“Doctor Sleep” is the latest big screen adaptation of a Stephen King novel.  Mike Flanagan is the scriptwriter and director of this sequel to another horror classic, “The Shining”. Ewan McGregor leads a cast that includes Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran, Cliff Curtis, and Bruce Greenwood.

Danny Torrance has grown up to be a bit of a wreck with a foul temper and more than a touch of alcoholism.  What he doesn’t know is that a wandering cult of hunters is out in the countryside feeding on the gifts that Danny tries to bury within himself.  Danny tries very hard at first to dull the Shining, however a young girl lets her’s loose attracting the attention of this group known as the True Know.  Ferguson plays the spooky and slinky leader, Rose the Hat.  The True Knot members kind of resemble gypsies and live out of their caravan of RVs.  Some years go by, and Danny ends up in a small town where he regains his sobriety and starts to use his Shining as a source of comfort for the elderly patients at the hospice where he has been working as an orderly.  As the True Knot closes in on the young girl known as Abra, her power connects with Danny’s, leading to a powerful alliance forming to resist the evil brought on by the True Knot and the dark spirits of Danny’s past.

First of all, this is a fairly long movie that drags a little.  The pacing for the most part isn’t terrible.  There are some moments that could have used a little more background in spite of this already being a pretty lengthy cinematic journey.  The cast was well chosen.  McGregor is generally a pretty compelling and convincing actor, and he does well here.  Curran as Abra is very good as well and seems to play off well with her older and more experienced cast mates.  The psychic duels  between Rose and Abra are quite compelling.  Overall, the cast just seemed to work quite well.

The visual effects were quite good.  There are some flashbacks moments to “The Shining” that are done with some recasting.  In the original film, the Overlook Hotel did not have the same fate as in the novel, the audience gets to revisit some old spectral friends in this piece.  I thought Flanagan made a bold choice in recasting some of the familiar characters seen in Stanley Kubrick’s film, and I think it is a choice that plays well.  Some of those moments seem a little self-indulgent, especially since King himself avoided revisiting most of what went on in his original novel.  In spite of that sense of retreading a too familiar road, I thought Flanagan handled it pretty well.  There are some very notable differences between this movie and the novel, however the divergence isn’t too annoying.  Plus, Kubrick’s version “The Shining” doesn’t entirely remain tied to that source material either.

Time will tell if this will be some kind of horror classic, however I think it was a pretty solid bit of entertainment.  There are a few disagreements I have with some of the choices made when it came to scenes that could stand a bit more drawing out and those that maybe could have been shortened, however the movie gets a lot of important elements right.  I think most Stephen King fans will find this at least a satisfying cinematic effort.

“Motherless Brooklyn” is a crime film reminiscent of the old private eye flicks that starred the likes of Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum several decades ago.  Edward Norton not only stars in this as Lionel Essrog, the private eye with the rather distracting affliction known as Tourette syndrome, he also is the screenwriter and director.  This has been a passion project for the talented and compelling Norton for about twenty decades.  The film is based on a novel written by Jonathan Lethem.  Alex Baldwin, Bruce Willis, and Willem Dafoe are included in the cast.  The love interest for the awkward, hapless Lionel is played by an English actress named Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

Lionel is part of a team of investigators who work for a gumshoe named Frank Minna,  played by Willis,  Minna is murdered, and Lionel’s loyalty and obsessive nature doesn’t allow him to not balance the books on that.  He finds that Minna was working on something that led from the streets of Harlem to ivory towers of New York City’s considerable political power players.  Of course, the story is adapted to the 1950’s, so there are plenty of fedoras and trench coats.  The calmer side of Lionel’s troubled brain is able to help out with fairly interesting narration.

There is some exploration of racial and class unrest at the center of the mystery surrounding the death of Lionel’s mentor.

So, the movie is pretty good, but it isn’t without some missteps.  Norton is pretty compelling as the Tourette ridden private eye, but even his efforts doesn’t keep me from noticing that the film drags a little and gets a little too convoluted in its storytelling. Baldwin also is a pretty commanding force as a menacing city commissioner with more than his share of secrets.

