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.

Freaky is a comedy slasher film that explores the body swapping gag in a new way. It is a Blumhouse Production directed by Christopher Landon, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Kennedy. Vince Vaughn stars alongside Kathryn Newton, Katie Finneran, and Alan Ruck.

Vince Vaughn plays the Blissfield Butcher who wanders around town on the hunt for teen-agers to kill. After adding to his body count, he makes off with an ancient dagger with some strange powers. When the Butcher sets his sights on a shy, bullied girl named Millie, played by Newton, his plans go awry when the dagger casts a spell which has the air switch bodies. Millie has only twenty-four hours to retrieve the dagger from the police evidence locker, find the Butcher who has adapted to using his new disguise to add a few more notches to the aforementioned body count.

So once again, the body swapping plot device is in play, which usually is handled rather clumsily. This particular idea was actually rather amusing in an expectedly grotesque sort of way. Newton’s shift to the Butcher persona was rather compelling. Vince Vaughn acting like a teen-age girl could be rather hilarious. The weak moments in his performance have more to do with the writing than his effort. The rest of the cast was fine. Newton and Vaughn do pretty well carrying the heavy load of this film.

Yeah, the film is rather stupid in many ways, however it still manages to avoid being irredeemably bad. If one is in the mood of some entertaining, gruesome absurdity, this one delivers.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage is the latest Marvel film which brings back Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom. Kelly Marcel wrote the screenplay with Andy Serkis taking up the director’s mantle. The cast also includes Michelle Williams, Woody Harrelson, Naomie Harris, and Stephen Graham.

So this one is chock full of unrequited love. Eddie Brock is working as a reporter and is still missing his girlfriend, Anne Weying, played by Williams, who is now engaged to someone else. His relationship with his symbiote, Venom is on the rocks. Psychotic killer, Cletus Kasady, is missing his childhood love, Frances, while facing execution. Frances has an unusually piercing scream which has her incarcerated in an institution reserved for dangerous mutants, and she is not happy to be so separated from her favorite lunatic. No one seems to be able to sort out their love lives here. Brock pays Harrelson’s Cletus a little visit. That meeting gets a little tense when Cletus gets a little taste of Venom. Of course, we know what’s next. Venom’s little spot of blood mutates inside Cletus, transforming him into Carnage, who just wants to find his lost love so he is not alone in his indulging his bloodlust.

Harrelson takes on the role of Carnage and is reliably creepy and unhinged. Harris does fine as Frances, who has her own issues. Frances is also known as Shriek. Hardy’s performance is quite good in spite of some weak dialogue. The special effects and the fight scenes are done well enough to make this just entertaining enough. Venom’s single-mindedness when it comes to eating bad guys is supposed to be amusing in some gallows sort of way, but I was finding it somewhat annoying. So this is a comic book movie, so there needs to be grace extended when it comes to expecting a lot of coherence. I get that, but somehow I felt that some opportunities were missed to really elicit some laughs. Of course, the humor would be quite dark and disturbing, but I don’t shy away from that.

Basically, this is another film that left me a little cold. I shouldn’t be disappointed since this is a comic book film. but somehow this ended up being more of a letdown than I anticipated. The only really impressive aspect was the effects, but that is even not all that notable considerable most movies in this genre can at least get the special effects right. It’s not the worst film I have seen, but it is one of a big blob of unremarkable cinematic offerings. This is still rather annoying because I seem to be saying much of the same thing about the recent films I have endured, which makes this latest blog feel rather unremarkable. Better luck next time, Marvel.

A Bright Ray of Darkness is a novel written by Ethan Hawke. Hawke is of course better known as an actor, but he apparently likes to throw out a book every not and then.

The tale is told in the first person from the perspective of actor William Harding, who is the midst of a public scandal after he is caught cheating on his wife. Young William has joined the cast of a stage play.in the hopes of of some kind of redemption. He has tried to drown out his regret with booze and sex, but he is merely making his situation worse. Anyway, the catch is that an actual Hollywood figure is giving a fictional inside look of the profession.

So, this isn’t my usual mode of literary diversion, and I doubt I will be revisiting this one anytime soon. Harding is a little hard for me to find much sympathy for. Toward the end of the novel, Harding gets some advice from his fellow cast members and the director that sort of resonated with me. Unfortunately, it isn’t until that moment that I saw Harding as another shallow Hollywood airhead. Hawke’s writing isn’t that bad though. I didn’t find it to be uniquely compelling, but I have read worse. I suspect my reservations about this novel is inspired by my overall cynicism of Hollywood airheads. Through much of the novel, he makes most of the boneheaded decisions I would expect. There is some payoff toward the end, but this one tested my patience overall.

Now that is over, time to immerse my imagination in 1940’s Los Angeles with James Ellroy’s This Storm.

