About Time is a romantic comedy with some fair amount of drama and a dash of fantasy added to the mix. It is written and directed by Richard Curtis. It was first released in 2013. Domhnall Gleeson is the lead actor and is joined by Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy, Lindsey Duncan, Margot Robbie, Tom Hollander, Lydia Wilson, and several other fine castmates.

Tim Lake is a young man who has come of age in Cornwall. He comes from a loving family, but he is a bit socially awkward. Bill Nighy, as the father, lets Tim on a rather unusual secret. Apparently, the men in the family have the ability to travel along through own timeline just by going into a dark closet and concentrating on when they would like to visit. There are some helpful warnings going along with this revelation. Tim decides to use his gift to improve his luck with women.

Tim meets Mary, played by McAdams, and falls in love. Of course, that doesn’t always go smoothly, but the time traveling comes in handy, but Tim finds there are caveats to this gift.

So this is a strange movie but it is loaded with charm and heart. There is a surprising depth to this one, which is impressive coming from a writer who helped create Mr. Bean. Anyway, the film is full of eccentric, amusing people. Nighy is particularly good, but he usually is. Gleeson is quite compelling as a young man trying to find his way in life and love. Really, everyone does well in their performance.

There is no explanation as to why this particular family possesses such a unique gift, the writing is so good that thread was fine dangling right where it was.
This is one of the few movies I have seen recently that worked on almost every aspect. Is it a perfect movie? Perhaps….

The Queen’s Gambit is a novel written by the late Walter Tevis and was first released in 1983. There was a wildly popular Netflix limited series recently released.

If one is not familiar with the series or this novel, it involves an orphan who becomes captivated by the game of chess. She also gets captivated by pills and booze as she gets older. There really is not much to say here without a bunch of spoilers. At least, I am not sure what else I can say here plotwise.

I will say that it is worth the read. I enjoyed the Netflix series, and the book was pretty good. Sometimes the actual chess scenes can come across as a little dry, but I am not sure how a writer who chooses chess as a backdrop for the story can solve that. Chess is an interesting game, and I wish I could get better at it, but it is not the most thrilling of activities to put into writing. The rest of the story if quite compelling. Outside of the main character, Beth Harmon, the other people with whom she interacts have their own moments of interest. I liked the variety of competitors she faces as she progresses her way through the national and international tournaments.

The Netflix series is pretty faithful to the source material, although it’s the television series that delves more into Beth’s past a bit more than this novel, which is a rather interesting twist.

I was rather pleased with this reading selection. So I am marching onto the next literary destination and revisiting quadriplegic criminologist Lincoln Rhyme in Jeffrey Deaver’s The Steel Kiss.

After the Daleks is a Doctor Who audio play released by Big Finish Productions and is one of the latest episodes in The Early Adventures range. Roland Moore is the scriptwriter with Lisa Bowerman back in the director’s seat. The Doctor has just left his granddaughter on 23rd century Earth where she is going to embark on a new life with David Campbell after the Dalek occupation was ended. Carole Ann Ford reprises the role and serves as narrator for the story of what happened to Susan just after the Doctor’s departure unfolds. Sean Biggerstaff, Lucy Briers, Jonathan Guy Lewis, Oli Higginson, and Nicholas Briggs make up the guest cast here.

What Susan does not know is that one Dalek is left behind, and an ambitious former collaborator with the Daleks has his designs on regaining power to reshape the recovery from the Daleks into something that would not benefit everyone. Susan gets her first real taste of dark side of politics, as if there is a real bright side. A couple of characters from the original serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth have ben recast. Lucy Briers is the daughter of the actress who played the character Jenny back in 1964. Sean Biggerstaff plays David Campbell, who is the man Susan stayed for.