I couldn’t really find fault with anyone’s performance, so that was helpful during some of the lulls in the plot.  The movie is longer than most, and it shows at times, however Lionel turns out to be quite a likable underdog even if the random outbursts and twitches takes some mental adjustment to watch.

I confess that I have a weakness for this genre of film, and I admire Norton’s talent in general as well, so it is fairly easy  for me to still enjoy this particular piece.  Even if “Motherless Brooklyn” doesn’t quite hit the mark as being a masterpiece, it ended up still being very much worth the time.

“Countdown” is a horror film written and directed by Justin Dec.  The cast includes Elizabeth Lail, Jordan Colloway, Peter Facinelli, and Tom Segura.  A young nurse is told about an app that can predict one’s death with frightening accuracy.  Evil forces will make sure that the death occurs on schedule.

It’s not a terrible premise considering the state of our cell phone culture.  There were some moments that were kind of effective in invoking some chills.  The visual effects were pretty good.  The performances were not terrible.  There was some effort for originality in the story.  P.J. Byrne almost worked as a somewhat eccentric, irreverent priest who tries to aid the youngsters bedeviled by the demonic app.

It’s one of those films that likely deserves the criticism aimed by the professionals, however I found it to be somewhat entertaining.  Of course, I have had plenty practice of keeping my level of expectation low when it comes to the horror genre.  It turned out to be a fairly interesting film in some ways, but I would recommend angling for a serious discount on the ticket price or just waiting for it to hit whatever streaming services it lands on.

“The Antares Maelstrom” is the latest Star Trek Novel written by Greg Cox. Yes, this is the original crew…..Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and everyone else.  It takes place in the latter half of the original five year mission.

The premise is that a distant planet has been found to carry a rare mineral that can be processed in a way to provide an energy source for the various starships and technology used by the various races of the Federation and other alliances.  A galactic gold rush has ensued, and the Starship Enterprise is sent to sort out the chaos.  Cox then establishes three story threads branching out from the initial plot, which isn’t a new idea, but he uses it effectively.  Lt. Sulu is left on space station to help the security forces there while the Enterprise goes on to Baldur III, the planet at the center of this turmoil.  Spock and Ensign Chekov are dispatched to investigate a smuggling operation involving an unusually potent tea which is coming from a relatively nearby world which is under observation as a developing civilization and should not be capable of galactic trading. All three of the branches end up being quite compelling. Sulu has to find a saboteur while Spock and Chekov have their own meddlers to discover.

I have read a lot of Star Trek novels over the years, and  would say this is one of the better ones.  Cox likes to reference previous episodes which is kind of appropriate but could get a little distracting as one tries to remember which details of those other  mishaps.  Cox does a good job of giving all of the regular characters some important moments.  Even Lt. Uhura had her moments of glory as well.

So the title refers to this tumultuous, unstable region of space that ends up having some secrets of its own.  Many of the other characters are privateers and prospectors looking for prosperity by fair means or foul.

Cox gives a good solid yarn that is mostly loyal to the original conception of these characters.  I had a little trouble imagining some of the actors saying the dialogue Cox presents, however I still ended up enjoying the story overall, and that really is the most important accomplishment.

So now that I saw the movie a few weeks ago, time to read the novel and hope for the best.  Up next to go under the reading lamp is Donna Tartt’s “The Goldfinch”.

 

“The Time Museum” is a Doctor Who audio play from The Companion Chronicles range released by Big Finish Productions.  James Goss is the writer here with Lisa Bowerman directing as usual for this particular series.  William Russell reprises the role of Ian Chesterton, one of the Doctor’s first companions when the series started on television in 1963.  Philip Pope is the talented guest actor alongside Russell.  Pope plays a myserious character named Pendolin.

Pendolin curates a Time Museum and has procured the memories and presence of one Ian Chesterton, who resumed his life after leaving the company of the Doctor.  Ian is quite a bit older now but no less of an interesting fellow.  Pendolin introduces Ian to his own section of this peculiar museum.  But another presence sends them both fleeing when an entity who feeds on such memories stalks them through Ian’s memories.

