David J. Howe's Blog, page 14

Review: Redcon-1

Redcon-1 is a new film directed by Chee Keong Cheung and is another entry in the Zombie Apocalypse genre. It's perhaps unfortunate that I have seen quite a few Zombie films in my time, and so I can see that this one is nothing new. It resembles at various points other films which have handled the material far more elegantly.



One of the biggest issues I had was the narrative - it doesn't seem to have one! The idea they are playing with is that the government, or some agency thereof, has developed a virus which will create unstoppable zombie soldiers - creatures that cannot be killed, which are zombies, but which retain the knowledge of who they were and how to function ...



We follow a team of nameless human soldiers who are battling these creatures to try and rescue the scientist who created the virus ... there's a little girl who seems immune, and they try and get her to safety ... along the way, the lead character - whose name I cannot remember ... in fact I can't recall the names of anyone in the film - becomes a zombie but they manage to deliver the girl, the scientist is killed, and that's the end.





The plot is so vague, and the film is totally filled with fast moving action fight sequences, that there's no room for much dialogue or explanation ... it just rumbles onto the next battle, and the next ...



If you like action, violence, blood and gore, and zombie hoards, then this film may tick all the boxes for you. Personally I found it derivative and disappointing. Films like Resident Evil, 28 Days Later and even Escape from New York have handled similar material and themes much better.



One final note, the film I was sent to review had a PREVIEW COPY DO NOT PIRATE message over the top third of the screen the whole time which was both annoying and very distracting ... hard to watch something when you keep being thrown out of it by the lettering. This may have been part of the reason for my disappointment with the film - it really didn't hold my attention. Why not put the message up every 30 mins or so for a minute? Or flag it on the corner of the screen ... It's a little like being asked to review a stage play where they keep the curtain half way down all the time.



Just 2 out of 5 for this one.







RELEASE INFORMATION



Distributor: Intense Distribution & 101 Films



Certificate: 18



Release date: 25th February, 2019



Digital release: 25th February, 2019






Running time: 118 mins







KEY TALENT INFORMATION



Director: Chee Keong Cheung



Stars:


Oris Erhuero
Carlos Gallardo
Mark Strange
Joshua Dickinson
Akira Koieyama
Katarina Waters
Martyn Ford

Review: That'll Be The Day Stage Show

It's not often that we go to the theatre, but when we do, it's usually a treat!



And when a surprise invitation came through to see THAT'LL BE THE DAY at the Lincoln Theatre Royal last night, it was hopefully going to be something special.  And that is something of an understatement.


It was amazing. No, better than that, it was a rollicking, superb, entertaining, mad dash through pop music history, with the most brilliant team of musicians and comedians as your guides.



If you get a chance to go see the show,  then do yourself a favour and go see it. It's the most uplifting and fun evening of music and comedy that you're likely to experience.



It's not based on the Buddy Holly song 'That'll be the Day', although the song does feature. This is not a staged biopic like JERSEY BOYS or WE WILL ROCK YOU ... In fact the title refers to the group of people who put this all together ...





The first half presents music from the Sixties, with perfect recreations of music from Sandy Nelson in a jaw dropping live performance of 'Bring on the Drums', Lulu, the Beatles, Cilla Black, Elvis, The Hollies, Gene Pitney ... they just keep on coming. Interspersed with comedy skits we get Doddy make an appearance, as well as a brief Eric Morcambe, plus Roy Orbison ... they just keep on coming!  We end the first half with the 'Summer of Love' and music from The Mamas and the Papas, The Fifth Dimension (Aquarius) and more!



The second half is even more incredible, with acts like Mick Jagger, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Dire Straits, Abba, Whitney Houston, Cliff Richard, Ah-Ha, Wings, ELO, Billy Joel ... all vying for position as the group lets the music come thick and fast. It's like going to see all the groups live in one evening!  The impressions are superb and the comedy both fresh and occasionally groan-inducing.



If audience reaction is anything to go by, the show is an absolute hit from start to end, with the audience singing along, and, at the end, actually getting to their feet to clap and cheer and dance in the aisles ... and considering that our audience was predominantly over sixty years old, that's no mean feat!



As I said at the start ... if you get a chance to go see them, then please do. If you like music, and enjoy pop from the fifties right through to songs from the MTV era of the eighties, then you will love it! The musicianship is second to none, the singing is amazing and the costume changes perfect.



