Am I Racist? is an effectively satirical documentary starring Matt Walsh as he goes on a journey to see if the DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) teachers have a point. The film is produced by The Daily Wire and directed by Justin Folk. Walsh and Folk writing credit with Brian Hoffman and Dallas Sonnier.
Walsh is a popular conservative commentator who had some success with a previous documentary entitled What is a Woman? which dealt with the topic of transgenderism.
After being ousted from a support group that discussed “white guilt”, Walsh dons a hilariously flimsy disguise and becomes certified to teach DEI himself. He encounters some rather notorious figures on this topic such as Kate Slater and Robin DiAngelo as he attempts to implement what he is learning during various sessions and interviews. He also interviews regular people of various races to get their reactions to these ideas.
One of Walsh’s gifts is his deadpan stoicism as he subjects himself to some of most absurd group situations and tries to relay these ideas to others. The interview with DiAngelo is awkward and hysterically funny as reported.
The film is careful enough to attack an ideology and not necessarily a race of people. Another fascinating interview is with Wilfred Reilly, author of Hate Crime Hoax. Walsh and Reilly would likely be in more agreement if Walsh still wasn’t in character as a DEI guy.
There are a couple of scenes that sort of fell flat for me. The film’s effort to ridicule the Jussie Smollett hoax could have been handled differently. I don’t disagree with mocking Smollett at every opportunity, but the method employed in this film could have taken a bit more consideration.
There are some scenes that seem to go on a little too long, but that was likely to help drive home the point the film was really trying to make.
Most of the major production decisions made in this film work rather well. There were a couple of moments where Walsh actually did some acting that would be convincing if one didn’t know the premise.
This film is not without a few flaws, but it is entertaining and educational.
All of Time and Space is a pretty compelling trilogy of Doctor Who audio plays that features the Eleventh Doctor. Big Finish Productions has successfully found an actor who can imitate Matt Smith’s distinctive voice and have embarked on a new series of adventures with a new companion. Jacob Dudman continues to portray this version of the Doctor as if Matt Smith was behind the mic. Safiyya Ingar has recently boarded the TARDIS as Valarie Lockwood, a human with some cybernetic enhancements. Nicholas Briggs has returned to the director’s seat.
The first episode of the set is All of Time and Space in which the writer is billed as Ellery Quest. Apparently, Tim Foley is the true author since Ellery Quest is actually featured in the story as a writer pitching a show idea about a mysterious traveler in time and space. However, he finds that the agent he is pitching the idea to has an extraterrestrial history as well. The Doctor and Valarie are trapped in a dimension, and the stories may be their only way to escape.
This is one of those surreal stories that blur the fourth wall a little. It’s confusing and amusing at the same time, but that sort of sums up the whole series.
The Yearn is written by Angus Dunican and has the Doctor meet a group of colonists trapped underground and being hunted by a peculiar entity. People are taken by the Yearn and then reappear. Something appears to be interfering with the Yearn’s efforts to feed, and it may resemble a blue police box.
This second story had a pretty compelling climax. There was a great guest cast. The sudden romance seemed to blossom between Valarie and Mia Tomlinson’s character was a little improbable but handled better than similar moments in the series. Ingar is actually a pretty interesting actor, and Valarie is kind of growing on me.
Finally, James Goss brings this set to a close with Curiosity Shop. Valarie has lost the Doctor and is able to see the TARDIS, which is in the possession of a junkyard proprietor named Mr. Foreman. An alien war is about to break out, and the Doctor has forgotten who he is and what he does.
This actually was a great close. Valarie is losing pieces of herself literally as she hopes that the Doctor remembers her and returns to put things right. There are some great performances, and Dudman’s vocal talents are put to the test. Goss also finds a way to sort honor the legacy of the series as well.
Overall, this set takes the series in some interesting directions. The banter between the Doctor and Valarie is quite compelling. Dudman’s impersonation of Matt Smith seems to improve.
I think the final story is my favorite, but all of the set comes out quite well. I look forward to this particular TARDIS crew continuing their travels.
Ghost island is a pretty decent Nordic Noir thriller written by Max Seeck that takes place in Finland. He has returned to the investigations of Detective Jessica Niemi of the Helsinki Police Department.