It’s hard for me to appreciate a Doctor Who story without the Doctor, but I ended up getting more drawn into this one more than I expected. Ford really shines with this one, and gives Susan a bit more steel and courage than what was seen in the television series. Marcus Bray, played by Jonathan Guy Lewis, turns out to be rather shocking in his despicability and duplicity, which serves this tale mightily. Lewis can sometimes sound a little over the top. but this is all done with audio, so it may be rather unfair to fault him too much for that. There is a side plot about Jenny trying to find a way to restore her brother, who was converted into a Roboman. The Robomen were surgically altered serve the Daleks. The Doctor himself is not around, but his shadow remains, and his legacy carries on with his granddaughter’s commitment to helping the Earth recover from a brutal invasion.

Big Finish is pretty solid with the writing most of the time, but I am pleased to note that this episode was rather special. I still prefer having the Doctor around though.

Total Power is a recent thriller to feature Mitch Rapp and is written by Kyle Mills, who has been continuing the series originally created by the late Vince Flynn.

In this installment, ISIS operatives collude with a disgruntled American to take down the US power grid which would leave the whole nation in the dark in more ways than one. CIA unleashes its top operative, Mitch Rapp, to find the people responsible and see what could be done to restart the country. This time, Rapp must contain his usual fury and keep the mastermind alive so that the government has a chance to repair the devastating damage.

The plot seems to be quite fanciful, however Mills write a brief note assuring his readers that he did not have to make up much. Hopefully, the real world US government is rather more secure than what is written in Mills’ pages. Of course, the novelty of Rapp doing his thing on US soil brings a sense uniqueness to this novel. Mills continues to display his competence to continue the literary legacy left behind by Flynn. Things are about to be quite different for Rapp because the president who was rather supportive of his methods is turning the Oval Office over to a new occupant, but President Alexander has one more crisis to oversee. In spite of my instinct to consider the plot to be implausible, it’s still a compelling read. The could be just because I am such an avid follower of this series. Anyway, it’s a pretty good addition to the series, and Rapp still gets to kill a few bad guys. So check it out if you like to read about terrorists getting a brutal comeuppance.

We saw the Netflix limited series not too long ago, so it’s time to see how close the producers of The Queen’s Gambit followed the book written by Walter Tevis.

The God of Phantoms is a Doctor Who audio play from Big Finish Productions and is the latest in a range known as Philip Hinchcliffe Presents. Hinchcliffe is one the most celebrated producers of the series during Tom Baker’s era in the 1970’s. This story idea was adapted by Marc Platt, another long-time contributor to the franchise. Ken Bentley is back in the director’s seat. Tom Baker and Louise Jameson headline this one again. The guest cast includes Aurora Burghart, Nigel Fairs, Glen McReady, and Sam Stafford.

In this rather long tale, the Doctor and Leela arrive on a colony world somewhere in the future. Ghosts are haunting the inhabitants, and people are disappearing. The Doctor also has a sense of familiarity that he cannot quite place. It seems that an old enemy is waiting in the wings, but the Doctor has no memory of a previous encounter. Also, Leela has an encounter which forces her to keep the Time Lord in the dark.

The story has quite a bit of intriguing elements which sparks my macabre imagination. Although the performances are solid and the sound effects are spot on, this wasn’t what I call one of the best efforts. It’s a six part story, and I am not sure this was the one that needed to be drawn out. Tim Faulkner plays the villain known as Flindor. Although the Doctor may have encountered this being before, he is not known to the fans. I have to say, one appearance by this character is more than enough. I just didn’t find this guy to be all that well realized or compelling as a villain. It still features my favorite Doctor, and the story still avoids being terrible. I am one of the fans with an appreciation for the Philip Hinchcliffe era, but I am not sure this episodes stands up as well as the previous ones in this range. The problem Leela has with keeping a secret from the Doctor or risk him losing his sanity is an interesting predicament. Baker and Jameson are both great to hear even in this adventure. Anyway, the story may have worked better being a standard four part length, but it isn’t like it’s a terrible experience getting some extra time with the Fourth Doctor and Leela.

