Film Review: Still Not A Bird Or A Plane

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The latest cinematic iteration of Superman, written and directed by James Gunn, is reasonably entertaining but not much more than that. David Corenswet is in the title role and puts in a pretty good effort. Rachel Brosnahan is the latest version of Lois Lane. Nicholas Hoult was somehow chosen to play Lex Luther and probably should have been reconsidered. Nathan Fillion, Edi Gathegi, Isabela Merced, Skyler Gisondo, and Pruitt Taylor Vince are also included in the cast.

Superman prevents a war between two fictional nations. He gets in a fight with a metahuman and loses. He seems to be taking care of a super-powered dog as well who gets him back to his isolated Fortress to recuperate. Lex Luther, who is always looking for ways to discredit and destroy Superman gets hold of a message from the Kryptonian visitor’s parents. Apparently, there was a part of the recording that had remained corrupted. Luther’s team manages to repair the message and broadcasts the revelation that Superman’s real parents had expected him to rule over the Earth instead of being the heroic protector that everyone had become familiar with. Luther has also unleashed some kind of pocket universe in an effort destroy the Man of Steel and allied himself with various other superpowered miscreants to help him achieve that goal. Superman has a lot on his plate and has to regain the trust of the people of his adopted home.

There are a lot of cool special effects and fight scenes. Corenswet does not seem to be a terrible casting choice so that helps. I thought Brosnahan was quite good as Lois Lane. She was interesting and feisty but managed to not be too obnoxious.

The plot was a bit of a muddled mess and hard to follow at times. Also, Hoult really did not have the familiar air of menace one would expect from Lex Luther. Hoult is a good actor and usually enjoy his performances, but I found his selection for this role to be somewhat of a misfire.

I have declared for years that Superman is so powerful and morally righteous that it is hard to make him all that interesting.

I didn’t really dislike the film, but there was a lot that i thought could have gone better. My lack of enthusiasm for this may also be due to the oversaturation of superhero flicks coming out of Tinseltown in the past couple of decades.

Film Review: A Hitman’s Mind Starts To Crumble

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Knox Goes Away is a 2023 thriller starring Michael Keaton, who also directed this movie. Gregory Poirier is the director. Keaton is joined by James Marsden. Ray McKinnon, Al Pacino, Marcia Gay Harden, and Suzy Nakamura.

Keaton plays a hitman John Knox, who has just been diagnosed with a very aggressive form of dementia and only has a few weeks before he loses his cognitive awareness. As he is making preparations for his inevitable decline, his son shows up with a wounded hand and in a panic. He explains that he had just killed a man who had lured his teenage daughter online and got her pregnant. The son, Miles, played by James Marsden, is aware of his father’s dubious and lethal profession and calls upon his expertise to help him get away with the understandable murder. Of course, Knox has yet to reveal his condition and is compelled to keep his sanity together as best he can in order to aid his son.

This film has a pretty intriguing plot, and Keaton’s performance is captivating. Knox handles his diagnosis with an impressive amount of stoicism. There is a certain subtlety to how Keaton portrays the lapses in Knox is experiencing as he tries to resolve this crisis and get his personal affairs in order.

Al Pacino plays Knox’s friend who ends up being the only one told about this condition. He is fine in this role, but there just isn’t much for him to do here.

The cast was pretty good overall. Ray McKinnon is one of these character actors who tends to leave an impression for some reason. Much like someone like John Goodman, he tends to make the scenes a bit better regardless of the size of his role. McKinnon plays Knox’s partner who takes the brunt of the consequences brought by Knox’s illness.

There is a fair amount of decent suspense that plays out effectively. One can feel a certain sympathy for Knox’s plight in spite of his terrible career choice.

I still wouldn’t call this a terrific film, but there is some effort at creativity. Keaton does a good job holding it together as both the star and director. It’s a decent enough diversion and has enough depth to keep one engaged.

Book Review: Not The Most Welcoming Inn

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier is a gothic thriller first published in 1936 and reads a little easier than expected in spite of the typical lengthy exposition of its time.

The protagonist is Mary Yellan, a young woman whose mother has recently died. Mary is on her way to Jamaica Inn where she is to be reunited with her aunt. Aunt Patience is married to a man who is quote a brute and involved in some unsavory activities on the moors in Cornwall. Uncle Joss begins the new arrangement by bullying and intimidating Mary, who feels duty bound to remain at the inn to protect her aunt. Mary meets her uncle’s brother and becomes attracted to him against her better judgment. A peculiar vicar is also lurking around is may not be the ally he presents himself to be.