It's a superbly entertaining night out, and suitable for anyone! (Though some of the comedy is somewhat risque, so perhaps not for the under eighteens ...)



Their website can be found here: https://www.thatllbetheday.com/

Review: Doctor Who: The Women Who Lived

With a new Doctor in the form of Jodie Whittaker about to take the stage, BBC Books decided to celebrate by releasing Doctor Who: The Women Who Lived.  'Amazing tales for Future Time Lords' it says ... but that's not quite what you get.



Several years back, I co-wrote a book called Doctor Who: Companions, which was a look at all the actors and actresses who had played the Doctor's companions to that time ... so basically Classic series, and including a couple from the original novels and comic strip too.  My co-author Mark Stammers and I delved into the factual background of the characters, discovering their origins, BBC Outlines, their casting and so on, and also spoke to as many of the artistes as we could to try and gain a rounded and hopefully interesting view of the role of the Companion and what it meant to the many people who had played them.



Written by Chrystal Dee and Simon Guerrier, this new book takes the female companions only, along with many other significant female characters from the show, and presents a page or two on each, accompanied by a piece of artwork depicting said character. All the imagery is by female artists too ... so it looks like the only men involved are co-author Guerrier, along with all the book's production team.



And it's a strangely insubstantial affair. The text in each case is simply a brief description of who/what/where/how that character was presented. Written in very easy to read, child-friendly text, it's skimmable and doesn't contain anything really new. The 'Amazing Tales' promised by the cover are simply those which Doctor Who as a series has already presented. Maybe this is a storybook to read to children when they go to bed ... maybe ...



So what is it then ... perhaps an art book? When I penned Timeframe, that title was deliberately designed as a scrapbook of images, with the text playing second fiddle to the visuals. Here the text takes up more pages than the visuals, but seems to be secondary to them.





If this is an art book, then I'm really sorry, but many of the pieces look nothing like the characters. Many have over-simplified styles, and others have the characters conceived as almost Manga-inspired imagery, with over-large eyes and boyish figures. It's really not to my taste at all. There are a couple of what I would describe as decent images, but these are far outnumbered by those where I was left scratching my head as to who it was meant to be ... with only a costume element or even the text alongside it giving me a clue.





I think this book should really have come from the BBC Children's Books stable as it's far more on a par with the young-aimed fare that they have been publishing. As a BBC Book, you'd reasonably expect something with a bit of meat and interest in it. At £16.99 for a hardback, this really is not something which appeals to me, and, I wonder, will it appeal to the under-tens who it seems to be aimed at. Do ten year old boys want to read a book of brief character descriptions and plot details concerning a bunch of women from a TV show, many of which they may never have heard of. Maybe that's the point, and the BBC want the series' associated merchandise aimed at 9 year old girls. I suspect this might be true, as Dee and Guerrier say at the end of their Introduction: 'we hope this book will inspire you - to revisit adventures from these women's point of view, to write about and draw your favourite characters ...' Not really something you'd find in a book aimed at adults.



Published on the 27th September 2018 by BBC Books

Review: Recent Doctor Who Books

There's been a few Doctor Who titles released of late ... so a quick round up of thoughts.



With the 13th Doctor now on television (and me not having time to watch and review the episodes at the moment ...) there's been a few titles released tieing into the series. But it's interesting to look back a few months to when a new crop of 'Target' branded novelisations hit the shops, to try and gain something of an appreciation as to what has happened here.



First off is City of Death, novelised by James Goss. In fact, abridged might be the best word to use here as Goss had already written a much longer version of Douglas Adams' City of Death a year or so earlier. This is a shorter version for the Target novelisation market, and reading it through, Goss is certainly channeling Adams bigtime, with much which reads and 'sounds' like something out of Adams' popular The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. There are some lovely moments, like a short sequence where Professor Kerensky is aged to death - but seen from Kerensky's point of view, and overall the book reads well. As a fairly traditional novelisation, this works well, giving the story and characters a little time to breathe (though not as much as in the full length version) while staying pretty faithful to the televised scripts.



Next up is a ninth Doctor story, Rose, novelised by Russell T Davies from his own script. This again feels very much like a traditional novelisation, There is some expansion of the characters, but overall it feels very much like a 'script to screen' adaptation, not much added in, and not much taken away. It's another strong book, reading well, and making a great addition to the Target range.





