David J. Howe's Blog, page 15

Review: Now We Are Six Hundred

Doctor Who sometimes throws up the most unlikely of books, and as the show is so popular, so some things end up getting published that just make you scratch your head!



Among them is a book of Doctor Who poetry by James Goss. Unfortunately I am not the worlds most poetic person, and while I love my Doctor Who merchandise, I'm probably not qualified to pontificate on the prose.



It's called Now We Are Six Hundred and I suppose if you're going to be inspired, it might as well be by one of the most famous poetry books: Now We Are Six, written by Winnie the Pooh creator A A Milne. Indeed, many of the poems in the Doctor Who book are 'after' ones from the Milne book, by which it means that they follow the same rhythm and ideas, but with Doctor Who references included. There are some apparently original verses too - I say apparently, but on some, I'm vaguely aware of there being older verses which follow the same patterns. So 'The Galactic Council' takes as its inspiration the old folk song: 'One Man Went to Mow' ... and 'Yeti Song' is inspired by 'Sing Ho for the Life of a Bear' by Carly Simon from Piglet's Big Movie!



The book is immaculately presented. The little illustrations by Russell T Davies (yes, the same guy who Exec Produced Doctor Who) are amusing and well done and add immensely to the tome's charm. I also like how the cover is printed as though the book is very old, and the whole thing has a great sense of fun about it.



The poems cover all areas of Doctor Who and take in Doctors and Companions and Monsters galore ... there's probably something in here for everyone! And for £9.99 for the hardback, it's not that expensive either.

Review: The Untamed (2016)

The Untamed is a new film on the Arrow Academy label from director Amat Escalante, and it's a strange beast indeed. In Spanish and with subtitles it tells the story of Veronica who, at the start of the film, is escaping from an isolated cabin in the woods ... She finds help with Alejandra and her husband Angel, but they are having marital difficulties ... So Veronica convinces Alejandra that in the cabin is something which might be the answer to their problems ...



Except that what is in the cabin is some sort of Lovecraftian tentacled sex monster - the sort of thing that writer Sam Stone would include in her ickier Lovecraftian short stories - which is everso addictive to those who participate with it.



The film is slow ... ponderously so in places ... but it's setting things up with all the characters and their social unease and problems, so that the solution of going to do the dirty with the sex monster (which is also addictive) becomes the focus of various characters as the film progresses.  The problem is that sometimes the creatures kills the humans ... other times it doesn't ... I guess it depends ...





The effects are pretty good and, from the making of feature included, we can see they are a mixture of live action practical effects and CGI ... they're also seldom used which again adds to the overall impression of depression which is part of what the film is trying to tackle.



Certainly worth a look if you're a fan of Lovecraftian horror ... or tentacle porn too I suppose!



Released: October 2017.





SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:



High Definition digital transfer
5.1 surround sound audio
Optional English subtitles
Trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring original international art and newly commissioned artwork by the Twins of Evil

Review: Doctor Who Fluxx

Not being a gamer, I'd never heard of the game Fluxx, which seems incredibly popular and which has expanded to cover all sorts of licensed properties ...  Well that was sorted out when the company behind it, the well named Looney Labs, kindly sent me a review copy of the new Doctor Who version of the game ... and we had a pre-Christmas go at it!



First of all, the game itself.  It's a simple set of 100 cards ... there are different sorts of cards contained in the pack:



NEW RULE - which change the rules of the game as you play

ACTIONS - things that you have to do when you play the card

CREEPERS - a bit hard to explain, but these stop you winning

KEEPERS - these are character cards, and to win you have to have in front of you (ie have to have played) the cards which are stated on the ...

GOAL - the circumstances by which you win



The game involves players taking turns to play the cards in their hands, according to the rules currently in force, to try and reach the goal which is currently in force... and the Rules and Goal change as players change them, add to them, remove them ... and generally do what the cards tell them to.



Got that?





The shorthand version is that you start with the initial Rule: Take One Card. Play One Card ... and you go on from there by simply following what is said on the cards as they are played.



So we set up a game with myself, my wife Sam, and my sons James and Andrew ...  While it starts simply enough, after a few rounds, the Rules changed to Take Three Cards. Play Four Cards ... so you run out quickly ... then Actions came into play like: Discard all  your hand and Draw them again ... or Swap your hand with another player of your choice ... and so on ...