Mary gets a close look at what her uncle does to supplement his income and has even more reason to wonder how long she has before her life is on the line.

Du Maurier is best known for her novel Rebecca which was published later. She does have a distinctive eloquence in her prose, and I can appreciate how she became so respected.

The character of Joss Merlyn, the abusive uncle, comes across as a bit campy in his bluster. It got a little difficult at times to imagine him as authentic. The tension between Joss and Mary was quite compelling in any case.to read.

Du Maurier also does well with describing the hostile and oppressive environment surrounding the inn. Sometimes it seems to go on a little long, but one must also understand the time in which that was written and what was expected versus the short attention span of today’s audience.

This is a little bit of a departure from my usual reading interests, but I was glad to find this one.

Next up, I am taking on the Big Kahuna of the true crime genre. I am delving into the intricacies of the Charles Manson case as told by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry with Helter Skelter.

Film Review: Who Let The Dinosaurs Out?

~ Peter Kanelis ~ 1 Comment

Jurassic World Rebirth continues the franchise began many moons ago by the late Michael Crichton who wrote the first novel, Jurassic Park. This is now the seventh film in the franchise, and my mixed reaction is likely not going to be surprising.

Gareth Edwards is the director of this film which was written by David Koepp. Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, and Manuel Garcia-Rufo are included in the cast.

This story begins with a flashback in which an isolated island is the site of some questionable experiments involving the breeding of hybrid dinosaurs are being conducted. Of course, it all goes a bit awry when one of the experiments escapes and tears the laboratory to pieces before dashing off into the jungle.

Some years later, a team comprised of a couple of scientists, a snobby rich guy, and a few hired guns head out to the island to get some blood samples from various dinosaurs that could help cure some kind of heart disease. The team come across a family on a boating excursion who are attacked by some unfriendly and hungry prehistoric ocean dwellers. Everyone makes their way to the island after another harrowing attack to get to the lab where some hope of escape awaits.

Scarlett Johansson is in the lead as some kind of mercenary. Even though she spent some years playing Black Widow for Marvel Studios, I had a little trouble with being convinced that she was the right choice for this part. I guess I didn’t find her as intimidating as what the script seemed to call for.

The special effects were pretty cool, and dinosaurs were pretty well realized on the screen.

The film seems to have a slow start. but it does get somewhat better when the group makes it to the island. The family with Garcia-Rufo as the father actually got me more interested in the film. In recognized Garcia-Rufo from the Netflix series The Lincoln Lawyer, so it was kind of cool to see him in something a little different. He’s a decent actor and did well in this film.

The film does follow a familiar pattern established in the earlier installments. There are some new bells and whistles when it comes to the visual effects and set design, but the plot did not feel all that unique.

There is an innocent family in the mix, and a child who keeps getting threatened by the big, scaly beasts. Fortunately, I start to like the family. Even the slacker boyfriend of the elder daughter started to grow on me a bit.

The film manages to avoid being utter garbage, but it still isn’t one of the better ones of the series. It has some moments that are redeemable, it overall made me question the wisdom of the studio execs who keep on beating a dead raptor.

Doctor Who Audio Review: Kaerula, A Banshee, And The Brigadier

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Ruins of Kaerula is a Doctor Who audio boxset from Big Finish Productions, which has a few promising features, but it’s a bit middle of the road in many ways. Tom Baker is reunited with Louise Jameson as Leela and John Leeson as that well-known robotic dog designated K9. There are three episodes to examine a bit, however two of them are directly linked to each other.

The guest cast includes Robyn Addison, Zora Bishop, Jonathon Carley, Barnaby Kay, and Reece Pantry. Jon Culshaw also returns to portray Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, whose role initially belonged to the late Nicholas Courtney. Helen Goldyn, Nicholas Briggs, and Jamie Anderson share the directing credit.

Scriptwriter Phil Mulryne starts it off with The Remains of Kaerula. The TARDIS is forced down to the planet Kaerula where the Doctor, Leela, and K9 encounter containment camp and strange creatures lurking in the nearby caves. There is a rupture in Time, and the Doctor learns that a catastrophe from the planet’s past has invaded the future as well.

