The Psychic Circus is a Doctor Who audio play released by Big Finish Productions written by Stephen Wyatt and directed by Samuel Clemens.  Sylvester McCoy returns to his role of the Seventh Doctor.  The guest cast includes James Dreyfus, Ian Reddington, Chris Jury, and Anna Leong Brophy.

Now this is a fairly special episode for the fans.  It serves as simultaneous prequel and sequel to the television serial entitled the The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.  The Doctor returns to the Psychic Circus as it was starting but another evil and familiar influence hovers over it that is forcing him to face his past.  The author of this audio play also introduced the television viewers to this troubled circus as well as Paradise Towers.  Although the Doctor knows the future of the Psychic Circus, he is rather surprised to find that he was present in the past as well.  Back when the Chief Clown achieved his ambitions which twisted him into something considerably darker.  This was where we get to meet Kingpin before he was Deadbeat.

This is a little bit of a confusing tale at times, however it’s still a pretty good time.  McCoy puts in his usual engaging energy into the performance.  Some of the cast members of the television serial reprise their roles.  Wyatt does quite well keeping the continuity intact.  The episode hits the right chords of nostalgia for those of us quite familiar with the earlier story.  It plays with the pitfalls of time travel for the Doctor.  The verbal sparring between McCoy and Dreyfus is also worth the price of admission.

It’s a solid adventure with a few aural delights for the long-time fans familiar with the television stories that intersect.

 

 

Game Over, Man! is an overly raunchy action comedy directed by Kyle Newacheck.  Anders Holm concocted this screenplay with story credit being shared with Newacheck, Adam DeVine and Blake Anderson.  Anderson, Holm and DeVine also star in this alongside Daniel Stern, Neal McDonough, and Aya Cash.

The basic premise is that three friends  who work as housekeepers at a ritzy hotel are aspiring video game designers.  They are about to make it big when their plans get hampered by terrorists taking the hotel by hostage.  It’s an obvious rip-off of Dir Hard, however I think the comparison was supposed to be intentional.  There are a few mildly interesting plot twists, but that’s overshadowed by the gross humor.

I should have not bothered to hold out any hope for this to be redeemable once I saw that Seth Rogen was one of the producers in this one.  There were a couple of surprising cameos, but it only knocked any respect I had for these individuals down a notch instead of raising my appreciation for the film.

If you come across this on Netflix, no need to indulge your curiosity.  I already sacrificed a couple of hours so you can be properly warned.

 

Molly’s Game is a biographical drama about Molly Bloom, who got sideways with the feds over organizing underground high stakes poker games.  The film was written and directed by Aaron Sorkin and was based on the autobiography Bloom had published in 2014.  The film stars Jessica Chastain in the title role and is joined by such august talent such as Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera, and Chris O’Dowd.

Molly Bloom is born into quite the intellectual and athletic family.  Her promising ski career is cut short by an injury occurred while training for the Olympics.  She is introduced to the world of underground poker after moving to Los Angeles.  She comes into contact with various celebrities and bigwigs.  But matters take a much nastier turn after she moves to New York and comes across some mob guys.

It’s a great cast, but the movie does seem to drag quite a bit at times.  The poker jargon that is thrown around isn’t always explained that well, which is a little distracting.  It’s probably not the masterpiece that others may claim, however there is still a lot going for this one.  As mentioned before, it’s a solid cast.  It is a pretty interesting story for the most part.

In spite of the some of the missteps, I will going to say that I liked the movie overall.  I don’t think this is one I will be drawn to repeatedly, however it’s just compelling enough for me to not regret sticking it out until the end credits.

Badland is a western film written and directed by Justin Lee.  Nathan Makely is in the lead role as a Pinkerton detective who is tasked with finding the worst of Confederate war criminals.  Some of the other cast members include Mira Sorvino, Bruce Dern, Jeff Fahey, and Wes Studi.

The lead character has the great name of Matthias Breecher, who is on the hunt for various former Confederate leaders who misbehaved the most during the Civil War.  He encounters the daughter of one of his targets and begins to feel something other than his usual stoic determination.

Breecher is the usual cliche protagonist who lives a violent life but secretly yearns for a more peaceful existence.  He may have a path to that with the aid of a pioneer woman played by Sorvino.

This film is not too bad actually.  There is not too much originality in the writing though.  Breecher borders on being kind of a boring lead character in between gunfights and fisticuffs.  Fortunately there is just enough action sequences to keep my interest.turned

It can drag a bit at times, but there is quite a bit of pleasant scenery.  The performances were not extraordinary, but no one stood out as being noticeably bad.

