“It: Chapter Two” is the second half of the cinematic adaptation of one of Stephen King’s most iconic novels.  Gary Dauberman wrote the screenplay with Andy Muschietti directing.  So the first film depicted the battle between a group of teen-age misfits and the demonic, murderous clown known as Pennywise.  This film has the kids all grown up and called back to Derry, Maine when familiar murders start to break out again.  James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Jessica Chastain, and Bill Skarsgard are part of the cast, with Skarsgard donning the face paint and wicked looking teeth once again as the malevolent clown.

The film has some new footage of the younger counterparts of the main cast as well as flashbacks flesh out the events that occurred twenty-seven years ago in the first film.

The visual effects were quite good, although some of the manifestations of Pennywise were a little too absurd even for a horror movie.  The performances were strong enough for the most part.  Hader, who is best known as a comedic sketch artist from Saturday Night Live, demonstrated an unexpected range of acting.  He is apparently gotten significant acclaim in television series entitled “Barry”, and the praise seems like it is deserved.

There are times when the story doesn’t flow very well onscreen, however I am willing to show some grace here since the original novel is quite massive.  It’s a pretty solid cast overall.  Not all of the frights worked as well as others.

Bill Skarsgard does have some moments where he is quite chilling as Pennywise.  He was a great choice to take on that role.

The movie works pretty well for the most part.  The fans will see this regardless of the reviews, but I doubt many will be that deeply disappointed.  I noticed quite a few flaws here, but I still ended up finding a fairly significant amount of macabre enjoyment as well.

“Memories of a Tyrant” is a Doctor Who audio drama released by Big Finish Productions.  This particular episode is brought to us by Roland Moore and finally reunites Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as the Sixth Doctor and Peri, respectively.  Listeners haven’t heard Bryant in this range for a couple of years, but she slips quite nicely back into the part, and the two resume their familiar and enjoyable chemistry.

The Doctor brings Peri to a space station known as the Memory Farm where technology is able to access memories that are thought to be quite buried.  There they find a patient who may or may not have been a ruthless dictator and the scientists trying to verify his identity.  Of course, things take a dangerous turn when the Doctor gets himself caught up in the experiment.

The guest cast includes Joseph Mydell, Charlotte Stevens, and Sean Connolly.  These are actors with whom I am not familiar, but they seem to be well chosen as what can usually be expected from Big Finish.

The episode has a pretty fascinating concept and becomes something of a classic murder mystery at the beginning and shifts into something I found to be a little confusing after the second episode.  I probably just need to have another listen to grasp the middle of the episode a little better.

I will say that it was still great to have Baker and Bryant together again.  Baker still continues to muster the same energy in his performance.  The relationship between his Doctor and Peri continues to have a much more meaningful dynamic than what was sometimes presented in the television series.  Although I enjoy this Doctor’s interaction with the other Big Finish characters such as Evelyn, Constance Clarke, or Flip, I have no issue with revisiting this particular team either.

Moore leaves some unanswered questions when this episode comes to a close, however I found myself not minding that due to the uniqueness of the plot.  Of course, this TARDIS crew being together again does help me shrug off what would normally be an annoyance to me.  There are some elements of the story that are a little hard to follow, at least on the first listening, but this is another example of why I still get an enormous pleasure out of the Big Finish contributions to Doctor Who.

“Angel Has Fallen” is the third action film to feature super duper Secret Service Agent Mike Banning, played by Gerard Butler.  It is directed by Ric Roman Waugh, who also co-write this thing alongside Matt Cook and Robert Mark Kamen.  It’s the follow-up to “Olympus Has Fallen” and “London Has Fallen”.  Morgan Freeman returns to the role as now President Allan Trumbull and gives the film the benefit of his reassuring presence in spite of a somewhat incoherent storyline.  Jada Pinkett Smith plays the part of an FBI agent who is trying to sort out the mess after an attempted assassination on the president which ends up getting pinned up on Mike Banning.  Nick Nolte shows up as Banning’s weird survivalist dad.  Piper Perabo is also there as the worried yet supportive wife.  I had forgotten until I checked later, but she took over the part originally played by Radha Mitchell.

It’s a pretty fun movie to sit through if one can forgive the plot holes and general silliness of the whole thing.  The action scenes are pretty good and compelling.  Banning as a character isn’t too bad to follow.  I like Butler well enough to stay with him in most movies though.

There is nothing terribly special or memorable about this particular movie, but I couldn’t bring myself to really dislike it either, so I guess the that’s a fair accomplishment for the studio.

“The Legacy of Time” is a Doctor Who audio boxset that is a celebration of twenty years for Big Finish Production’s contributions to the travels of the maverick Time Lord.  There are six individual stories with a very powerful threat linking them together.  Temporal disturbances are plaguing the universe and several Doctors and his companions have to repair the damage and find the source of the maelstrom.  This is a chance for the writers to play and they go for maximum indulgence.  This is a great addition for Doctor Who collectors.  I won’t give away too much, but I can give a brief breakdown of the episodes here.