In spite of my reservations about this particular installment, I do hope that Philip Hinchcliffe has some more ideas to share, and I also have no objection to Marc Platt’s continued contributions. Of course, my enthusiasm for the continued participation of Tom Baker and Louise Jameson goes without saying. Whatever Hinchcliffe presents next, I will be there to snatch it up.

Cry Macho is a modern day western drama directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. You may heard of him. The screenplay was written by Nick Schenk and N. Richard Nash. It was based on Nash’s 1975 novel. The cast also includes Dwight Yoakum, Eduardo Minett, Natalia Traven and Fernanda Urrejola.

Eastwood plays a retired rodeo star named Mike Milo who just loses his job at a ranch ran by Yoakum’s Howard Polk. Sometime later, Polk comes to Milo and asks a big favor. He wants Milo to retrieve his son from his ex-wife in Mexico. He says that the boy is being abused, and he wants to have a relationship with his son, who is in the care of an unstable mother. Milo agrees to this and heads down south. He meets the ex-wife, played by Urrejola, and yes, she is a bit of a loon, but she has money and guys with guns to affirm her poor life choices. Milo then is able to find the boy who is living on the streets and making some money by having his rooster, Macho, fight against other roosters. Yeah…cockfighting. Anyway, Milo and the boy, Rafo, meet. They have an argument and still end up together in Milo’s car on the way back to Polk’s Texas ranch. Of course, all kinds of obstacles and sidetracks occur. The mother sends her hired gun after them as they also try to avoid the attention of the Mexican authorities. There is a little romance on the way for Milo. Anyway, that’s the gist of this thing.

I have a somewhat reflexive affection for Clint Eastwood, so I was pleased that he was putting out another film when I first heard of this one. The story was not without interest, but Eastwood’s age is a real problem here. The man is just over 90 years old, and he almost looks every bit of it. Yes, he is still walking unaided and seems fairly fit…for a 90 year old man, but it was still too implausible that this was Polk’s best option to send to Mexico to get his son from an unstable woman with an armed crew. The rest of the cast was pretty well chosen. Minett has enough charisma to carry off his role of thirteen year-old Rafo. There is some great scenery throughout the film. The writing seemed a little stilted. The pace of the film often dragged as well. It’s not all bad, but it does require an almost painful suspension of disbelief. I think if Eastwood is still sharp enough to direct films. that’s fine, however he would do better to understand that his days of convincingly playing an action hero are over.

This Storm is a crime novel from James Ellroy that takes place in 1942 Los Angeles. It’s one of a group of novels known as Second LA Quartet. It was first published in 2019.

This is one of these novels where it is uncertain who the real protagonist is supposed to be. Everyone’s morals seem to be a little ambiguous. There is a body found at Griffin Park. Two police officers are later murdered at a night club. A gold heist is also at the heart of this. Many characters are in other works written by Ellroy. To be honest, I am pretty unfamiliar with these novels. My only real prior exposure to Ellroy is seeing the movie LA Confidential, which is based on one of the previous novels.

This is a very dense, busy novel. The setting was fascinating. Real historic cinematic figures such as Orson Welles are peppered throughout. Ellroy apparently really delves into the culture of the city and the time quite thoroughly. There is a lot of violence and sex, which is not surprising. The characters are pretty complicated. Ellroy is an interesting writer and has no shortage of talent, but he can seem a little long-winded. The novel does not read very quickly even though it is not written with any Victorian flourishes. I struggled to stay engaged with this one, however that may be more due to not being used to this author’s style of writing. I may have to try another Ellroy novel or revisit this one in a few years.

Ellroy is a consistent best selling author for a reason and I did enjoy the film LA Confidential, so I won’t try to dissuade anyone from giving this novel a try.

Next up, Kyle Mills continues the bloody exploits of Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp with Total Power.