The Sleeping City is a Doctor Who audio adventure from Big Finish Productions from The Companion Chronicles range. Lisa Bowerman directs the piece that is written by Ian Potter. William Russell reprises his role of Ian Chesterton as well as stands in for the late William Hartnell as the Doctor. John Banks serves as the guest actor playing a character named Gerrard and providing a few other voices as well.

Ian Chesterton is being questioned about his absence from London presumably after he has returned with Barbara Wright from their travels through time and space with the Doctor. Ian then relates a story of a city on another world. The city is known as Hisk, and beings who feast on the dreams and nightmares of the depressed and dispossessed have new targets in the form of the Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki. Is Ian telling his story to someone who they say they are, or is this another dream?

I ended up enjoying this episode. but it took a bit to get there. Russell’s performance is as compelling as ever. He is about 90 years old at the time of the recording, which makes his participation even more impressive. Banks is quite a frequent performer for Big Finish, and his addition here continues to prove that he is a sold casting choice. There is a pretty good plot twist toward the end. Although the plot seems to have a slow start, it does pick up an acceptable amount of steam as it progresses.

Out Of Time 2: The Gates of Hell is a Doctor Who audio play from our friends at Big Finish Productions. David Llewellyn is the author of this tale which brings the Tenth Doctor, played by David Tennant, alongside Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor. Ken Bentley serves as director of this particular tale. Nicolas Briggs returns to voice the impassive yet obsessive Cybermen. Mark Gatiss, Shelley Conn, and Glen McCready make up the rest of this relatively small guest cast.

The Fifth Doctor is taking a tour of the Catacombs in Paris in 1809 when he encounters a time agent named Tina Drake and then finds an army of Cybermen tucked away. It seems that they have been waiting for the Time Lord and keep in stasis for a time until his tenth incarnation finds him in 1944. The meeting of the two Doctors brings about a temporal catastrophe that must be rectified. At the center of the Cybermen’s plan to invade the Earth and the galaxy, or whatever they want, is a misguided French guy who is in their power.

In real life, Tennant is actually married to Davison’s daughter, so this is quite the family bonding time. They worked together in a television mini-episode called Time Crash several years ago. They still work well together. I thought Llewellyn came up with a clever script. Everyone in the cast seemed to hold up their end quite well. The sound design is as convincing as ever. The humor was nicely delivered, and the Doctors seemed to be having a ball in the performance. This did seem a little too familiar considering these two incarnations have already been seen together onscreen, so there was a slight since of “been there, done that”, however it was still an enjoyable episode. I actually prefer the Cybermen over the Daleks when it comes to the Doctor’s adversaries. I think this is a very well-chosen addition to my massive Big Finish collection.

Later is a supernatural thriller written by Stephen King and is published by Hard Case Crime. Jamie Conklin is the son of a struggling single mother and has the fairly common rare gift of being able to see people who have recently died. His mother has a girlfriend who works as a police detective in New York. She pulls Jamie into a desperate investigation where he needs to communicate with a dead psychopath who left a bomb as a parting gift. Although that is a major plot point, King also creates some complicated relationships and characters.

This novel has several strong points that showcase King’s talent for creating compelling characters and a flow of thought that seems rather genuine. The novel is written in first person from Jamie’s point of view, and I grew to like the kid. King’s trademark dark humor helps ease the tension in the right places.

The novel is enjoyable enough, however I would hesitate to consider it a future classic. Also, young kids being able to communicate with the dead seems to be common literary backdrop. It was an interesting story but some major aspects do seem a little too familiar. King doesn’t quite hit it out of the park here, but he certainly gets a good piece of the ball.

So the next reading indulgence is A Bright Ray of Darkness by Ethan Hawke.

The Inheritance is a low budget supernatural horror film that takes place in Ukraine. It is written and directed by Chad Barager and Kevin Speckmaier. The small cast is led by Natalia Ryumina and Nick Wittman.

It’s a somewhat typical haunted house story. A young woman inherits a big, foreboding house in Ukraine from her estranged grandfather. She and her husband fly out to handle the property and get it ready to sell. However, there are strange whispers and shouts with various bangs thrown in that keeps Sasha awake. The husband starts acting oddly because he is apparently keeping his own secrets. Sasha learns of some family history along the way that could explain the restless spirits. We’ve seen this play out before in every other film of this genre.

Although there is not much that I would call original and groundbreaking, there are some moments that provide a few appropriate shivers. I did watch this alone in my house on a Friday night, so I had the right atmosphere to make this a bit more compelling. The performances aren’t too bad. The dialogue was not glaringly unrealistic for a ghost story anyway.

The story did have one or two little somewhat unexpected moments, but not enough to stand up and applaud the filmmakers for any sort of cinematic ingenuity. Overall, the movie works well enough for me to not be overwhelmed with regret over the time spent watching it, however it’s nothing I can recommend with enthusiasm either.