“The Skin of the Sleek” is a Doctor Who audio play from Big Finish Productions and stars Tom Baker and Lalla Ward.  Marc Platt, a long-time and frequent writer for the series, comes up with a planet where people can walk on water, but they better keep moving or they will sink, much like the TARDIS does in this story.  Sleeks are enormous electric eels that inhabit the rather unusual waters of the planet Funderell.  The more unexpected inhabitant of Funderell is a classmate if Romana’s from Gallifrey named Sartia, played by Joannah Tincey.

This one had some interesting ideas such as exploring Romana’s past and who she knew at the Academy on Gallifrey. Once again, Platt presents some imagery that can be a little hard to picture in the mind’s eye at times. He is a talented writer, and the performances of Tom Baker and Lalla Ward are too compelling to let that dampen my enjoyment of this episode much.

This story actually ends on a cliffhanger and will be concluded in the following release in the Fourth Doctor Adventures, “The Thief Who Stole Time”.

“The Third Doctor Adventures Volume Four” has two full cast audio dramas with Tim Treloar standing in for the late Jon Pertwee in this release from Big Finish Productions. Katy Manning once again reprises her role of Jo Grant.  Both stories bring back two well-known adversaries of the Doctor.

“The Rise of the New Humans”, written by Guy Adams, has the Doctor encounter fellow renegade Time Lord known as the Meddling Monk. Rufus Hound once again performs his version of the Monk, which was originally brought to the screen by the late Peter Butterworth.  The Monk has appeared in a few of these Big Finish audio plays in recent years.  An attempt to cure various ailments in humans also has the unfortunate effect of bring about some troubling mutations.  The story was fairly entertaining, although there are times that Hound’s performance grated on my nerves a bit.  Once again, the performance of the leads and probably nostalgia for the Third Doctor era is what makes this story work generally. I am just not sure I can get enthusiastic about Hound’s interpretation of the Monk.  Treloar’s rendition of Jon Pertwee is still effective enough to imagine the familiar craggy face and white hair.  Manning may not sound exactly like he did forty-five years ago, but she gets close enough for the age in her voice to not be a distraction from my enjoyment.  I hope she has several more of these plays left in her since the other two female assistants have died.  She is still a strong performer in spite of the clumsiness and absent-mindedness she admits to.  May she continue to be well.  Anyway, this particular adventure is fine.  Nothing really wowed me, but it didn’t annoy me much either.

I preferred the second story because it finally has the Third Doctor have a proper confrontation with the Cybermen, my favorite of Doctor Who villains. “The Tyrants of Logic” is written by Marc Platt and has the Doctor and Jo arrive on an abandoned mining colony on a planet with the distinctive designation of Burnt Salt. I think I have a more favorable bias toward this story since it does feature the Cybermen, but even they can be overused at times. Platt takes a moment to explore the deep trust and bond that is so prominent between the Doctor and Jo, and he handles it well. Nicholas Briggs once again fires up the voice modulator to perform as the Cybermen and does well, but he usually come through without any problem.  I like listening to Briggs in interview because he knows so much about the history of the program and his enthusiasm is infectious.  There are some pretty bizarre characters and situations, but Platt makes it work in the writing. The performances were engaging so I didn’t mind that I could not quite envision how a guy has various musical instruments or tones built into him.

I don’t know if either stories are going down as classics, but the overall output had some fun ideas.  The performances are good. I can so easily believe the accounts of how hard Treloar works to put forth an accurate and affectionate impression of Jon Pertwee. I can easily believe how much Manning loved her time on the television program and with Pertwee.  Even if there are some aspects about this range that don’t always work, I loved the Third Doctor and hope further efforts to represent that era will continue.

 

“My Teacher, My Obsession” is a B movie that was released last year and stars Lucy Loken, Rusty Joiner, and Laura Bilgeri. Director Damian Romay had very little to work with in regard to talent and budget. Unfortunately, he is not one who is able to make stretch his meager resources very far to make this of much interest.

It’s a very old story. A handsome single father starts a new job at as a high school English teacher. The sexy psychotic student befriends the daughter as the teacher happens to start dating her mother.

There really isn’t much that works in this  movie.  The teacher, who is still reeling from the sudden departure of his wife, tries to be upstanding and moral, but the wiles of the obsessed teen-ager are a bit too overwhelming.

Bilgeri plays the troublesome teenage vixen, and it was somewhat interesting to see what she would come up with next to bedevil the hapless teacher, played by Rusty Joiner.

There was too much of this movie that was easily soluble to easily suspend disbelief.  The final scenes where Bigeri’s character really unravels mentally were mildly interesting.