No Time To Die is the latest James Bond film to hit the big screen. Daniel Craig makes his last appearance as 007, and it is overall an impressive exit. Cary Joji Fukunaga directs this installment and also co-wrote the screen play alongside Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. The cast also includes Naomie Harris, Rami Malek, Ralph Fiennes, Lea Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, and Christoph Waltz. Jeffrey Wright returns as CIA operative Felix Leiter. Ana de Armas also makes a brief but captivating appearance as another CIA operative who provides some much needed assistance to the retired MI6 agent. Anyway, there is quite a mixture of old and new faces to see Craig off. Oh yes, Ben Whishaw returns as Q. I think that covers much of the significant cast and crew.

The film starts off with a flashback in which Bond’s girlfriend, Madeleine Swann, recalls the murder of her mother. She is then rescued by the killer, who is to be the main villain, Lyutsifer Safin, played by Malek, James Bond has been retired by MI6 for some time. He is spending time with Madeleine in Italy when he is unexpectedly attacked while visiting the grave of a former love. Bond escapes that attempt but severs his relationship with Madeleine after he suspects that she led his would-be killers to their next. It is a few years later when Bond has retired to Jamaica and is contacted by Felix Leiter who asks for his help in locating a kidnapped scientist who has developed a dangerous bioweapon. Bond is then in the midst of SPECTRE, an old adversary, however the members of that organization are wiped out by another nemesis. Bond returns to MI6 and finds another agent played by Lynch with his old designation. It’s just a number, right? He also finds himself reunited with Madeleine, who now has a daughter. There are plenty of gunfights, explosions, and chases that lead Bond back to familiar dangers and to new revelations.

First of all, Daniel Craig delivers a compelling performance as expected. The cast is actually well selected. Ana de Armas was a rather unexpected treat in her limited screen time. I even got to like Lashana as Agent 007, Nomi. Nomi makes a really poignant gesture of respect to Bond during the film that was just too cool. The film work was spectacular. There was plenty of just great scenery and background. There was quite a bit of enjoyment to be found in this one. Daniel Craig flat out did great as James Bond through all of his era. Some people preferred the lighter, more humorous touch of the previous actors, but I appreciate the darker sides of the character being brought out. I have read most of the original Ian Fleming novels, and Bond was not presented as quite so flippant as the screen version has come across over the years.

This film is not without its flaws unfortunately. Malek’s role seemed to be a little unclear as to the purpose of his villainous deeds. Not all of the threads dangling from the recent previous films tied together so easily. There were times that some of the action sequences took on a video game aspect that was hard to buy into. Also, there was quite a shocking game changer at the end that I am not that sure was necessary. I will leave that vague out f respect for anyone who may come across this blog before seeing the movie. It’s a long shot, I know.

The film is going to be somewhat polarizing among the fans more than likely, but I would still recommend that it be seen in spite of some of my curmudgeonly views. Craig still does a great job. There is a lot to still enjoy about this film, and hopefully the producers will keep the franchise and the character recognizable because the one spoiler I will reveal is that “James Bond will return”.

The Third Doctor Adventures Volume 7 contains two audio drama featuring the Third Doctor as played by Tim Treloar, who is filling in for the late Jon Pertwee. This set is directed by Nicholas Briggs. Not only is Treloar taking over the part of someone no longer living, but two actresses who played popular companions are being portrayed by each of their daughters. This set is of course a recent Big Finish release.

The first story is Mark Wright’s The Unzal Incursion which has Daisy Ashford playing the role of Liz Shaw, who was first portrayed by her mother Caroline John. Jon Culshaw reprises his interpretation of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, who was played originally by the late Nicholas Courtney. The remaining guest cast is made up of Misha Malcolm, Clare Corbett, Avita Jay, Sam Benjamin, and Gary Martin. Liz Shaw has been a crucial member of an effort to invent an early warning system of extraterrestrial activity known as Hotspur. Members of UNIT have suddenly started behaving oddly and are in the midst of a mutiny, and a new alien threat is very interested in the new project as well. The Doctor, Liz, and the Brigadier have to dodge the efforts of their own team to capture them.