Tom Baker still does well in the lead role as the Fourth Doctor. It’s one of my favorite TARDIS teams, so it was still a worthy effort to listen to this one. As usual, the performances were fine. I was just underwhelmed by the story. Multyne captures the main characters well enough. I just didn’t fine the plot to be all that memorable or as interesting as some of the more recent episodes this past year.

The Ruins of Kaerula is also written by Phil Mulryne and serves as a prequel. The Doctor and his companions have been forced back to Kaerula in the past where they meet some different versions of those encountered in the earlier episode. An experiment is about to go very long, which could bring some serious temporal damage to the universe.

I found this to be a little better than the earlier story. It is an interesting idea to have the Doctor deal with both the cause of a catastrophe and the result. There’s a risk of that idea being overused since he is a time traveler.

The third episode, which is written by Tom Foley, is entitled Cry of the Banshee. This one was quite a bit better mostly because Brigadier Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart meets Leela and K9 for the first time. The Brigadier has requested some help during a peace conference when a delegate from Ireland dies mysteriously. The Doctor learns that it is believed a Banshee is lurking around the conference, however he suspects that it is something else.

The Brigadier joins the Doctor and Leela in the TARDIS after the Doctor finds that the source of this phenomenon originates in a space station orbiting Jupiter. The Brigadier ends up adjusting to his strange, new surroundings as everyone knew he would.

The growth of respect between the Brigadier and Leela is pretty fun to hear. They get off to a tough start when they first meet, but circumstances force them to figure out how to work together.

Jon Culshaw’s impression of Nicholas Courtney’s distinctive, authoritative baritone is quite uncanny.

The story seems a little self-indulgent, but it works. The resolution is somewhat surprising in a pleasantly unexpected way.

Anyway, the set as whole is fine, but I don’t think it’s going to be remembered as one of the great ones. Still, more Tom Baker performances are always welcome. In spite of my nonchalance about this release, I am still glad to have listened to it.

Book Review: Trouble In Cypress County

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Long Lavender Look is a decent novel written by the revered crime writer John D. MacDonald and features his best-known protagonist, Travis McGee. It was first published in 1970.

Travis McGee is a salvage consultant with a peculiar tendency to get involved in murder investigations. He lives in a houseboat called The Busted Flush in Florida and just has a talent of falling into dire peril involving greed, corruption, and murder.

This story begins when McGee and his friend, Meyer, are returning home from attending a wedding when a scantily clad woman darts across a darkened road right in front of his car, causing them to end up in swamp water upside down. As McGee and Meyer make their way to civilization, they are accosted by someone in a truck passing them taking shots at them. When they make it to the authorities, they find themselves arrested for the murder of a guy in Cypress County who was apparently involved in an armored truck heist some years prior. McGee finds himself in the middle of a complicated web of corruption where he is not sure who he can trust as he fights to clear his name and return home.

First of all, I will say that I will likely be revisiting this author’s works again, but MacDonald does require some patience because he is a bit wordy. His exposition at times slows down the story and kind of makes it a bit of a chore to get through.’

I do appreciate that MacDonald does display an impressive eloquence in his prose for what is classified as a hard-boiled crime novel. The friendship between Meyer and McGee has its charm as well. I had heard of Travis McGee for years but did not really know much about this series. I do like the set-up MacDonald has created for him. For example, The Busted Flush seems to be a great name for a boat.

MacDonald is generally considered one of the great ones in this genre, and I can understand how he gained that acclaim even though I struggled a bit with this one. I suspect that I have spent too many years with writers who are much more abrupt and simple in their prose to fully appreciate MacDonald’s writing style.

Once again, I may not be doing myself any favors by starting well into the middle of a series. MacDonald has numerous standalone novels, which I will also likely explore, but I doubt this will be my last effort to hang with Travis McGee.

I wish this particular novel hooked me more, but I am not ready to throw in the towel in my exploration of the works of John D. MacDonald.

My next read is going to take me further back in time to another legendary suspense writer named Daphne Du Maurier, who is most famous for the novel Rebecca. I thought I would be introduced to this author’s works by way of Jamaica Inn.

Film Review: The Juror With A Secret

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Juror #2 is an intriguing, but slow-paced film directed by Clint Eastwood, which was released in 2024. It was written by Jonathan Abrams and stars Nicholas Hoult in the lead role. Other familiar cast members include Toni Collette, J.K. Simmons, Amy Aquino, Leslie Bibb, and Keifer Sutherland.