It is only amusing to those who like to inflict these cheap B flicks on themselves. Actually, I did find it to be fairly amusing, and I can still say that I have seen worse. Still, you are probably giving yourself much more of a treat by passing this one up.

In 1959, a version of “Tarzan, the Ape Man” was released by MGM, starring Denny Miller as the iconic creation of Edgar Rice Burroughs.  Joanna Barnes played Jane Parker while Robert Douglas is cast as her father. Joseph M. Newman directed this rather forgettable remake of the 1932 version which had starred Johnny Weissmuller.

This film reuses a lot of effects and shots from the previous version and other movies such as “King Solomon’s Mines”.  Apparently the distinctive Tarzan yell was also reused from the earlier version.  Not all of the visuals were terrible, but there were some inconsistencies in the setting.

I did find the narration provided by Robert Douglas to be rather distracting. There wasn’t anything particularly awful about the performances, but nothing much stood out.

Also, Tarzan’s back story was never explained as it was in the original novel.  Tarzan was taken in by a group of apes after his aristocratic parents were marooned in the jungle and later died.  In the novel, Tarzan was able to teach himself to read and speak before meeting Jane.  Miller’s version is not quite as verbose as the literary depiction conceived by Burroughs.

I would not say that this movie is completely terrible, but there are better adaptations out there.  This version should likely be viewed with the expectation of not remembering much about it for very long afterward.

“A Simple Favor” stars Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, and Henry Golding.  Jessica Sharzer adapted it for the big screen from a novel that just came out last year by Darcey Bell.  Paul Feig directed this mostly engaging thriller that also has a biting dark humor.

I will start off with saying most of this film works pretty well.  Anna Kendrick plays a young widow who does various homemaking video blogs to support herself. Her young son becomes friend with another boy at school. This leads to Kendrick’s character, Stephanie, befriending the other child’s mother, played by Blake Lively.  Emily is a very intriguing sort with both a sense of elegance and dangerous recklessness. The scenes where the two vastly different mothers get to know each other are pretty compelling, but both Kenrick and Lively are attractive and talented performers who really seemed to work well together.  What also works is that the two actresses are attractive in different ways. Kendrick has that cute girl next door quality that probably has led her to be typecast a bit while Lively has that sultry, dangerous vibe. I am not sure that Lively has played many bad girls in her career, but she seemed to jump right into this one pretty convincingly.

The real trouble begins when Emily asks Stephanie to pick her son up from school and keep him until she can get there.  Emily then does not turn up to collect her son and ends up missing for several days until a body is found in a lake.  Stephanie and Emily’s husband end up turning to each other for comfort, which is easy to predict where that leads.

Kendrick is once again playing the very familiar role of the naïve, somewhat clumsy yet charming cutie pie which is now getting a tad repetitive when I see her onscreen. She has some moments where her character displays some steel and courage, and she manages to be fairly convincing there too.  Kendrick is charming enough where I didn’t necessarily mind seeing this kind of character from her several times before. I am not sure that I have seen many films with Blake Lively, but this seemed a little different part for her, yet she seemed to play it with ease.  Although I have heard for years, that actors love a good villainous part.

There are quite a few interesting twists which was a bit hit-and-miss as far as believability. The movie is labeled as a dark comedy as well, so it’s hard to know how hard to judge on some of these turns.

Henry Golding is fine for the most part, but there was not much about his performance or character that I found all that interesting.  I am not sure that he is an actor with much range. I would probably have to see him in more films, which may happen since his other recent film, “Crazy Rich Asians” did so well in the box office in recent weeks.  I will try to reserve judgment until I see more of his work. At least, he doesn’t wreck this particular movie for me.

I didn’t think much of the strange committee of other moms, one of whom was a man, who seemed to be observing and making comments about what they were observing in this very strange tale unfolding before their eyes.  I am not sure they are in the novel but it feels like they were sort of added in this movie for extra humor.  Andrew Rannells plays the effeminate, probably gay, father who hangs out with the moms.  His background is never quite explained, which actually worked for me. He wasn’t that germane to the story until close to the very end.  Even then, his contribution was more of a lucky break than a real significant plot point.

One supporting character that I did rather like was this detective played by an actor with the rather complicated name of Bashir Salahuddin.  His Detective Summerville had a pretty refreshing attitude of jovial, friendly skepticism.  Even when he was not exactly sure of everything going on, he still seemed like he was going to if the writer had wanted to make him the real protagonist.

Much of the movie strained the suspension of disbelief a little much, but it still was rather enjoyable.  Kendrick and Lively seemed to spark off each other pretty well during their shared scenes.  It’s one of those movies that probably won’t be considered a giant among cinematic endeavors, but it’s a pretty engaging distraction.  Some of the plot twists weren’t all that predictable, but there were moments that seemed a little rushed and could have used a little more explanation.  Paul Feig once again presents a film that still kept me interested in spite of the occasional moments that caused some mild befuddlement.