Tenth Doctor next, and Jenny T Colgan novelises The Christmas Invasion from Russell T Davies' script. This is perhaps the weakest of this batch of novelisations, being again pretty much a straight retelling of the story with not much added or taken away.



The Eleventh Doctor is represented by Steven Moffat novelising his own script for The Day of the Doctor. This is something of a revelation. Moffat makes the best use of the novelisation format and presents something unique and fascinating, a book which manages to follow the events of the televised story, while at the same time, putting a very personal and unique spin on it. Even the book plays games with the reader, promising a chapter which then doesn't appear to exist (but at the back there are marks which show how many times you have read - and forgotten - it). It's a clever book and stands rereading. In fact, it's pretty typical of Moffat's television Doctor Who ... complex and bewildering, but when he gets it right ... supremely satisfying.





The final book in the Target novelisations is by Paul Cornell, having a go at novelising Steven Moffat's Twice Upon A Time. Unfortunately this suffers as the original teleplay also suffered - from not having very much in the way of substance. Cornell has apparently reinstated around 30 minutes of material which was cut from the final episode, and as with Colgan's book, is a perfectly acceptable, straightforward novelisation of the story ...



What makes these books notable is that although they are branded as a continuation of the Target line, they are written for adults. There is no talking down or oversimplificaton of the text - they are readable and enjoyable in the same way that the television episodes were, and the original novelisation range was ...



And that brings me to the new original novels which have been released for the thirteenth Doctor. There are three in the initial batch: The Good Doctor by Juno Dawson, Molten Heart by Una McCormack, and Combat Magicks by Steve Cole.



So far I've only had a chance to read  The Good Doctor, and ... well ... it's a kid's book. When I (re-)read the Target novelisations, I often note if there is a lack of description as to which Doctor is at the controls of the TARDIS, or what people are wearing and so on ... and here there is next to nothing. The Doctor is the Doctor almost by name only, and I even read a part of the book considering the character to be played by Peter Davison in my head, and it worked just fine ...



Maybe this is because the books were commissioned and written before any information about how Jody Whittaker would play the character had been released, but after the aforementioned Target books, this is something of a disappointment.



It's also got a similar plot to the television story The Ark  - albeit that this is one which most readers and viewers will never have heard of let alone seen. The central conceit being that the Doctor and co visit a planet where there is a war, put things right, and then leave, returning 'moments' later (because Ryan forgot his phone) to find it's actually years in the future ... and thus seeing the results of their actions. There's also a hefty nod to Douglas Adams in the narrative, as one of the things they are faced with is a giant statue of the Tardis - and a stained glass window of Graham who is worshipped as 'The Good Doctor' ... definite shades of Arthur Dent there.





Reading the book, there are a lot of characters, but I didn't get any sense of what they looked like or who they were ... everything seemed simplified. Furthermore, it read like a story written by someone who doesn't really 'get' Doctor Who ... I have been considering this a lot watching the television episodes this season ... it feels like a show being written by people who grew up loving the TV Comic or Doctor Who Magazine comic strips ... and there is a similar level of story telling and ideas which you used to find in the comic strips, and which (I at least thought) had no place on television ... With giant cute fluffy monsters, 'Sinister Sponge' creatures, and so on all vying for attention against a Doctor who often acted out of character ...



Maybe this is the essence of the show these days ... that the years of original fiction and comic stories have given birth to a Doctor Who variant which seems at odds with the show which I grew up with and loved. I often felt that the comic stories were a little 'silly', and this feeling has been played out in several of the television episodes this season.



Maybe the books by Una McCormack and Steve Cole will be better (I have no previous knowledge of Juno Dawson's work, so she might be the one out of kilter here) ... I'll report back when I have read them.

Review: Doctor Who: The Woman Who Fell To Earth

Watching the opening episode of a new season of Doctor Who is always a pleasure, and when it's the first episode featuring a new Doctor, moreso.  But this year, with The Woman Who Fell To Earth, we not only had a new Doctor, but a new set of companions, a new Showrunner in the form of Chris Chibnell, new production team, new music composer, new title music, and new titles (although as of writing, I've not seen those yet as they weren't included on the opening episode). So there's lots to be anticipatory about.



