstar to bombastic auditory life.  Beth Chalmers, Christopher Ryan, and Judith Roddy are included in the cast of this one.  It’s an effectively amusing addition to this series.

Matt Fitton finishes the last two episodes starting with “World of Damnation” in which the Doctor and Liv arrive on a planetoid which houses the most insidious criminals in the galaxy.  Mark Bonnar is back as the Eleven, who has some Time Lord version of a multiple personality disorder.  Hattie Morahan has returned as Helen Sinclair, who seems to have been given some kind of troubling psychic powers that cause some trepidation among the prison staff.  Nicholas Rowe has been cast as the Kandyman, in a very different guise from what was seen in the television serial “The Happiness Patrol”. Some of the encounters I was anticipating happened.  I did struggle a bit with understanding what was going on with some of the action sequences with all of the explosions and gunfire.  Sometimes, Big Finish does not make it apparent at least when I first listen to it.

Finally, “Sweet Salvation” brings this set to a close.  Here lies the glimpse of the Ravenous, whatever that will turn out to be.

Anyway, I found this collection to be pretty good.  I wasn’t really blown away by some of the twists and revelations.  Of course, this really does serve as more of an introduction, so hopefully there will be much more to salivate over in future releases.

“Mystery House” is a 1938 film directed by Noel M. Smith.  Sherman L. Lowe and Robertson White adapted the script from a novel written by Mignon G. Eberhart. It was apparently one of a series that featured a nurse with a nose for murder named Sarah Keate and her boyfriend, detective Lance O’Leary.  Dick Purcell and Anne Sheridan are the leads.  The novel was originally entitled “Mystery of Hunting’s End”, if anyone is interested.

It’s a pretty short film with a running time of 56 minutes, so it’s a pretty straight-forward plot without that much originality.  A banker is murdered after announcing to his partners or underlings that he has discovered the embezzlement of $500,000.  The authorities have come to the conclusion that it was suicide, but Sarah Keate suspects something more sinister and calls on the aid of her detective boyfriend, Lance O’ Leary.  The suspects return to the hunting lodge where that has all happened just in time to be pinned in by a snowstorm.

Other than the sheer amusement of watching movies from a long ago era, there isn’t much to remember here.  The characters of Sarah and Lance do appear in other films from that time. Eberhart apparently has quite the collection of works which was interesting to find out.  I actually was more interested in the background than the actual film.

This one just seems to be pretty typical of the genre and the era.  A mystery with people trapped together is kind of fun but was probably overdone even by 1938.  Poor Lance doesn’t have much going to have him stand out from other silver screen detectives of that time.  The performances of the other cast members worked well enough.  William Hopper, of “Perry Mason” fame, is in this one, so that was kind of fun.

There is some entertainment to be found here, but I doubt there will be much to remember for long after the viewing.

“Slumber” is a horror film that was released in 2017.  Jonathan Hopkins directed this thing which he co-wrote with Richard Hobley.  I don’t know who these guys are, but I do know of some of the cast members such as Maggie Q and Sam Troughton.  I definitely know who Sylvester McCoy is, and was it was pretty fun to see him.  McCoy, of course, is best known as the Seventh Doctor in “Doctor Who”.

Maggie Q plays a sleep doctor who lost her brother in her childhood under some very unusual tragic circumstances.  A family come in to consult her after their son faces some terrible nightmares.  The other family members start sleepwalking and doing other disturbing things.  So there is this demon or entity called a nocnitsa, which can be found in Wikipedia believe it or not, that’s really the cause of this family’s bizarre sleeping woes.  It also is the cause of the sleep doctor’s tragic past.

McCoy plays some eccentric old man who turns up in the movie who has a history with this thing known also as a Night Hag.   He overacts a bit, but I am used to it.  It’s still great to see him.

It’s a horror film, so there is a lot to overlook and forgive here a bit to gain some kind of enjoyment.  It’s actually not too bad.  It’s not any sort of must-see either, unless you’re a hopeless Doctor Who enthusiast.  For some of us who find some amusement out of B horror flicks, it works just fine.  If you just stumble across it on a slow evening, it serves its purpose as a meaningless diversion especially with a friend who has strange tastes as well, but no need to go out of your way to watch it unless, of course, you’re the aforementioned “Doctor Who” fan who gets a kick out of Sylvester McCoy showing up in surprising projects.