The film was kind of interesting but nothing to get too excited over.

 

Double Indemnity is a 1944 film that is considered the definitive film noir where the ending isn’t all that warm, and the protagonists are lacking in morals.  There is a lot of history and unique acclaim attached to this.  It was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won none.  It did make a lasting mark on cinema history, so the makers had to live with that.  Billy Wilder was the director of the screenplay which he co-wrote with Raymond Chandler.  It was based on a novella written by James M.Cain.  The cast includes Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G. Robinson.

Most of the story is told in flashback when MacMurray’s Walter Neff staggers into an office, sets up a dictaphone, and starts telling his story of infatuation and murder.  Neff meets the wife of a client who later asks about setting up a life insurance policy without the husband’s knowledge.  Neff figures out that Phyllis Dietrichson is setting up a big payout following the murder of her husband.  He decides that Phyllis is just attractive enough for him to lend a hand.  Not only does he have to  make sure the police has no suspicion, but he has an older colleague who is a good deal sharper than many.

A double indemnity is a clause in the insurance policy which would double the payout depending on how subject meets their death.  That was kind of fun to learn.

This is worth the reputation.  The performances aren’t bad at all.  I particularly enjoyed Edward G. Robinson as Barton Keyes, who is the colleague who is just a little too nosy for Neff’s good.  All of the cast did pretty well.  Apparently, James Cain thought the movie was better than his original story.  I haven’t read the novella, but I would probably take his word for it.

This is one of those films that I should have been long before now.  It may struggle a little with plausibility, but the overall experience was too well crafted for me to mind all that much.

A Fall From Grace is the latest film written and directed by Tyler Perry and was released on Netflix a couple of months ago.  Perry himself takes on a supporting role with a cast that includes Crystal Fox, the always welcome Phylicia Rashad,  Bresha Webb, Cicely Tyson, and Mehcad Brooks.

Crystal Fox plays a middle-aged woman awaiting her trial for the murder of her younger husband.  Bresha Webb is the young attorney who is doubting her career choice and is afraid of trial.  She’s young, nervous, and somehow astute enough to sense there is a story that needs to be told since her new client just wants to take a deal.  Phylicia Rashad plays the ever helpful best friend of the hapless Grace Waters, who is facing life in prison.  Much of the movie unfolds in flashback as Grace is convinced to tell her tale of renewed hope in love and a subsequent horrible betrayal.

This is a mess, and it saddens me because I actually really like Tyler Perry.  I think he has good ideas, and the basic premise of this film actually isn’t bad.  The problem is I don’t think Perry does much research when it comes to police and court procedure.  I understand the films do need to take some creative license with those, however Perry’s depiction her is almost completely implausible.  Once again, the resolution seems rushed and just way too out of left field.

There is a talented cast here, and some interesting performances.  Perry’s dialogue is a bit cliche at times and just flat out unrealistic at others.

I really tried to like this movie just because I like Tyler Perry during interviews.  I found the lack of authenticity in what would actually happen in the courtroom really distracting.  Some of the clues being missed by the main characters was just annoyingly absurd.

I was just reading that a lot of technical mishaps such as boom mikes being visible and some continuity errors had occurred in the final film.  I guess I missed those because I was too perturbed about how the story is being told.

Some of these criticisms I have expressed before in other Tyler Perry projects, however I found this particular film to be the most glaring example of  his more questionable film making decisions.

M is a thriller released in theaters in 1951.  It is based on a German film from 1931.  The particular version was directed by Joseph Losey with a screenplay that was written by Norman Reilly Raine, Leo Katcher, and Waldo Salt.  David Wayne plays the child murderer who everyone is looking to stop, even the criminal underground of Los Angeles. The cast also includes Howard Da Silva, Martin Gabel, and Raymond Burr.

Los Angeles is being terrorized by a killer of children, which is also having the police interfere more than usual with other criminal aspirations among the mobsters and racketeers.  The organization decides to conduct their own somewhat brutal investigation to find the serial killer.

Raymond Burr plays one of the hoodlums looking for the murderous inconvenience. David Wayne plays the murderer that is causing such disarray. Burr doesn’t have a significant role here, but he still manages to display some diversity here as one of the hoods.  Not much Perry Mason there.  Wayne gets a little shrill at times when he gets into a desperate situation.  He comes close to some hammy over acting.

The story does have a pretty compelling premise in that the police and the criminals are somewhat allied in their desire of finding the killer, although the mob bosses’ motives are not that altruistic unsurprisingly.