One thing that is worth pointing out as well, is that unlike most previous Doctor Who seasons and episodes, this time, I knew absolutely nothing about it ... aside from the actors chosen to play the lead roles, not a single plot point, meaningful photograph, or anything much had crossed my path to either 'spoil' or generate excitement about the show. It was a total blank. So much so, that I had no clue when sitting down to watch it, what to expect at all.



So how did it fare? Not too bad overall. Opening Doctor episodes tend to be a little on the let-down side anyway (thinking Robot, The Twin Dilemma, The Eleventh Hour, Deep Breath) and this time there was so much to try and cram in, that a plot of any depth was probably asking too much ...





However a plot was there, and it was straightforward and understandable, if a bit of a steal from Predator. An alien (strangely called Tzim-Sha (Tim Shaw)) comes to Earth to hunt a human so that he can ascend to lead his race ... along the way he steals teeth from his prey and embeds them in his face ... So does Tzim only hunt humans then? If he hunted ... I don't know ... Elephants, then would he have their tusks embedded there? And what if the prey had no teeth ... what would he do then? Thankfully these questions go unanswered.



So Tzim arrives on Earth because a lad called Ryan touches a hologrammatical map thingy in a forest near Sheffield, and summons him there. I did wonder what would have happened if Tzim's summoner went untouched? Would he then try somewhere else? And why make it appear in a forest anyway? Why not somewhere that there were actual people? Anyway ...



So the map thingy makes a blue container thing appear in the forest - and initial thoughts were that this might be the TARDIS ... but no. It's basically a shuttle? Spaceship? Something in which Tzim-Sha travels ... but he can apparently teleport. So why does he need it?





Meanwhile, there's some sort of tentacled Cthulhuian monster attacking a train from Sheffield to London (it's unclear why), and the Doctor falls from the sky, crashes through the train roof, and is completely unscathed and saves Graham and his wife Grace, and a lad called Karl from the tentacle thing. They then hook up with a junior police officer called Jasmine to investigate. Along the way, the Doctor makes a new Sonic Screwdriver (in part from melted down Sheffield steel spoons), and the pod thing opens to reveal Tzim-Sha ...



Tzim (or the tentacle thing which seems to be working for him, or the people who sent Tzim on this mission) has apparently chosen Karl as the prey, and so the alien tracks him to his job as a crane worker, where he climbs the crane to get him (remember, he can teleport). In a neat bit of flip-floppery, the Doctor confronts Tzim and reveals that the DNA bombs he planted in them had been transferred to the tentacle thing, and from there into Tzim himself ... so Tzim leaves in a flash of logic.



The Doctor then decides to try and locate the TARDIS using Tzim's teleport device, but instead sends herself and her new friends into space!



The presence of a cliffhanger was lovely, I really missed those, and I hope they keep it up ... and the plot was simple enough to follow.  I did feel that Tzim-Sha was a bit of a letdown though. He was too much children's teatime SF and not enough Doctor Who. He would have been completely in place in, say, Lost in Space, or Galloping Galaxies perhaps ... just something about it didn't work for me.



As for the other elements. I found the new companions quite likable. Ryan and Jasmine had a touch of 'Soap Opera' about their performances, but overall they were believable, and Graham I really liked ... a sort of 'everyman' just getting on with life before it's all turned upside down by the arrival of Tzim-Sha and the Doctor.



Finally, the new Doctor. To be perfectly honest, I'm not quite sure at the moment. After just one episode, Jodie Whittaker has yet to make much of an impact. I liked her arrival, crashing into the train (and I guess she's unharmed as she was still regenerating at the time), and I liked the way she took control of the situation immediately. There were flashes of David Tennant's performance in hers, with the mouth movements and facial expressions, and I liked her 'get on with it' attitude. I really liked that the fact she was a woman was really not made much of an issue of - and why should it, as far as we know, none of these people has ever met the Doctor before, so they would not know or realise any different.





But is she the Doctor? A couple of moments I felt, yes, she's got this, and then the next moment it's like watching someone cosplaying as the Doctor, someone pretending to be the Timelord ...



I think the basic issue was, with no opening titles, no TARDIS, nothing to actually tell you this was Doctor Who, it could have been the opening episode from Stranger Things 3, or a new Netflix show about saving the Earth from Aliens (Earth vs Aliens) ... and it would have been perfectly acceptable as such.