James Goss starts off with “Lies in Ruins” which has the anticipated meeting between Professor River Song and Professor Bernice Summerfield, plays by Alex Kingson and Lisa Bowerman.  Long past time for this little encounter.  They are on a ruined world unearthing an ancient tomb when a familiar police box appears.  Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor arrives with a new companion named Ria.  The Doctor appears to be quite different, and the devastated planet starts to look quite familiar.  There is great chemistry among the lead cast, but that’s not too surprising.  It’s a very promising start to this compilation.

Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred return to their roles as the Seventh Doctor and Ace in John Dorney’s “The Split Infinitive”.  Simon Williams, Pamela Salem, and Karen Gledhill return as the Counter-Measures team.  These were the people the Doctor first encountered in “Remembrance of the Daleks”. This time, Ace and the Doctor have to accomplish a mission in two different decades at the same time.  It’s a pretty complicated story in many ways, but it’s pretty good.  Counter-Measures have their own spin-off series with Big Finish, so I am not that familiar with them.  Dorney is a prolific and consistent writer for Big Finish and continues to demonstrate a penchant for creative conflicts.  It’s a pretty fun adventure which peels off another layer leading to the heart of the more important mystery.

Guy Adams continues the galactic journey with “The Sacrifice of Jo Grant” in which Jo and the present day leaders of UNIT are transported back in time where they encounter the Third Doctor.  Tim Treloar once again is on hand to give a very uncanny impression of the late Jon Pertwee.  Jemma Redgrave returns as Kate Stewart, the offspring of another iconic figure in the series.  Ingrid Oliver also steps up to the mic as Osgood, the new scientific adviser and the Doctor’s biggest fan.  Nicholas Briggs also joins the cast as a soldier named Wallace.  This is probably the most moving story in the set.  At the end, Kate makes a rather special call that I am sure brought a misty eye to many of the listeners.

“Relative Time” is written by Matt Fitton and reunites father and daughter.  This touches on the new series episode “The Doctor’s Daughter”.  This is quite the family affair. Georgia Tennant returns as Jenny and reunites with an earlier incarnation of the Doctor’s.  Peter Davison is a bit taken aback to meet this strange woman claiming to be his Doctor.  Of course, they are father and daughter in real life.  John Heffernan plays the deranged Time Lord known as the Nine.  The Nine is the earlier version of the Eleven.  Once again, it’s a pretty good episode and is probably long overdue to have Jenny meet earlier versions of her father.

Jonathan Morris pens the penultimate episode entitled “The Avenues of Possibility” in which Colin Baker and India Fisher slip into the welcome and familiar roles of the Sixth Doctor and Charlotte Pollard.  Anna Hope joins the chaos as Detective Inspector Patricia Menzies. At this point, all kinds of time portals are creating havoc.  The twenty-first century has intersected with the eighteenth century, and brothers John and Henry Fielding are pulled into the temporal pandemonium.  They are both English magistrates of repute.  Henry is credited with the founding of London’s first police force.  Anyway, the time distortions have gotten way out of hand, and the Doctor does discover the force behind it.  A force that is very familiar to the Big Finish listeners who have been around since the beginning.  This is one of most complicated relationships between the Doctor and his companion since Charlotte first traveled with the Eighth Doctor and cannot reveal that to his past incarnation.  Anyway, it’s a wonderfully twisted addition to the collection.  Every story has plenty of good points, but this is a pretty strong one.

Finally, we come to “Collision Course” by Guy Adams.  Former companions Romana and Leela, played by Lalla Ward and Louise Jameson, remember a visit to the same world when they traveled with Fourth Doctor at different times.  Tom Baker is back at it and sounds great as usual.  A TARDIS has been constructed and needs a test flight.  This is the first TARDIS, and the Doctor returns to the beginning of the legend of his people.  In order to undo the damage created by the time distortions, the flight needs to happen and this time all sorts of Doctors have arrived to help reset the timelines.  I won’t spoil too much here, but some Doctors show up that are unexpected.  I should have known that they would be there.  This is the extravaganza we all expect for a celebration of this sort. It doesn’t make much sense plot wise, but it’s damn good fun regardless.

This is probably one of the best constructed multi-Doctor collections I have experienced in some time.  There were plenty of moments to pull at the heartstrings a little without sacrificing the humor or the adventure.  Each Doctor was showcased quite effectively.  The performances were all solid, and I could believe how hard everyone worked to make this happen.  A limited number was released so that the physical set has apparently been sold out, however any Doctor Who fan should definitely figure out a way to listen to this saga.

“The Unexpected Guest” is a novel by Charles Osborne, however it also is adapted from a play penned by the great Agatha Christie.  It was first published in 1999.