“The Devil and the Four” is the latest Sherlock Holmes written by Sam Siciliano for Titan Books.  Sicililano has created his own narrator and companion for Holmes in the shape of Dr. Henry Vernier, who also happens to be the detective’s distant cousin.  Vernier is married to one of the few female physicians of Victorian London, and Michelle Vernier also has her turn at regaling the reader with her share of this story.

Holmes and Vernier are asked to look for a wife who mysteriously went off to France after receiving the clipping of an obituary of an artist that also had rather ominous inscription that proclaimed “Four for the Devil”.

The novel has a promising enough start, however it starts to sputter quite a bit after the protagonists get to Paris, which is a disappointment in a Sherlock Holmes novel.  Vernier is one of these more sensitive types and misses his wife terribly, which is laudable, but gets a bit exasperating at times when trying to enjoy a new Holmes tale. I prefer the companions of such a unique personage to be all in.  Saying that, I rather like Michelle generally. Vernier also has a few moments heroism.  His loyalty to Holmes is quite impressive and at times moving.  The Verniers bring an interesting dynamic at times, but the style of storytelling sometimes keeps me from enjoying it fully

Sherlock Holmes is reunited with a woman who apparently was introduced in an earlier Siciliano piece that I have yet to read. I don’t really remember a Violet Wheelwright anyway. She and Holmes have a strong attraction for each other, which isn’t really without interest.  Of course, Violet is dubbed the female Sherlock Holmes since she has chosen to utilize her own gifts of perception to women of Paris who are facing some strange and desperate situation.

This novel has many irksome tendencies that have been cropping up among the works of many of these Holmes pastiche writer.  Once again, elements of the supernatural are hinted at.  The original creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, had a couple of stories with that bent, but only a couple.  The reader gets to hear again how Holmes is opposed to the notion of otherworldly forces being at the root of men’s evil deeds. Holmes is apparently more compassionate and romantic than characterized in the original stories. I thought I would get through this book without Siciliano throwing some shade on Dr. John Watson, Holmes’s usual chronicler, but alas, he snuck a couple in there.  Reading Siciliano’s take on Watson, I would have to wonder why Holmes even bothered having him alone in the other adventures.  I wish I knew if Siciliano had some dislike for Watson or is this all some joke I am not fully appreciating.  I don’t necessarily mind Siciliano creating a new companion for Holmes, but I wish he would dial back the rancor toward Watson.

The novel wasn’t really awful, but it was disappointingly average. The ending seemed to be unnecessarily protracted.  I like a good robust Sherlock Holmes novel for the most part, but I am also in favor of keeping the story moving and Holmes being a bit more in line with how Doyle presented him.

The next indulgence will be very different from my usual literary pleasures with “She’s Come Undone” by Wally Lamb.

In his latest film “The Predator”, Shane Back threw some work at a friend named Steven Wilder Striegel in the shape of a bit part as a jogger hassling the character played by Olivia Munn.  Nothing wrong with helping your friends, however Black didn’t clue anyone in  the cast and crew that his buddy is a registered sex offender.  In 2010, Striegel pleads guilty to soliciting a 14 year old kid through the internet into a sexual relationship.  He ended up serving six months in jail for two felonies in the state of Connecticut.

Okay…there is so much to say that I will probably run out of gas before I hit all of them. I know a little something about sex offenders since I have supervised those on probation for many years.  I know the victims of sexual abuse are still a whole lot closer than I am to the chaos that ensues around these situations, but I am probably still closer than much of the general public.

Shane Black defended his casting of Striegel in his film by suggesting that Striegel was possibly railroaded into his convictions. I guess that happening isn’t beyond the possibility, but it still seems highly improbable, at least according to what I have pieced together from various articles.  I do not know how much Black knew about the details of Striegel’s case, but I am guessing not much.  Friends and families of sex offender can often demonstrate an amazing capacity to not grasp the legitimacy of most of these reports. Can a false conviction happen? Sure, but I don’t think Striegel was the guy to stand behind.  Striegel still pled guilty in a court of law. I know all the excuses for doing that and still proclaiming innocence afterward. I have had to wade through the denials of minimizations many of these offenders spew in the course of my day job.  Striegel certainly wasn’t the guy to cast in a major film without discussing it with the cast, crew, and the studio.  Of course, everyone probably would have nixed that idea, but Black owed them more courtesy than he did Striegel.

It is rather disappointing because I think Shane Black is one of the better writers and directors, and this decision may cost him dearly, at least for a time.