One thing which really impressed me was the sound design and music. Absolutely first rate, and a refreshing change from the orchestral approach since the show returned in 2005. I found Segun Akinola's score creepy and effective, and also modern and emotive. Can't wait to get a CD release of that!



In a way, it's nice to have such a clean slate to work from. Pretty much anything and everything which made Doctor Who, Doctor Who, was swept away, and we're starting completely from scratch, with no baggage, and no touchstones to the past at all (except perhaps from the Sonic Screwdriver) ...



A final comment to add: while I'm reminded of it ... the story actually has many 'touches' to Matt Smith's debut adventure: a companion dressed as a police officer, an alien who wants to take the Earth, a secondary alien working for the first, and the Doctor tells them to scarper at the end ... A very similar idea ...



Overall, then, a very promising start for the 13th Doctor, or is she the 14th? Or maybe the 15th?



One final thought ... the episode certainly didn't seem to be aimed at 8 year old girls ... so why are all the books and merchandise suddenly aimed there? Answers on a postcard ...

Fixing PCs

As the old PC or Laptop are pretty essential for all manner of things, occasionally I need to do some maintenance on them to get them running OK, speed them up, clear out the rubbish and so on ...



We have a sort-of policy that no important data is actually stored on the computers themselves - everything is either in Dropbox, or on external USB connected hard drives ... so that we can back them up, have copies, and generally try and protect ourselves from losing everything ...



So I often see people asking online as to how to help sort their own computers out ... so I listed out the following basic set of actions which should help to improve any Windows PC or laptop.  I'm afraid I have never owned or used a Mac, so I have no idea what one would do for one of those machines ...

So I hope this is helpful to someone ...



BASIC STEPS TO IMPROVE A WINDOWS LAPTOP/PC

1) Empty the Recycle Bin
2) Go
to SETTINGS/APPS (This is Windows 10. If you're on an earlier version, then this is the SETTINGS and PROGRAMS option) and go through all programs/apps and uninstall any you
don't want/need (Google them if you don't know what they do)
3) RESTART THE PC/LAPTOP
4) Do a Disk Cleanup (WINDOWS ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS) and delete any/all elements showing there with space. There's often old Dump and Crash files there, plus old install files from programs, Windows Update temporary files and other stuff you don't need too.
5) RESTART THE PC/LAPTOP
6) If
the internet is not working/connecting, then try opening the Windows
Settings for it - in there will be diagnostic tools to check the
connections and to help fix them ... (NETWORK AND INTERNET SETTINGS) ... Consider where you are using the PC/Laptop. If you're at home, then you should probably be on a Private Network as this is trusted. If you are at home but set to a Public Network, then it may be doing additional checks and security which are not needed.
7) Download Malwarebytes (https://www.malwarebytes.com/),
install the free version and run to check/clean up anything dodgy on the PC - if you
don't have internet, then download the install package to another PC and
drop it on a removable USB drive, then install on the PC you're working on.
8) Download CCleaner (https://www.ccleaner.com/),
install the free version. If you don't have internet, then download the install package
to another PC and drop it on a removable USB drive, then install on the PC you're
working on.
9) On CCleaner, Run a general cleanup first
(ANALYSE and then RUN CLEANER). Make sure that SAVED PASSWORDS is NOT
checked - it's greyed out on the free version - or you will lose all
your stored passwords. If you unclick DOWNLOAD HISTORY then you won't
lose your history of websites opened in the various programs ... so
check the tabs carefully and make sure you understand what you are
asking the tool to remove. If you don't want to lose the history of
files opened in OFFICE applications, then click on the APPLICATIONS tab
and Uncheck OFFICE (and any other applications you don't want to be
affected).
10) Then on CCleaner run a REGISTRY CLEANER (SCAN
FOR ISSUES and then FIX SELECTED ISSUES). It's a good idea on this one
to save the previous registry copy to a folder - it prompts you to do this.
11) Then run the REGISTRY CLEANER again ... it sometimes takes two runs to clean it all up.
12) RESTART THE PC/LAPTOP
13) On
CCleaner, go to TOOLS and the STARTUP tab. Check what your PC starts at
startup. Double clicking on anything here will stop it starting ... so
do that for anything you don't want to start when the PC starts - in
general, keep things like system and printer software, Dropbox and
Windows Defender there, and any anti virus/firewall software you have installed, but any specific programs can be stopped - like
SKYPE, TOMTOM apps ... anything which if you want to use it, you can run
it anyway. Anything you don't recognise or understand, Google to find out what it is/does and decide whether you want or need it running at startup.
14) RESTART THE PC/LAPTOP
15) If you
have any hardware checking programs or tools (sometimes they come on the
PC when you buy it) then run them to check everything out.
http://www8.hp.com/.../hpsupportassistant/pc-diags.html is a handy HP diagnostic tool to check out the key elements. I'm not sure if this works on non-HP kit though.