Jessica has gotten in some trouble when an altercation with a man goes viral. She has some mental health issues anyway. Although she is a very capable investigator, her boss has some concerns and places her on leave. Jessica takes some time off on a remote island. Three elderly friends have shown up for their annual visit. They were one-time residents of an orphanage on the island during the Second Word War. Jessica also learns of a local legend concerning a haunting by a girl who had disappeared from the orphanage decades ago. Jessica is also drawn into the mystique of the island when one of the visitors is drowned at the beach. Jessica then learns of two previous deaths that had some similar elements. She also sees what appears to be the spirit of the long-missing girl with a blue coat. Her grip on reality is somewhat tenuous, but she does know that a killer has found their way onto the island and has to find the connection between her present danger and what happened many decades before.
The setting of an isolated island with a small group of people who has a killer in their midst is well used, but Seeck is talented enough to make it work. Jessica Neimi, the lead protagonist, is pretty interesting. This is apparently the fourth installment in a series. Neimi was introduced in the Seeck’s novel, The Witch Hunter and apparently is repeatedly traumatized over the course of the series so far.
There isn’t much humor to help lighten the mood here, but I guess that’s the way it goes for these Nordic mysteries. Seeck does provide a bit of a roller coaster on the way to the resolution. He’s not a remarkable writer, but he is competent enough. Jessica is one of many very morose and troubled detectives in crime fiction. There is nothing all that extraordinary about her in spite of her apparent mental illness, but she is not without some interesting features.
The novel is pretty good with a unique setting in that it takes place in Finland. Seeck does throw pretty good curveballs at his heroine. Murder on an isolated island is something that always piques my interest even if it is a somewhat well-worn trope. I would still recommend any fellow mystery fan to give this one a try. I ended up liking the novel even if it wasn’t quite a homerun.
The literary journey continues as I decide to accept the invitation from Darcy Coates to visit the House of Shadows.
Michael Troughton returns to the mic at Big Finish Productions to honor his late father’s Doctor Who legacy in Doctor Who: The Second Doctor Adventures: Conspiracy of Raven. He is joined by Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines, reprising their roles of Zoe and Jamie, respectively. Nicholas Briggs and Mark Wright have collaborated on the three interlinked episodes with Briggs also serving as director.
This series continues on from the saga started in the set entitled Beyond the War Games. Just before his forced regeneration and exile to Earth, the Second Doctor was reunited with Jamie McCrimmon and sent on a series of missions throughout time and space at the direction of a mysterious Time Lady known as Raven. Jamie has been whisked away out of the TARDIS in this chapter, and Zoe Herriot appears to provide valuable assistance to help locate him. Raven has become an unlikely and untrustworthy ally, but she is not in control as much as she initially appeared.
Nicholas Briggs introduces this particular conspiracy with his story Kippers. Emma Noakes returns as the enigmatic Raven. The Doctor and Raven find themselves aboard an abandoned space station, and Jame has disappeared. An alien menace known as Kippers has killed the crew, and the two Time Lords are in their sights. The Doctor finds that Raven may not be working for who she believes. He has to keep them alive and start a search through time and space for his lost friend.
The inclusion of Emma Noakes is actually a pretty good move. Troughton does a decent job of emulating his late father, Patrick Troughton. I still think Hines’ impression was a lot closer, but it seems fitting to have Michael Troughton give his take. He does sound close enough like his dad to not be distracting. Anyway, Briggs provides another intriguing script. The sound effects come off quite well. Overall, a great launch for this particular collection.
Catastrophe Theory is written by Mark Wright. Padbury’s Zoe Herriot has appeared in the TARDIS. Raven has been left behind on the space station, but she is not out of the picture just yet. The Doctor and Zoe trace Jamie a space cruiser on the course to disaster. A savage alien attack is about to commence, and the Doctor is surrounded by catastrophe with time running out on more than one front.
This also is a solid continuation of the journey. There is nothing remarkable about this one, but it’s not bad and serves the purpose of pushing the Doctor and his friends forward into the machinations of a mysterious presence. A few more answers are revealed, and the mystery of who is making alterations to established history and manipulating the Doctor into more dangers continues to build.
Wright and Briggs share writing credit for the concluding episode entitled The Vanishing Point. The Vanishing Point is a mythical place that resides somewhere between science and magic. The Doctor and his friends have arrived to see if questions can be answered and to hopefully confront the threat to all of time and space.