This episode is one of those infrequent numbers where there is no narration.  It’s a two-hander piece with the descriptions being relayed through dialogue between the two characters.  Russell was closing in on 90 years old when he performed this story in 2012, and he still sounds quite compelling in this one.  Pope was a good choice to pay off him as well.

I had some trouble staying into it at the beginning, but the second part sort of hooked me in better.  The idea seems to be another excuse for self-indulgence of just revisiting old stories for the sake of nostalgia, and that is likely what it is meant to be.  However, it turned out to be a pretty enjoyable nostalgic tale when it was all said and done.  There turned out to be surprising depth during a moment when Chesterton discusses how he and Barbara joining the Doctor and Susan ultimately changed everyone for the better.  The Doctor wasn’t quite the selfless interfering crusader when he first showed up on British airwaves.  Goss adds a rather creative depth to how the Doctor and his first companions affected each other that was never really explored back then on television.

Both actors did a fine job, but that is almost always the case with Big Finish releases, even if the story is a little below par,   Fortunately, this episode turned out to be a satisfying addition to the collection.

 

“Gemini Man” is the science fiction action thriller directed by Ang Lee.  It stars Will Smith in a dual role as a super assassin and his young clone.  Clive Owen and Mary Elizabeth Winstead are also part of the cast.  It took three scriptwriters to get this together.  David Benioff, Billy Ray, and Darren Lemke are the culprits in this exercise of mediocrity.

A government hitman named Henry Brogan is wanting to hang up his high powered firearms and live a life of leisure.  His former employers decide that he knows too much or something like that.  They are in bed with some thinktank known as GEMINI.  An evil scientist played by Owen has a secret clone tucked away somewhere and sends the young, confused, lethal young an to kill his DNA donor.

The action scenes worked well enough, although most of these studios don’t seem to need to work as hard for that.  The dialogue was clunky and uninspiring.  The premise was only mildly interesting.  Smith just doesn’t look or act that dangerous for me to buy him as some world-weary super killer.  The digitalized de-aging of Smith was cleverly done, but I was able to spot the stand-ins a little too quickly, especially toward the end.  Winstead had some great fight scenes and she was kind of cool overall.

The were some moments that looked slick enough, but it was a good thing that I had a free movie ticket when I saw it.  The movie has been out for a week already and has not fared well critically or commercially.  It doesn’t really deserve to either.  Most if not all of the disdain expressed has validity.  I know there must be some latitude given in films of this genre in order to enjoy them, but this particular one was just asking for too much.

“No Place” is a Doctor Who audio drama from Big Finish Productions and is written by James Goss, directed by Ken Bentley.  David Tennant returns to role of the Tenth Doctor, alongside Catherine Tate as Donna Noble.  Jacqueline King and Bernard Cribbins are back as well as Sylvia Noble and Wilf.  The gang is all here from the fourth series of the revived television series.  Joel Fry and Peter Singh round out the cast guest as well.

The episode starts off with the listener getting acquainted with “Haunted Makeover”, a supposed reality show about making over homes with haunting reputations.  The Doctor and Donna are there posing as a married couple who own the house with Sylvia and Wilf along for the ride.  Of course, the Doctor and Donna aren’t all that natural behaving as if their in marital bliss, so lots and lots of gags involving ridiculous pet names ensue.  I know the banter between the Doctor and Donna are one of the highlights of that pairing for fans, and I do like it too for the most part.  However, it threatened to distract me a bit from the story.  It seemed that Goss got a little carried away with it at times.  It took a while for the justification for Sylvia and Wilf being in on this story to be satisfactorily explained, but it ends up working out.  At least, I was okay with it.

The episode is an enjoyable little romp for the most part, but a little bit of toning down on the antics of the Doctor and Donna would have been appreciated.  It was still good to have a new adventure with this particular cast and revisit an era of the series I have appreciated a bit more in recent years.