Lenovo have something similar called a Solution Centre (https://support.lenovo.com/gb/en/downloads/ds104494)  ... I'm sure there are others ...



As mentioned, we use Dropbox (https://www.dropbox.com) for holding all in-progress files. This is free and easily downloadable, and you can gain more space for it by carrying out actions like sharing links on Social Media and so on ... of course you can purchase more space too if you want/need to.



Dropbox basically keeps an ongoing backup of everything in the Dropbox folder on your PC. It also keeps old versions of everything, so if you need to recover something or go back to an older version, it's easy to do so.



For other online backups, and after a crash which nearly lost a whole hard drive (!), I'm now using Backblaze (https://www.backblaze.com), as recommended by friends. It's not expensive (about $50 a year) and basically takes and maintains an online backup of EVERY hard drive you have (or can) connect to a computer.  It's NOT a storage facility though, so if you remove the hard drives, then after 30 days it assumes you don't want the data and so will delete it.  But if you have a hard drive go bad, or accidentally delete something you shouldn't have, then it's a great and simple way of having an up to date copy that you can recover from.



And hard drives ... they're always getting cheaper and cheaper, and you can find 3Tb ones now which are less than £100 ... a good investment to keep all your data, pictures. videos and whatever on, and to have spares with backed up copies on ...

Then and Now Volume 2

It's practically the end of 2017, and I'm delighted that the second volume of my review book series Then and Now is finally available.



It covers Doctor Who  from the start of the Matt Smith episodes to the end of the Peter Capaldi ones, culminating in the just-transmitted 'Twice Upon A Time'. This time around, many of the reviews are original and not from this blog simply because I didn't review them at the time!  So if you want to know what I thought of the show through this period, then this is the book for you!



To get hold of a copy now, please see the Amazon Links further down this blog post.



To go with Volume 2, I have 'refreshed' Volume 1 slightly, adding some colour to the lettering on the cover, and also making some slight textual corrections ... nothing significant though.



I still have copies of the original edition of Volume 1 available if people would like signed copies. Please order them from me direct here:



ORDER VOLUME 1 of THEN AND NOW










Price Including Shipping

UK £15.49 GBP
Europe £16.99 GBP
ROW £19.99 GBP

Dedication










Probably around February 2017, I should have physical copies of Volume 2 available to be signed, so if you would like a signed copy, and don't mind waiting until then, then check back here. I won't paste a Paypal link for Volume 2 at this time as their rules state that what you are selling must be available for dispatch immediately ...



In the meantime, the new editions of Volume 1 and Volume 2 are available to buy from Amazon at the following links ... Obviously these will be unsigned copies - but if you see me at any events etc, then I'm always more than happy to sign my own books at no cost!



VOLUME ONE:



AMAZON UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1518776000



AMAZON USA: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1518776000



VOLUME TWO:



AMAZON UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1981988424



AMAZON USA: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1981988424





And both books will soon be available for Kindle, Kobo and Nook, so please check them out for your device of choice :)

Review: Life (2017)

Life is described as Gravity meets Alien, and that's not actually a bad way of putting it. Astronauts on the International Space Station manage to 'germinate' a form of life found in some sand from Mars, and this thing grows into a sort of tentacled creature with wings which can survive in deep space, does not need gravity, and which sort of feeds on blood ...



So the astronauts find themselves locked in a battle with the creature as they realise that it must not reach Earth, but also that they must try and save themselves! As you might expect, things don't go all that well ...



It's a well made film, and the small cast make the most of their circumstances. The creature, dubbed Calvin by the crew, is suitably nasty looking and alien ... I felt it was almost cat-like in it's intelligence and persistence, and it's tenacious and horrific too - certainly more than a match for the astronauts who try everything they can think of to neutralise the alien.