It’s a pretty good set overall. I am a little dubious about this business of shoehorning these series of episodes set between the final television Second Doctor serial and the introduction of the third incarnation. Raven has now become a pretty intriguing addition to the cast. Noakes seems to be pretty inspired casting. The banter between her and the Doctor is quite amusing and compelling. Another notable guest cast member is Jacqueline King, who is best known as Sylvia Noble in the rebooted television series. She plays a different character and does a great job.
Tom Baker is my favorite Doctor, but Patrick Troughton’s performance ranks high up there in my estimation. Michael Troughton speaks about adding some bits of himself in his efforts to honor his father, and he does seem to be getting better as he does more of these episodes. I just like new Second Doctor stories, and I get the emotional significance of adding having Michael to the casting sheet. Even if I think Frazer Hines nails the Patrick Troughton vibe somewhat better, Michael Troughton is still more than capable of satisfying the fans of his father’s era on the program.
Pliable Truths is the latest title written by Dayton Ward and is a mediocre addition to the Star Trek: The Next Generation novel range.
Ward takes the reader back to the era of the television series just after Captain Jean-Luc Picard endured captivity and torture at the hands of the Cardassians. Also, the Cardassians subsequently withdraw from their occupation of the planet Bajor. Captain Picard is tasked with overseeing the negotiations between the Cardassians and the Bajorans aboard the space station known as Terok Nor. Of course, Terok Nor is on the verge of being redesignated Deep Space Nine. Picard’s mission is complicated by a bombing and assassination. Also, the Cardassian responsible for his recent torture has arrived, which causes some understandable disconcertion. Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise have several challenges to meet and a few mysteries to solve.
Dayton Ward has written several Star Trek novels for many years, and he is usually reliable. The problem here is that fans have already been through this era of the canon. We know what happens with Bajor after the Cardassians pulled out. There is no real suspense to be had. There were some interesting moments between characters. The reader gets to revisit the earlier days of Odo, Quark, Kira, and Garak just before Commander Benjamin Sisko arrives as the Starfleet representative. Garak’s scenes were kind of fun. He is, of course, the Cardassian tailor with a mysterious past and is much more dangerous than he first appears.
Ward isn’t a bad writer, but I just wasn’t interested in revisiting this portion of the canon. It also seems to take forever before the bombs started detonating, and characters started getting taken off the board.
Hopefully, the next novel in this series takes us into some uncharted territory.
Next up, I will see what author Max Seeck has waiting for me on Ghost Island.
Old Dads is an unsurprisingly raunchy comedy film directed by Bill Burr; however, it is not as funny as his stand-up routine. Burr co-wrote the script with Ben Tishler, who was apparently not much help. Bobby Cannavale and Bokeem Woodbine co-star as his two best friends and business partners.
The premise here is that these three buddies are older that most typical fathers and their struggles to understand the younger generation, which includes their wives and significant others. The three friends had sold their company but were able to remain on as employees with a Gen Z supervisor who doesn’t respect their supposed wisdom or something. Burr’s character has gotten sideways with a progressive daycare principal. He has an erratic temper, which is what Burr relies on for his stand-up routine. All three of these guys have some friction in their relationships. Basically, they have to save their relationships, get their jobs back, and learn how to play nice with others.
There was no one I could bring myself to actually like or root for. I like Burr’s comedy generally, but somehow it didn’t translate all that well for this film. The profanity was a bit much, and I can tolerate a lot. There were times that I could almost sympathize with Burr’s character, Jack, such as when he called out his wife for not standing by him all that much. Just because he has a temper didn’t mean that he was always wrong.
I think there is a goldmine here with the idea of some of these older fathers with young children, but Burr didn’t seem to tap into it very effectively.
I didn’t have very high expectations for this one, but this still turned out to be surprisingly disappointing.
Christopher Eccleston makes another solid return to the microphones of Big Finish Productions as the Ninth Doctor in another set of Doctor Who audio dramas entitled Pioneers. Helen Goldwyn directs this trio of adventures. The guest cast includes Louise Jameson, who is better known as Leela in the series, however she is playing a new character here. Adam Martyn, Harki Bhambra, Ian Conningham, and Andrew James Spooner are some of the other performers lending their vocal talents.
The trilogy of stories begins with Roy Gill’s The Green Gift. The Doctor is accompanied by a bling young man and his talking dog, who were introduced in the previous collection entitled Shades of Fear. Louise Jameson appears as the apparent leader of a colony spacecraft known as the Greenwood. Earth has been all but destroyed, and humanity needs a new home. There is an artificial intelligence aboard which the Doctor may have encountered before.