A fellow named Michael Starkwedder comes to a not so modest house in the English countryside for assistance after he runs his car into a ditch.  When he arrives, he finds a study door open and a dead man in a wheelchair.  Starkwedder is further startled to find a woman holding a gun as well.  The woman turns out to be the widow who admits to killing her husband.  Starkwedder hears a story about what led up to such a heinous situation and decides to help her cover up the crime.  The police arrive in the shape of an Inspector Thomas and Sergeant Cadwallader. More of the stricken Warwick family is introduced.  The murdered Richard Warwick ends up not making the most sympathetic of victims.  Secrets of all sorts start to come to light.  It’s typical Agatha Christie in all her literary glory.

I read another one of these adaptations recently and had a somewhat lukewarm reaction to it.  I am pleased to say that this one was quite an improvement.  Yes, some of the clichés and tropes are ever present, however there were some interesting twists and turns.  Some I predicted, however there were a few unexpected revelations.  Not everything came off as entirely implausible, but it is Dame Agatha ultimately, so it was easy enough to enjoy regardless.  Osborne is not a spectacular wordsmith or anything, but he was competent enough to keep me interested.  The story does move pretty quickly as well.

The story does a pretty good job of throwing the reader off when what appears obvious turns out to be a misdirection,  and fairly clever ones as well.

Although I wouldn’t rank this as one of the classics in Christie’s body of work, it’s a solid enough addition for me to suggest this one to anyone who has yet to peruse it.

The unending literary expedition continues with one of my rare forays into non-fiction.  I am about to step in “The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus” by Richard Preston.

“Ready or Not” is a called a dark comedy horror thriller film. There are some horrifying scenes and some unlikely comedic moments, so I guess that’s an apt description.  It’s written and directed by a bunch of people with long complicated names, but I guess I will forge ahead and mention them anyway.  The screenplay is written by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy.  Okay, those two aren’t too bad.  But this thing apparently needed two directors, and they are Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett.  The cast includes Samara Weaving, Andie McDowell, Adam Brody, Mark O’Brien, and Henry Czerny.

Weaving plays a brand new bride marrying into a family who has built their considerable wealth by creating and marketing various board games for lots of years. The Le Domas family success comes with a peculiar cost.  After the wedding, a rigid tradition demands a game to be played.  Weaving’s character, Grace, happens to draw the card that has them play Hide and Seek, however this ends up being a more lethal version of the game that what is usually played.

There is a fair number of gruesome deaths with exotic weapons of the past.  There is a great looking spooky house to run around in.  The characters are appropriately weird and fairly compelling. The bride is expectedly gorgeous and fairly resourceful in between moments of terror.

It’s kind of horrific and a little stupid, but still strangely enjoyable for those of us with a taste of the macabre.  Grace proves herself to be a scrappy little woman in between her moments of understandable panic. Weaving’s performance is pretty convincing, however that is not surprising since her father is a pretty impressive actor named Hugo Weaving.

There are a few twists and turns that are a little unexpected.  Now, there are a few problems in the logic of the script, but that’s to be expected given the genre.  I probably enjoyed this film a little more than it deserves, but I am not expecting many awards are going to be thrown its way.

 

“Secret Obsession” is a thriller that recently premiered on Netflix and was written by Kraig Wenman and Peter Sullivan.  Sullivan is also the director.  Brenda Song, Mike Vogel, and Dennis Haysbert star in this lackluster cinematic effort.

The premise is a little absurd, but the genre tends to be up my alley so I thought I could find some enjoyment here.  Haysbert is really the only one who had the more interesting character of a detective coping with the grief having a daughter kidnapped, however that is not the main plot.

A young woman is run down by a car after fleeing an attack and wakes up with several significant holes in her memory.  A man is there claiming to be her husband, however it does not take long for the viewer to suspect this fellow is not to be trusted.

This is a mess.  It’s not the worst mess I have seen, but there isn’t much to justify a lot of attention being given to this movie.  The performances weren’t completely hopeless, but some of the reasoning behind the actions doesn’t hold up very well.  It’s really the writing that needs a second thought here.  I also am not sure that amnesia works quite the way that’s depicted here, although that condition does manifest itself in a variety of ways in real life, so maybe…

Anyway, Haysbert has a presence that tends to help a film more than hurts, but I wish he was utilized a little more with a better writer.  Mike Vogel could be kind of chilling at times as the doting psychotic, but we have seen this kind of obsessive crazy too many times before.  He’s not a bad actor, but there just wasn’t much for him to do to stand out.

I guess this isn’t totally unwatchable, but there are much better options out there.

“The Vanishing Man” is a new Sherlock Holmes novel written by Philip Purser-Hallard and is the latest in the range from Titan Books.