Overall it's an enjoyable sci-fi horror, with a creature that benefits from being CGI rather than rubber.

Review: Nerve (2016)

Sometimes on Netflix we stumble across things which turn out to be pretty good overall!  And Nerve is one such gem.



Based on the novel by Jeanne Ryan, it's similar to The Circle or episodes of Black Mirror where we postulate where social media and technology might take us. Here we have a website/media 'game' called 'Nerve', where you can either participate or watch, and if you participate then you get cash rewards wired to your bank for each 'dare' you successfully complete.



Enter 'good girl' Vee, whose best pal Sydney is into the game and is doing well at it. So Vee decides to take part as she needs the money ... her first dare is to kiss a stranger for 5 seconds ... well she manages to do this, but it's been set up and the chap she chooses is Ian, who unknown to her (at first of course) is also playing the game ...




It escalates from here and Vee finds herself stealing a $4000 dress from a store and heading off with Ian for further adventures (riding his motorbike at 60mph while blindfolded!).  Watchers document their every move on their phones and stream it all direct for the world to watch, and Vee finds herself ascending in popularity, and getting more and more money as each dare escalates.



Ultimately it all comes to a climax in an arena where Vee and Ian (as the top players) have to battle Ty (another player) to the death - the people behind the game have now removed all Vee's money and compromised their families jobs and accounts and identities ... they are effectively prisoners to the unkownn people running the game!





Luckily, Sydney and her (and Vee's) friend Tommy, have made contact with a group of hackers who are intent on shutting 'Nerve' down for good.



It's a great, rollicking adventure of a movie, and based on technologies and behaviours which we all recognise in others and indeed in ourselves.  It posits what would happen if such a 'game' as 'Nerve' existed, and it all seems so plausible, that one starts to wonder if the game really does exist somewhere on the dark web ...  A scary thought!

Review: Cat o' Nine Tails (1971)

Cat o' Nine Tails is a curious beast ... coming in 1971 from Dario Argento, it is, like most of his earlier films, a straightforward crime thriller, but with many twists and turns along the way.



I have to say that while I enjoyed the first half an hour or so of the film, after this it seems to drag interminably, as the characters sit and discuss what's happening, while the audience tries to guess who the killer might be!



Karl Malden plays a blind man, Franco, who likes puzzles and who used to be a journalist, who has a young girl as a companion and to act as his 'eyes' ... Franco accidentally overhears someone talking about blackmail, and gets involved in the crimes when he makes contact with another journalist, Carlo.





Doctor Calabresi has had items stolen from his office, and, acting suspiciously, meets a stranger at a train station, only to be pushed under the incoming train by him ... Franco realises from verbal descriptions that a photograph taken of the incident by a photographer has been cropped and shows the killer ... but the killer gets to the photographer first and despatches him.



And so the unknown killer works his/her way through the cast, poisoning milk cartons, killing with a cord ... there are red herrings along the way, misdirection as to who the killer might be ...



Franco's young ward is kidnapped, and in a final sequence, there is a chase across rooftops before the killer falls to their death through a skylight and down a liftshaft.





The film certainly has some moments, and the chase sequences are well done. The ending very much reminded me of the opening of the later film Suspiria where a girl falls through a large glass skylight window to her death, and the sequence in the cemetery is also very nicely done.



It's interesting watching Argento's early films as you can see a line of development through them in terms of the camerawork and inventive death sequences which ultimately lead to the superlative Suspiria ... unfortunately having hit a high with that film (in 1977), nothing before or since seems to touch it.



RELEASED BY ARROW FILMS - JANUARY 2018





LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:
Brand new 4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
Original mono Italian and English soundtracks (lossless on the Blu-ray Disc)
Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
New audio commentary by critics Alan Jones and Kim Newman
New
interviews with co-writer/director Dario Argento, co-writer Dardano
Sacchetti, actress Cinzia De Carolis and production manager Angelo
Iacono
Script pages for the lost original ending, translated into English for the first time
Original Italian and international theatrical trailers
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Candice Tripp
Double-sided fold-out poster
4 lobby card reproductions
Limited
edition booklet illustrated by Matt Griffin, featuring an essay on the
film by Dario Argento, and new writing by Barry Forshaw, Troy Howarth
and Howard Hughes