Hoult plays Justin Kemp, a recovering alcoholic who is selected to serve on a jury for a murder trial. A man is on trial for murdering his girlfriend on a stormy night after the two of them had a troubling argument at a bar. The woman’s battered body was left under a bridge. As the evidence unfolds, Justin recalls that he was at that bar that night and witnessed the altercation. On his way home, he thought he had hit a deer. As more information is released, Justin becomes more convinced that he may have been the one who accidentally killed the woman, but his life has recently turned for the better lately. His wife is about to have a baby, and he has managed to maintain his sobriety for some time. Justin tries to manipulate the jury into avoiding convicting an innocent man without sacrificing his own life, but the matter becomes more complicated when a former homicide detective serving on the jury starts his own investigation. Hoult is about to discover the challenges and consequences of trying to compromise when it comes to morality and justice.

In spite of the extraordinary amount of coincidence to make this plot plausible, I did find the dilemma rather intriguing. Hoult isn’t a guy who is being flippant about the path of deception and manipulation. He seems genuinely guilt-ridden about the situation he caused, but he allows his instinct for self-preservation to take the wheel.

Meanwhile, the case has gotten some local attention, and the prosecutor, played by Toni Collette, has aspirations for becoming the district attorney, and the case could be the ticket to that goal.

The performances are quite compelling and believable, but that’s hardly surprising considering the talent Eastwood has to work with. The film does feel a little slow at times. In real life, trials can get rather tedious, even if it’s a murder case, but that reality doesn’t need to be translated to the screen. The business about a former homicide detective making it onto the jury seems a little hard to swallow even if there is an attempt at an explanation for what appears to be a pretty big lapse in competence from both attorneys.

I did appreciate that the characters were kind of layered. The prosecutor may be rather ambitious and single-minded, but she was not unethical or unlikeable. One can easily feel some sympathy for Justin’s plight even though he basically caused the whole mess, albeit unintentionally.

I am hesitant to declare this as one of Eastwood’s best films, but I do think it’s a good one overall. If this one does turn out to be Eastwood’s last cinematic contribution, it’s one he can still take some pride in.

Book Review: Never An Easy Path For Mr. Rawlins

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

A Red Death by Walter Mosley is an interesting mystery novel featuring the author’s best-known protagonist, Easy Rawlins.

It is 1953 in Los Angeles, and Easy Rawlins has become a property owner who keeps his assets a bit of a secret due to the hostility he would likely face since he is a black man living in the midst of ongoing racial strife. The secret’s out when an IRS agent has reason to file a tax evasion charge against Rawlins. An FBI agent comes to Easy’s aid, but the aid is not going to be unearned. Easy is given the task to spy on an alleged communist who has volunteered at the First African Baptist Church. The matter turns more dangerous when people start getting killed, and Easy has to protect his life as well as his livelihood.

Easy’s life becomes even more convoluted when he falls his friend’s estranged wife. That friend known as Mouse is one of the most dangerous men in the city. That’s only the beginning of the pressures gathering around Easy Rawlins.

This is the second novel in the series featuring Easy Rawlins and follows Devil in a Blue Dress. Mosley is a talented writer and seems to capture the era well. I like Easy because he is not a saint. He also has some scruples and is easy to root for.

Mosley does write in the dialect that someone like Easy and his peers likely spoke, so that could be a little tricky to interpret correctly. It does give the characters and setting authenticity, so I don’t begrudge Mosley making the effort.

It was a good book, and I will likely revisit Easy Rawlins and see how his story unfolds. I recently confirmed that Mosley still brings Rawlins and drops him in the middle of trouble. Mosley actually has quite a bibliography in his wheelhouse, and I will likely pick up some more of his works.

My literary journey which is not going to end anytime soon will continue with another iconic suspense writer. I have not read this guy before, but I am about to rectify that. The Long Lavender Look by John D. MacDonald is the next to be picked up and hopefully enjoyed.

Film Review: The Multitudes Within Chuck Krantz

~ Peter Kanelis ~ 1 Comment

The Life of Chuck us in the running to become one of the best movies of 2025, in my humble opinion. Mike Flanagan is the screenwriter and director of this piece, which is adapted from a novella written by a not-so-new writer named Stephen King. Tom Hiddleston is in the lead role alongside the child actors portraying the younger versions of Charles Krantz. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Mia Sara, Mark Hamill, and Annalise Basso are part of the formidable cast.