It is pretty cool when other well-known Doctor Who actors appear as new characters. Jamison is best known as playing the Fourth Doctor’s companion, Leela, but she gets to stretch her range a bit here with Big Finish, and I think it’s a great idea. I can work through the distraction of recognizing her as Leela without much problem. The story is interesting and sort of revisits a very distinctive episode from the classic series. There are some engaging character moments when the Doctor is getting some explanations for the setting. that did quite well with building the intrigue until the revelations of the threat was revealed. Eccleston is unsurprisingly compelling during these more thoughtful scenes. The two new companions of Callen and Doyle, who really aren’t long-term mainstays in the TARDIS, are kind of fun. The dog, played by Harki Bhambra, is able to talk with some fancy, futuristic AI assistance. Anyway, the story is a pretty solid beginning to this particular set.
Next up, Robert Valentine takes the audience to a bit of Norwegian history with his story entitled Northern Lights. The Doctor crashes in the Arctic Circle toward the end of the nineteenth century and encounters Norwegian explorers, Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen. There is another presence within the famous Aurora Borealis, and the Doctor discovers that his current location may not be as isolated as it appears.
This story had a few fairly heartwarming moments that were unexpected. I have not heard of these particular explorers before this audio. Doctor Who does have a way of introducing historical figures and events that are not widely known or appreciated. The science fiction element is nice, but it’s pretty cool that Valentine did some research and brought forth some important historical figures that are not known as well as they probably deserve. Valentine has yet to put out a bad script, and this one is quite good. I think I appreciated the historical background that was rather new to me, but the overall drama was pretty good too.
Finally, Katherine Armitage takes the TARDIS to the early days of a football league formed in the United Kingdom with her script entitled The Beautiful Game. An American would recognize this as soccer. Another rather important historical sports figure in the shape of William Sudell, played by Raymond Coulthard, is brought forth. The Doctor attends to attend the meeting which formed the league, but he arrives a week early and finds himself witnessing another important meeting instead which involves the women’s suffrage movement in the late nineteenth century instead. Since it’s Doctor Who, there is an alien presence lurking around that feeds off others’ obsessions and is able to change size in seconds.
The alien threat is hard to really visualize through an audio play. However, there are some great moments between the characters. Once again, I am exposed to some influential figures from the past that I would not have otherwise known if not for a script. The cast does a great job, as is normal for a Big Finish drama. This episode is not bad, but it didn’t quite impress as the first two. It does have an interesting, little-known setting so that helps.
Overall, Eccleston himself makes the set worthwhile. The episodes are solid contributions, but they don’t really stand out other than some interesting touches on little discussed historical events. It’s still something I would recommend for the fans to collect because Eccleston is still worth the effort, and the stories have plenty of points of interest, and the history aficionados will get a pretty good kick.
Sontarans vs Rutans: The Battle of Giant’s Causeway is another triumphant beginning to a pretty fun series of Doctor Who audio dramas from Big Finish Productions. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary since the introduction of the Sontarans in Doctor Who, and Big Finish decided to mark the occasion by a short series of dramas that feature aspects of the ongoing war between the Sontarans and the Rutans.
The first episode features the return of Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor. India Fisher reprises her role as Charlotte Pollard with Conrad Westmaas returning to the role of C’rizz after fifteen years since audiences heard the tragic departure of the character. This is basically a flashback story that sort of tantalizes the nostalgia for long-time Big Finish listeners. John Banks and Dan Starkey return to voice the absurdly militaristic Sontarans. Lizzie Hopley wrote the script, and Ken Bentley returns to the director’s chair. Michelle Fox and Amanda Hurwitz round out the guest cast.
A temporal tidal wave throws the TARDIS to Ancient Ireland, and the Doctor, C’rizz, and Charley encounter Sontarans behaving like Roman Legionnaires. They have landed in a region known as the Giant’s Causeway, and something has shut the TARDIS down, leaving the Doctor and his friends stranded in the midst of a brewing war between two alien forces who have been displaced and the savagery of those who are supposed to live in that time and place.