This story is actually pretty good. There was not a very clear description of the Unzal that I can recall, which I found a little frustrating, The cast performed well. Treloar’s portrayal of this particular Doctor is good enough to that I can still imagine Pertwee uttering his lines. It’s just a solid adventure that is quite reminiscent of this Doctor’s early days of his exile.

The second story is one that I prefer a little more. Tim Foley examines the other side of this Doctor’s era when Sadie Miller takes on the role originated by her mother, Elisabeth Sladen, with The Gulf. It’s all women in this one with a guest cast made up of Wendy Craig, Lucy Goldie, Jennifer Saayeng, Bethan Walker, and Issy Van Randwyck. The Doctor and Sarah arrive on an ocean planet aboard a former rig which now serves as an artists’ retreat. One of the small number of artists has disappeared. There is a creature below the waves that feeds on tears of guilt and sorrow, and this plenty of that to go around with this group.

This has one of my favorite types of setting. A claustrophobic isolated base in which there is little chance of escape. The Doctor has not really faced an enemy of this sort, and he is not always sure what to do. Sadie Miller can sometimes sound very much like her mother. Not all of the descriptions were that helpful on how to picture the setting in my mind. It was still quite well-written though with a fairly unique sort of monster.

The set was quite solid overall. The sound effects were convincing enough, and no one in the cast seemed to fall short. Treloar seems to be on solid footing in his portrayal of the Third Doctor. Neither story was bad. Culshaw bringing the Brigadier back to life is quite welcome. This is certainly one of the stronger efforts by Big Finish to capture a specific era of the series. The Gulf was different in some ways though If this were seen on television, the special effects would have to have been updated quite a bit.

This set is one of the better ones in recent years, and his other companions from the Third Doctor finally get to shine a bit through the daughters of the women who portrayed them. This turned out pretty well in spite of challenges of recording it during COVID 19 restrictions in the UK.

The Smugglers is a Doctor Who television serial in four parts that was originally aired on the BBC in 1966. The actual television footage remains missing, but the soundtrack has been recovered. Anneke Wills, who played the Doctor’s companions Polly, provides narration to help fill in the actions that are unseen. This story is also William Hartnell’s penultimate outing as the Doctor. Michael Craze also has just joined the cast as Able Seaman Ben Jackson. The guest cast includes Terence De Marney, George A. Cooper, and John Ringham. Brian Hayles wrote the script which was directed by Julia Smith.

Ben and Polly are two young Londoners from 1966 who have encountered the Doctor in the previous adventure entitiled The War Machines. They wandered aboard the TARDIS as the Doctor was about to leave London. The TARDIS takes the trio to Cornwall in the 17th Century. The TARDIS crew then get immersed in a treasure hunt while fending off pirates and government bureaucrats.

Any Doctor Who fan knowledgeable about this era of the series knows that this is here William Hartnell’s failing health was becoming more apparent. He still seems to put in a fairly competent performance here, but I may be somewhat biased. I have always had a soft spot for Ben and Polly, but they are just finding their chemistry here. I always liked how Ben addresses Polly as “duchess”.

Sadly, there is not much remarkable about the story itself. It seems a little obvious that the Doctor would encounter pirates. Everyone played their stereotyped roles just fine, but not much else stood out other than the introduction of two new companions. The main cast seemed to do just fine, but it is a little sad knowing the next story would mark the end of Hartnell’s time when he was likely reluctant to give up the part. Ben and Polly were the first companions to witness the Doctor’s regeneration in the subsequent story.

Anyway, it was still rather intriguing to hear a very classic Doctor Who adventure on the verge of a momentous shift that would become a unique tradition where the lead role could be recast on a regular basis. Hartnell’s era in particular was plagued with somewhat problematic writing and production, but it is still fun to revisit those days. Anneke Wills also does well in providing the linking narration. There is not much flash or difficulty to that, but she deserves a mention for that contribution.

The Smugglers is really for fans who want to make sure they have at least experienced every piece of the early days. It isn’t terrible to endure, however the history and background of this broadcast is a bit more enthralling than the actual story.