I am still interested in seeing the movie since the studio did have Striegel’s scene cut.  I think Olivia Munn did the right thing on exposing this terrible casting decision.  I am glad Twentieth Century Fox axed the scene in question.

There are some decisions that come out of Hollywood that I find are motivated by hysteria and stupidity. This isn’t one of those times. Shane Black screwed up.

 

 

 

“The Nun” is a horror movie, written by Gary Dauberman, that was just released and serves as a prequel to “The Conjuring” films that features Ed and Lorraine Warren, husband and wife paranormal investigators, who were played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga.

This installment in that franchise takes place in the early 1950’s with Demian Bichir and Taissa Farmiga in the lead. A stoic, haunted priest and a novitiate, someone who is studying for the Convent, are sent by the Vatican to investigate the bizarre suicide of a nun in Romania. Jonas Bloquet plays the French-Canadian immigrant who discovers the body and ends up being their guide to the abbey that houses some strange forces.

I will start with the elements that I liked.  There were some truly effective and chilling visual effects at times.  I was surprised that I rather liked that I was not that familiar with the cast members. Their performances were believable enough for the most part. I did get startled and chilled at times, which is what I expect and want from a horror film. I enjoy the genre overall, so that’s what I pay for.  I rather liked Farmiga’s role of Sister Irene. She could be charming at times.  She did get frightened at times but also had moments of courage and steel when the moment called for it. Father Burke, the seasoned and weary priest tasked with investigating and verifying reports of possession, was also an interesting presence onscreen.  He was by no means a ray of sunshine, but he also was not a cruel man or someone who lost his faith in God. That would have been a bit cliché.

Bloquet plays the guide and sidekick with a bit of a plucky humor, who ends up being a surprisingly effective ally at times.  The main characters were people that I wanted to cheer on as they face the evils of the demonic nun.

The film falls short on being consistently scary though. There are moments that are a bit cliché and overused, but that is a common complaint I have in horror movies.

Although this movie does not hit anywhere close to cinematic greatness, it still could have gone much worse.  I had just enough of the heebie-jeebies to enjoy myself.

 

“Lonesome Road” is one of the British mystery novels featuring Miss Silver and is written by Patricia Wentworth. Maud Silver is one of many fictional elderly spinsters who have a talent for solving crimes.  Miss Silver is a little different in that she actually is a professional private detective while her fictional peers are usually amateurs who stumble across a murder.

This novel was published initially in 1939 and is written by a Brit, so one has to endure the somewhat slow pace and style of writing common for that era. I did appreciate that Miss Silver appears pretty quickly in this one. It was apparently common practice for the detective to not appear until well into the book, and the other novels featuring Miss Silver tended to follow suit.

It takes place, as expected, in an isolated country house where a young heiress suspects that someone is trying to kill her.  There are a variety of shady relatives and servants to consider as the potential culprit.  I found some of the attempts on her life to be odd and a little inefficient. There were efforts such as an over polished stairstep and a couple of snakes appearing in her bed. There is a somewhat surprising explanations for some of these methods, but it still just struck me as being somewhat improbable.  Someone did try to shove her over a cliff, which is a little better effort, but still seems rather cliché.

Wentworth is a talented writer and has likely earned the popularity in her time, but Miss Silver still appears to be a little bland and humorless as a character.  I found this to be only of mild interest for the most part. I still will likely continue to try some of the other novels in this series since I have them.  They are not entirely without some charm in spite of the criticisms.

I will next see what Sam Siciliano does with a better known fictional detective as Sherlock Holmes solves the problem of “The Devil and the Four”.

“The Memory Cheats” is a Doctor Who audio play from Big Finish Productions. It is part of the Companion Chronicles range and stars Wendy Padbury alongside her daughter, Charlie Hayes.

Zoe Heriot was a genius from the late 21st Century who at one time traveled with the Doctor. Her memory of most her travels were blocked by the Time Lords when the Doctor could no longer run from them.  She was returned to her own time and place with only the memory of her first encounter with the Doctor and Jamie McCrimmon in place. Yet she has dreams, and the Company for whom she works has evidence she ha indeed traveled in time.

A woman named Jen who is assigned to help Zoe has prodded her memories of a time when the TARDIS landed in Uzbekistan in 1919 where children are disappearing.

Simon Guerrier is the author of this particular installment. Padbury’s performance is fine. The script was fairly decent.  I found the first part in particular to be pretty slow. Also the flow of the story had too many interruptions due to the focus shifting abruptly to the present day exchange between Jen and Zoe.

The performances were solid enough.  Padbury and Hayes seem to work well together, although they do have a much closer bond than most castmates.

Overall, there was nothing really awful about this episode, but not much was there to really grab my attention and hold it.