The story unfolds from the end when Ejiofor’s character, Marty Anderson, notices some strange sights in the world around him. There is a serious increase in natural disasters, and the internet has completely collapsed. There are some peculiar advertisements cropping up depicting a picture of a man named Chuck Krantz, a seemingly normal accountant. As Chuck lies near death from a terminal brain tumor, the stars are blinking out, and the universe seems to be just shutting down.

Then, the story moves earlier in the Chuck’s life to a strange but uplifting impromptu dance performance before a street drummer. Then, Chuck’s childhood is laid out. All of this is helped by a narrator, Nick Offerman, who does a fantastic job of guiding the audience on this strange journey.

The novella is part of a collection by Stephen King entitled If It Bleeds. The film probably follows the source material pretty closely. There are some interesting twists and a few surprises throughout the film

The performances were solid and believable. The significant cast members were well-chosen. There was a kind of interesting subtlety to some of the performances during some of the more emotionally charged moments of the movie.

The film does seem to have a bit of a slow start, but it gets more engaging as it unfolds in its unconventional timeline. The three kids who played Chuck’s adolescent years did a great job as well. Flanagan has done quite a few adaptations of King’s works and seems to be pretty reliable. I do not recall being disappointed in some of his other works.

I have not read the novella, but I imagine that it is an example of how King actually demonstrates some variety in his writings.

I will also admit that I did not really recognize Mark Hamill as Chuck’s grandfather until the end credits came up. I thought he was familiar, but I was not sure why. Hamill is not someone who I consider to be a stellar actor, but he did quite well in this one. Maybe, he has actually gotten better in immersing himself in a role over the years, and I just failed to appreciate it.

Anyway, this film does deserve the acclaim it has received. It is certainly better than most of the nonsense coming out of Hollywood these days.

Doctor Who Audio Review: Hooklight Will Not Be Dimmed Easily

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Doctor Who-Hooklight 2 brings a twelve-episode audio saga from Big Finish Productions to a most satisfying close. Tom Foley has done quite well with writing a very lengthy audio drama featuring the Fifth Doctor, played by Peter Davison. Janet Fielding, Matthew Waterhouse, and Sarah Sutton continue to bring formidable performances in their roles as Tegan, Adric, and Nyssa, respectively. Ken Bentley returns to the director’s position with his extensive experience with this company.

We also have Paul McGann in the mix as the Eighth Doctor, who is also using the moniker, the Oracle. Alan Cox, Kieren Bew, Shogo Miyakita, Celia Imrie, and Theo Solomon are included in the guest cast.

The force known as Hooklight is attempting to control Nyssa. The Doctor and his friends have been scattered throughout various planets and times. They have to make their way to something called the Dark Forge where they must face the Oracle. The Oracle knows the Doctor quite well, and their connection is much deeper than the Time Lord can anticipate. The Doctor has to find a way to free his friend from the influence of the Hooklight and reunite with his TARDIS. Of course, forces are aligned against the Time Lord, and it will take all of centuries of experience and cleverness to keep a certain light from being lit.

Foley used the extra time quite effectively to explore the main characters and the significant guest characters. We get to see how Tegan fares in a long-term relationship, which is quite interesting and even moving at times.

The appearance of the Eighth Doctor is also well-handled, and Foley sort of avoids some of the usual tropes whenever a story features more than one incarnation. Paul McGann is still compelling and has a perfect voice for audio performances. He is just an interesting actor all around.

I thought the Fifth Doctor was an interesting choice to create a huge saga around, but it works quite well. I also thought Waterhouse was particularly good at almost sounding as he did when he originally played Adric forty years ago.

Davison’s voice has aged and deepened noticeably, but I think he makes a good choice in not trying too hard to imitate his younger self. I still enjoyed his performance, and there was an interesting and poignant moment between the Doctor and Imrie’s Kessica Myles. The Doctor has figured out that Myles is terminally ill and offers to be there for her if she needed to grieve her situation. It was a moment of sensitivity from the Doctor that would often be absent from the television series. It was beautifully performed because the emotional significance was played with that famous British subtlety.

I: am usually rather leery of this superlong sagas in Doctor Who because there is some drag. Although there are some moments that it strikes me how long this thing is going on, I enjoyed this one very much.

Big Finish chose to release this in two parts. If more of these hefty stories are to be produced, I think I would prefer the whole story to be released at once. I hope that Foley is willing to do another one of that size because he really seems to rise to the challenge.

Hooklight as a whole is likely to be the best release of the year. There is still plenty of releases to be announced, but this one will likely remain in the top tier of my favorites for some time.