“Us” is the latest horror film written and directed by Jordan Peele.  Lupita Nyong’o stars alongside Winston Duke as a married couple who are taking their children on vacation that turns into a bizarre encounter with deranged and distorted versions of themselves.

The films starts off with a flashback to 1986 where Adelaide Wilson has a very troubling encounter when out with her parents at a carnival on the beaches of Santa Cruz.  Adelaide has grown up, married, and has her own family but is still haunted by her experience over thirty years before.

This is a film with quite a bit of clever originality to it but still leaves some loose threads. Lupita Nyong’o does put in a pretty convincing performance on the lead role as both the protective yet terrified mother as well as the doppelganger.  I get that she was the lead role, but I think the father, played by Winston Duke, could have been created as less of a doofus.  He has his moments of courage, I suppose, but sometimes he just stumbled his way through whatever peril he encounters by dumb luck.  Duke’s role is supposed to be kind of an everyman, but I would have liked to have something there where I was better convinced as to how Adelaide fell for this guy and started a family with him.

There are some of the standard moments designed to startle, and I was often quite startled.  I thought the two children played by Shahadi Wright and Evan Alex were pretty well cast.  Wright’s Zora Wilson had just the right amount of teenage sass without being unlikeable.  Even the young Jason Wright got some moments to show some courage and cleverness throughout the film.  Both performed their darker roles quite well.  Wright  had an appropriately creepy grin when playing the doppelganger.

One of the other issues I had was that some of the gallows humor Peele tried to inject throughout didn’t quite land right at the moment it was being delivered.  I wasn’t sure if he was trying for some kind of black comedy or what at times.  Not all of it missed the mark though, in my view.  There were times I was sort of in on the joke.

There was this other family with whom the Wrights were friends that seemed a little odd to me.  Tim Heldecker plays the patriarch of the Tyler family and just seemed to be more of an obnoxious caricature.  He just seems to be the obligatory buddy who really wouldn’t have been missed. I just didn’t care about the family’s fate when it came about.

There’s a lot in this movie that works well enough even if it is a strange one.  I also think this is a hard genre to play in at times.  I do appreciate that Peele is going for something with more originality than what we viewers usually get, so he should continue that effort.  For the most part, he does succeed in being interesting and stoking some curiosity when he has something else coming out.

The film does have a pretty solid cast and some creativity in the storytelling.  In spite of some annoying flaws, I would still count as one of the better horror films I have seen in recent years.

“An Interview With God” is a film that was released last year.  Perry Lang is the director of this piece written by Ken Aguado. Brenton Thwaites plays Paul Asher, a journalist who recently worked as a war correspondent coming home to a crumbling marriage, with the unique opportunity to use his gifts to get some answers from the Almighty.  David Straitharn has the daunting task of portraying God and handles it pretty convincingly.  Morgan Freeman is considered one of the most recent definitive cinematic representations of God, but I also liked Straitharn’s version.

The set-up is that Paul has three meetings scheduled with this unassuming gentleman who claims to be God.  He has thirty minutes to ask whatever question he wants each session.  He also demonstrates the resistance many of us tend to exhibit when God wants to help us through difficulty and tragedy.

A lot of Christian films of this sort tend to be burdened with some clunky dialogue. Although this film isn’t entirely free of that, it does have some very compelling moments and a few interesting twists as to what is really going on in Asher’s troubled personal life.

God does have the somewhat frustrating technique of answering questions with questions in this one, but it doesn’t fail to hit home.  This is one of the more poignant efforts to encourage knowledge of Scripture and to stay engaged with God.

The film does get into the common but often short-sighted questions such as why bad things happen to good people but still manages to not try to leave at one pat answer.

This isn’t a film with a large budget obviously, but of course it doesn’t need it.  Christian films can come off as a little naïve and simplistic at times, however this one has a little more complexity to it.

I don’t know this film hits the bulls-eye for this genre, but I don’t know if any film does that for any genre anymore.  I was glad that I took the time to watch this one.

“Crimson Lake” is a crime novel written by Candice Fox and has a couple of very unusual protagonists.  It is told from the perspective of Ted Conkaffey, a former detective from Sydney, who has fled to northern part of Australia after being released from prison. Conkaffey has been accused of the violent kidnapping of a young girl.  He managed to avoid a conviction, but he was not acquitted either.  His situation has been left in a peculiar sort of limbo that does nothing to ease the suspicion of the public.