I get a little excited when I see an unfamiliar name contribute to the Sherlock Holmes pastiches because I hope that someone will do something other than have him debunk some supernatural event like a Scooby-Doo episode.  However, the pattern continues. In this installment, a challenge is made to a scientific society studying the potential for telekinesis.  A man apparently vanishes before the eyes of several people in a locked room and is said to have transported himself to the planet Venus.  Sherlock Holmes is engaged alongside the stalwart Dr. John Watson to verify the veracity of the miracle or determine if something shady is afoot.  Of course, one of the society members ends up in the morgue which makes the case a bit more intriguing for Holmes.

The novel is fine.  Purser-Hallard is a competent writer and does well enough with capturing most of Holmes’ most obvious traits.  There is plenty of witty rudeness to go along with the stupefying deductions.  My frustration is that it continues this never-ending trend of having Holmes encounter something that may or may not be supernatural, and he usually has to debunk some extraordinary event or deal with otherworldly realms.  Arthur Conan Doyle did not have his creation deal with the occult or some super-duper villainous magician every week.   Anyway, I did manage to stay pretty well engaged, but I am a Sherlock fan through and through so I am an easy mark.  In spite of the extraordinary events depicted, the story itself was just more of the same from this range of pastiche Holmes works.

Next up, Agatha Christie introduces readers to “The Unexpected Guest”.  This was actually a play she had written that was adapted into a novel by Charles Osborn.

“The Jigsaw War” is a Doctor Who audio drama from Big Finish Productions and is an episode of the Companion Chronicles series.  Frazer Hines reprises his role of Jamie McCrimmon and is joined by Dominic Mafham, who is portraying an interrogator known as Moran.  However throughout the episode there is what appears to be a perplexing role reversal.  Eddie Robson comes up with a pretty creative conundrum for the Scottish lad in this particular script. This is one of the few episodes of this range that relies solely on dialogue.

Jamie is being interrogated about the whereabouts of the Doctor by Moran, however he is a little startled to find that events keep shifting dramatically every few moments in which he finds himself as the interrogator at times.  There is a rebellion of some sort in the background as well.  A being known as Side emerges and explains that Jamie can escape but he is experiencing this period out of sequence.  If Jamie can identify the proper sequence of how his part in this conflict is supposed to unfold, he is free to leave. This is Doctor Who and an Eddie Robson script, so it can’t really be that simple, can it? Well, of course not.

The Doctor’s appearance is a little limited in this one, however Frazer Hines makes the most of it with his wonderful take on the late Patrick Troughton’s iteration.  Hines has spoken before about how much he loves doing the impressions of his deceased friend as the Second Doctor, and it still shows here.

It seems an ambitious storyline for an audio play, but the performances of both actors are strong enough for me to forgive the more confusing aspects of this story.  It’s a bit of a strange story for this particular era, however I don’t usually mind the effort to break away from the supposed assigned type of story that would typically appear in the television era.  Jamie is still the same old familiar Jamie, although he has to rely on a type of analytical thinking that is often a struggle for someone of his background.  Not that there is anything wrong with being a Scottish Highlander from the eighteenth century, but Jamie has to work a little harder than many of the other Doctor’s companions sometimes, but hey…that’s why he is so loved by the fans.

Although I was able to get some enjoyment on the initial play of this episode, I suspect the more profound realizations will strike the right chords on future replays, of which I expect there will be plenty.

“An Alien Werewolf in London” is a Doctor Who audio play presented by Big Finish Productions.  Alan Barnes wrote the story the concludes the trilogy where the Seventh Doctor is accompanied by the space traveling werewolf known as Mags.  Sylvester McCoy and Jessica Martin are reunited with Sophie Aldred as Ace.  Jacob Collins Levy and Lara Lemon are included in the guest cast.

Mags is still with the Doctor when the TARDIS receives a summons from an old friend who is back on Earth during the 1990’s.  Ace has become aware of an extraterrestrial   being held captive and needs some help in liberating the visitor.  Mags and the Doctor soon learn that they are not the only visitors from the stars as an ancient dark presence known to the Time Lords also emerge from the shadows.

As ominous and overdramatic as all this seems, it actually is a fairly light-hearted episode in the series all things considered. It’s not exactly a slapstick, but it does showcase McCoy’s comedic skills quite effectively.  He sort of plays a dual role as well since the captured alien is a shapeshifter.

It was a pretty engaging episode, but it does run into some obstacles in the presentation that seems typical of audio dramas.  There are some flashback scenes that are sometimes a little hard to follow.  Not all the of the action sequences are easy to imagine, at least not in the first listen.

One thing that caught my ear was the distinctive musical score.  I don’t notice the score usually, but this one caught my attention for some reason and in a good way.

Barnes is typically a solid writer and this one is no exception.  It was pretty fun to see some aspects of the Seventh Doctor that are explored infrequently in this series.