“Zombieland: Double Tap” is a sequel to “Zombieland” which was released in 2009.  Ruben Fleischer returns to the director’s chair with Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick being joined by Dave Callaham as the scriptwriters.  Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eiesenberg, Abigail Breslin, and Emma Stone all reprise their roles as the characters that prefer to go by their cities as origin.  Rosario Dawson, Luke Wilson, and Zoey Deutch join the cast as survivors of a zombie epidemic.

The writing did not seem to be that much better than the first film, however my enjoyment of the sequel was more noticeable.  I may have just been in a better mood when I saw the first movie for the first time yesterday.  Who knows?  Anyway, there are some new characters to meet.  There was some retreading and plenty of reminders of the rules compiled by Eusenberg’s Columbus.  Breslin’s Little Rock is all grown up and a little fed up being stuck with people a little beyond her age group though.  Harrelson’s Tallahassee is as outrageous and manic as ever.  It was sort of nice to see the main cast again even if I was a little disappointed in the first film.

It’s a very zany ride watching this movie, but I found myself able to just go with it.  Not every joke landed well, but there were moments that elicited some laughs.

It’s still pretty gruesome though.  The action sequences were fun and well realized for the most part.

I guess the third writer helped more than I expected.  It’s still a very flawed piece of film making, but it’s a still a fun diversion for an afternoon.

“In the Tall Grass” is a horror film recently released on Netflix that was written and directed by Vincenzo Natali, which really is a great name.  Too bad his film falls short of any real greatness.  Natali adapted it from a novella written by Stephen King and Joe Hill.  Patrick Wilson stars in this with several people I have never heard of, including Harrison Gilbertson, Laysla De Oliveira, and Rachel Wilson.

It starts off with a brother and sister traversing the country and coming to a stop just outside a huge field of tall grass across the street from an apparently abandoned church when they hear a young boy crying for help.  They go in and meet other lost people.  The sister is pregnant, and the ex-boyfriend shows up to get lost.  Everyone keeps having spooky sensations and coming across each other.  There is some big monolithic rock in the middle of this field which seems to be the source of all of this supernatural nonsense. Anyway, there is evidence of some kind of time distortion or something.  People who you thought were dead keep turning up.  This is just the most hellish field of tall grass one could imagine.

This may sound like a somewhat derisive description, but it had some promise.  Once again, it had an intriguing concept hear the beginning.  There are lots of Stephen King tropes and traditions such as some seemingly normal gut going off the rails.  The movie was a little hard to follow at times, but I suppose some viewers like a good brain teaser in their films sometimes.

It suffers from what I think is a common misstep in horror films in that the last third of the film where all the cards are laid out ended up being a bit of a disappointment and not much was resolved or explained all that well.

The cast was fine.  The visual effects were fine.  The movie was fine overall, but it’s a good thing I didn’t spend more than the monthly Netflix subscription for this.

“Zombieland” is a film released in 2009 which has a long list of adjectives on how to describe the genre  I guess I will just say it’s a horror comedy…sort of.  Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are the sometimes clever writers of the script which was brought to life by director Ruben Fleischer.  Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin,star in this occasionally amusing tale.

It starts off with the premise of the zombie apocalypse descending on the world leaving only a handful of survivors who find each other and have to get over some trust issues. They seem to prefer identifying themselves as their city of origin or something.  Harrelson plays the cynical, hardened loner known as Tallahassee who finds Eisenberg on the road and takes him under his wing somewhat reluctantly.  They they meet two clever sisters who knew a few tricks before the catastrophe.  It’s a road trip movie basically with lots of zombies thrown in.

Eisenberg’s character is the hapless naive narrator and does fine.  The kid known as Columbus has a lengthy set of rules to help him survive the trip from Texas to Ohio but finds his devotion to these rules tested when he unites with a few survivors.

The movie was fairly entertaining, and I only saw it because the trailer for the sequel which was released this week piqued my interest.  I didn’t really dislike this film, but I was hoping for a bit more wit.  Maybe this is one of those times where the sequel will have something a little more to offer.