Conkaffey is directed to a rather eccentric private investigator named Amanda Pharrell. Amanda Pharrell has the distinct stigma of being a convicted murderer when she was a juvenile.  Amanda has been hired to find a beloved author who has disappeared and could use a little help.  Of course, they are each rather fascinated by the other’s legal situation.

A lot of elements in the story hinges on quite a bit of coincidence and circumstance, however the main characters were pretty interesting.  Amanda comes off as a bit nuts, frankly, however she still is likeable and interesting.  Conkaffey has to also contend with disgruntled residents not too pleased to have a suspected kidnapper and pedophile as a neighbor.  The local law enforcement isn’t too welcoming either even if he was a fellow officer at one time.

This turned out to be a pretty engaging crime novel.  The two protagonists are social outcasts.  Pharrell is quite experienced with navigating her way through the suspicion and scrutiny from the public following her release from prison.  Conkaffey is still new to this unwanted attention.  It’s an interesting dynamic between the two of them.

There is little that is original about the actual main plot and the other character, but Fox is a decent enough writer to keep me hooked in.

I wish I had gotten some better descriptions of what life in Australia was like in this story, but it is a crime novel.  Having detectives and solving a crime is really the primary purpose.  I believe this is Fox’s first novel, however it’s a pretty strong effort.

In short, I liked this one well enough to keep my eye out for the follow-up.

Time for a little reflection and potential self-improvement as I next delve into a book that has caused some discussion and angst for others.  Jordan B. Peterson has decided to relate his “12 Rules For Life: An Antidote To Chaos”, and I have decided to finally learn them.

“Maigret Sets A Trap” is the beginning of a very short-lived British mystery series from ITV.  Rowan Atkinson, best known as Mr. Bean, is the latest to take on the role of Jules Maigret, the Parisian detective initially created by author Georges Simenon.  This episode was adapted by Stephen Harcourt and directed by Ashley Pearce. The series ended up being comprised of four ninety minutes episodes.

This episode begins with Maigret working to identify a serial killer who already has a body count of four dark-haired women left on the streets of Paris .  Pressure from the higher-ups in his department compel him to use police women as bait.

Atkinson is a talented performer, however he stayed largely on one note as the seasoned investigator.  I am not sure if that is Atkinson’s interpretation or if Maigret comes off as this bland in the original canon.  I may go ahead and try one of the novels out anyway.

The tension toward the end as Maigret closes in on a confession was kind of interesting. Much of this was pretty slow,  but British mysteries aren’t really known for bombastic action sequences.

The setting of 1950’s Paris was well depicted even though I just read that the scenes were actually filmed in Budapest and Hungary.

I was a little underwhelmed by this introduction to this latest iteration of Maigret.  It was still interesting to see Atkinson is a much more serious role this time around.  I actually have some affection for Atkinson so I hesitate to place all the blame for my reservations on his shoulder.

I will watch the remaining episodes to see if this could have gotten better.  It could be that Atkinson is too typecast to be easily believable as a formidable French detective, but I hope he continues to take on more atypical roles even if this particular one may not have worked out as he hoped.  The shadow of Mr. Bean is still quite long indeed.

“The Kid” is a western film directed by Vincent D’Onofrio.  Andrew Lanham is the scriptwriter.  Ethan Hawke, Dane DeHann, Jake Schur, and Chris Pratt are part of the pretty impressive cast.

Jake Schur plays a boy named Rio who flees from a vengeful uncle with his older sister after killing his father who was in turn beating his mother to death.  Pratt plays the ruthless uncle.  He isn’t necessarily bad in the part, but I had some trouble buying it. Pratt just doesn’t look all that convincing as a villain no matter how much of scraggly heard he grows.

Schur is pretty good and carries the film well enough.  Leila George plays the older sister. Neither of these actors I am familiar with, but they seemed to be cast well enough.

Hawke takes on the role of legendary lawman Pat Garrett, who is known for ending the escapades of young William Bonney or Henry McCarty, okay…it’s Billy the Kid.  I was just showing off what I learned on Wikipedia.

The film has a talented cast, some competent camera work, and an interesting premise.  It just didn’t work for me all that much.  The writing was okay, but it was just okay.

It’s rather strange that I felt so underwhelmed by the film in the end.  One of the issues that I noticed that some of the scenes didn’t transition all that smoothly.  It took me a few more beats than necessary to mentally catch up to where some of the scenes were taking place, and I don’t think it was just me being slow on the uptake.

It ended up not being terrible when it’s all said and done, but it isn’t going to be one that stays in my memory for very long past the weekend.