Some of this is a bit of stretch when it comes to plausibility, as so much is out of Hollywood.  It would be interesting to see German version.  I may look that up at some point.

Still, this movie has some pluses.  The performances are pretty good for the most part.  The kid who gets kidnapped toward the climax of the film was pretty stoic for someone who is stuck with guy who is unraveling significantly while trying to make his escape.  Janine Perreau was perhaps not the most thought out casting decision here.

The movie has a pretty engaging idea and some noteworthy performances, but it does drag at times and seems a little disjointed.  It’s by no means a terrible film, but it just didn’t quite keep my attention as much as I expected.

Aftermath is a very slow-paced thriller based on events surrounding the tragic airline collision over Uberlingen which occurred in 2002.  This film was written by Javier Gullon and directed by Elliot Lester.  Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as a construction supervisor who lost his wife and daughter in the airline disaster. Scoot McNairy plays the air traffic controller who got distracted at a crucial moment which led to this tragedy occurring.  The cast includes Maggie Grace, Martin Donovan, and Hannah Ware.

Schwarzenegger’s lead role of Roman Melnyk is based on a fellow named Vitaly Kaloyev, who took matters into his hands when he felt the response to his family’s demise in the disaster was not handled as sympathetically as he would have liked.  McNairy’s Jake Bonanos is the air traffic controller who ends up facing the brunt of the scandal and of Roman’s outrage.

This is a very slow, ponderous journey in spite of the film not having a long running time. Schwarzenegger doesn’t put in a bad performance, but the script does not really have him all that compelling.  McNairy seems to have a much more interesting emotional range to follow.  It’s a fascinating subject, but the film itself just didn’t keep my interest as much as I was hoping.  It may be that I am too used to Arnold in his usual shallow but witty action hero mode.

So this film ended up being a mediocre take on what is really a more fascinating tale in real life.

 

1922 is a film based on a novella written by Stephen King.  The screenplay was written and directed by Zak Hilditch.  Thomas Jane leads a cast that includes Molly Parker, Dylan Schmid, and Neal McDonough.

Thomas Jane plays a farmer in an unhappy marriage and near financial ruin.  His wife inherits some property, which he wants to have sold.  When she refuses, Wilfred James concocts a plan to kill her and enlists the aid of their son.  After the deed is done, there are rats, discord, and rebellion.  It’s a Stephen King tale, so Wilfred isn’t going to escape the consequences all that easily.

This is one of the better adaptations I have seen recently.  Jane serves as a narrator as the main plot is framed by Wilfred sitting alone in a room writing out his confession.  He also manages a pretty convincing working man’s Midwestern dialect and does carry the bulk of the movie quite effectively.

Although there is not much suspense in what Wilfred has done, it is interesting to see how the consequences unfold.  I have said for years that few can depict madness as convincingly as Stephen King.  The director seems to make good use of its time. Although there are some slow moments, I didn’t find myself minding it that much.

This is a pretty good film.  Most of the decisions on how it plays out does work quite well.  The cast was well chosen.  I have always considered Thomas Jane to be a competent actor, but he handled this role better than usual.  There were no extraordinary visual effects, but this film didn’t need all of that.  There were some interesting twists as to how the characters fared by the end of the tale. I think most King devotees will appreciate this adaptations.  I am not a King devotee, but I have read quite a bit of his works and seen several of the films created from his pages.  I have read and seen enough to recommend this one to those of us willing to explore the macabre side of literary and cinematic arts.

 

Return of the Rocket Men is a Doctor Who audio play from Big Finish Production and is another episode from the range known as The Companion Chronicles.  Matt Fitton is the writer with Lisa Bowerman directing.  Peter Purves returns as Steven Taylor and main nattator.  The guest actor is Tim Treloar as the psychopathic leader of the Rocket Men, Van Cleef.  Treloar is now a semi-regular presence at Big Finish since he fills in for the late Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor.

I am not a big fan of the Rocket Men for the most part.  They are just a little too campy for my liking, however this story was kind of interesting in that it also tells of a prior encounter Steven had with them before he met the Doctor.  This turned out to be a pretty complicated story but in a rewarding way.  Purves has continued to provide a steady, compelling narration.  Fitton also provided some perspective from the bad guy.  Treloar has already proven his vocal skill to me by his performance in the Third Doctor Adventures.  Of course, this episode was actually recorded before his casting in that other range.  I may not become a devotee of the Rocket Men as a whole, but I did enjoy this episode more than I expected.