Doctor Who is a pretty strange show on the outset, and this script is up there when it comes to odd plotlines. Hopley is talented enough to make this work. The Sontarans are acting odder than usual, but Starkey and Banks still manage to make them compelling and amusing. McGann, Fisher, and Westmaas easily recapture the chemistry that made them a popular team in earlier times. I would not consider this script to be one the greats, but it’s still pretty enjoyable. Hopley shows some creativity in bringing in some fresh amusement in the depiction of the Sontarans and the Rutans. Yes, we’ll be hearing more from the Rutans in this little mini-series. Hopley gives this range a pretty decent kick-off.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has awesome visual effects, great monster fight scenes, and almost impressive mediocrity in any other basic elements of filmmaking. This is the ultimate in a mind-numbing popcorn flick.
It took three screenwriters for this one to underwhelm me. Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett, and Jeremy Slater concocted this exercise in screenwriting shallowness. Adam Wingard directed this latest addition to the Monarch storyline. Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, and Kaylee Hottle are the human leads. Kaylee Hottle, the teen-ager who has a unique friendship with King Kong, is probably the most interesting character, Jia. Jia is the last survivor of a tribe that resided on Skull Island and is deaf, as is the actress herself.
While Godzilla is either sleeping in some ruins in Rome or wandering the globe protecting humanity from less agreeable Titans, Kong has set up camp in Hollow Earth where he looks for any survivors from his species. Kong discovers an unknown region of Hollow Earth where he starts a new exploration. In the meantime, the scientists studying these Titans notice that Godzilla is seemingly powering himself up to face a threat that he has suddenly sensed. They have also encountered a signal that has been traced to Hollow Earth. A new threat is rising to the surface, and Kong and Godzilla have to join forces to protect humans from a very big, very ancient enemy.
The film is not terrible, but I hard time caring about the characters. Somehow, Godzilla and Kong seem to have picked up some moves from WWE and Jackie Chan films. I know these films are going to have some natural absurdity and should be shown some grace considering the genre, however the overall lack of originality in the human characters makes it hard to pull that off. The CGI was quite stunning, and big giant creatures smashing buildings is almost always a fun treat, but there was little else that worked with any consistency.
The cast is talented enough and did the best they could, but the material was no real help to them or the audience.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a decent continuation of one of the most popular cinematic franchises in recent decades, but as expected, it doesn’t quite measure up to the original 1984 film.
Gil Kenan directed this film as well as cowriting it alongside Jason Reitman. Original Ghostbuster stars, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Dan Aykroyd, and Annie Potts return to the firehouse alongside the cast portraying the descendants of Egon Spengler. Paul Rudd, Carrie Coons, McKenna Grace, and Finn Wolfhard reprise their roles from the most recent predecessor, Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Kumail Nanjiani and Patton Oswalt also get in on the mayhem for this installment. William Atherton returns as another familiar face from the original film, the officious, snobbish Walter Peck, who somehow is the elected mayor of New York City. Even though there a lot of familiar elements from the original film, I was relieved that we actually got a brand spectral adversary as the main villain.
Callie Spengler has returned to New York with her two children and apparent boyfriend, Gary Grooberson, and has revived the Ghostbusting business with the help of Winston Zeddenore, who has become some uber-rich business mogul who has helped upgrade the Ghostbusters equipment. The new superpowered specter is some dark god who unleashes a deadly chill when he is feeding on people’s fear. He can also control the minds of other ghosts and wants to recruit the spirits being held in the Ghostbusters’ containment unit. This thing can be defeated by a group of sorcerers known as Fire Masters, and the Ghostbusters encounter a hapless, somewhat shallow descendant of one of the Fire Masters, who may be the key to defeat this latest phantasmal being.
The film has some pretty good moments, but nothing really stands out as being terrifically mind-blowing. The return of the surviving members of the main cast of the original film provides a decent helping of the warm fuzzies, and I actually have come to like Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon in the leads of the newer Ghostbusters. McKenna Grace is a bit of a scene stealer at times, but she has such a distinctive and eccentric role as Phoebe Spengler, that it seems easy to predict that would be the case. Still, Grace’s performance is actually pretty compelling even though she is only about 16 years old when this was filmed. I really have little to criticize about the performances, and I enjoyed revisiting most of these characters from both the original film and Afterlife.
The special effects were pretty good, but that doesn’t appear that hard to accomplish with the technology available for movie magic these days.
Overall, this film serves the purpose as an adequate fun distraction, but it’s not going to be much more than that. The expectation that the sequel almost never touches the joy of the first time out continues to hold true this time.
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