It got confusing very quickly, but the basic litany of 'read what it says on the cards' was what was needed to make it all work!



There's also a degree of strategy in remembering what other players have (some Actions mean that you get to know what cards others have in their hands) and also remembering what is in the Discard pile (as some Actions allow you to choose cards from there to play yourself).  You can block other players by giving them Creeper Cards, and other Actions allow you to take other players' cards, Discard them, or keep them yourself, or even to give them to other players ...



It soon gets hideously fun as you need to work out what Keepers you need to have, against a possible Goal card you have ... so that on your turn, you can play them in the right order to win!! You can't rely on the Goal card on the table as it might change!



BUT be warned there are Reverse The Last Turn Action cards which will stop you ... So it's really not that easy.


What I liked was the simple gameplay - once you get the hang of reading cards, then it's fairly straightforward - and it doesn't take hours and hours for a game ... maybe 15-20 minutes ... Obviously the more people are playing, the longer it might take ... but also the harder it gets to follow what is happening as some Action cards can reverse the order of play, allow players to interrupt and take over play ... and generally to mess everything about ...



At £14.99 for the little pack of cards, it seems quite expensive as there are no other elements - no board and no playing pieces or dice. Maybe this is the going rate for card games these days ...



One word on the cards themselves, and I really liked that they all have little drawings of the characters on them rather than standard BBC Photographs. This makes them stand out from the rest and become something unique. The images are by an artist called Derek Ring, and include all 12 Doctors and most of the Companions from the new series.

Review: Ghost in the Shell (2017)

I'd been aware of the original Manga and Anime for this film, but never seen them ... and so this 2017 live action version, starring Scarlett Johansson came as new to me.



It's a story that is very reminiscent of Robocop (1987) (Wiki says that Ghost in the Shell first appeared in 1989), and so one has to wonder if this was originally a Japanese response to that American film. The basic idea is that a woman is created as a cyborg to help the police with their work. The problem is that she retains some of her original memories and personality and these start to bleed through and drive her mad. So she sets out to find out what the truth is.



Along the way we get some superb action sequences, and the CGI is faultless in this 2017 edition. One element of note is that our heroine, Mira, has what is described as a Thermoptic suit, which allows her to become invisible. It also renders her as practically nude, it's so tight, and indeed she is wearing it on the cover of the DVD/Blu-Ray releases and in the trailer, and in much of the film's action set pieces.





I enjoyed the film a lot, but I think the familiarity with Robocop is very strong, and this robs the screenplay of some of its mystery - we know where this is all going. The effects are great, and the acting is also good. One complaint though with regards to Ms Johansson, as with Lucy she seems to be walking through the role in an emotionless fugue. I totally understand that both roles (Lucy and Mira) are intentionally 'blanks' and divorced from reality, so maybe this is what she's being asked to play by the director, but I feel that some actual emotion somewhere in the mix would raise the performance immensely.





It's also interesting, that Googling for photos from the film, there are next to none which don't feature Johansson ... seems that the studios are relying on her and her alone for the film to work!

Review: Don't Torture A Duckling (1972)

Way back in the dim and distant past, some of the masters of Italian Giallo were cutting their teeth on crime dramas, which, while having something in common with the horror fare we might be used to seeing from them, comes from a somewhat different angle.



Years before he rose to notoriety with Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979), Lucio Fulci made Don't Torture a Duckling, a crime/giallo film which has one or two touches of his future horror fare included. In many ways, it's quite a straightforward film: three boys in an Italian village are messing about, as boys do, making trouble and tormenting the locals. One of them goes missing, and amid the press interest, one journalist (Tomas Millian) tries to help the police out.





The boy's body is discovered, and in a welter of red herrings and characters, we get numerous possible suspects for the murder. Was it the strange gypsy witch who has been making dolls of the boys and sticking pins in them? Is it Milan socialite Patrizia (Barbara Bouchet) who is acting very suspiciously? Is it the local priest (Marc Poreli) or his mother (Irene Papas)? There are no end of suspicious activities until we find out at the end ...  and I'm not going to spoil it for you!



Overall, it's a pretty accomplished film, and sets out to do what it does very well. There's touches of horror in the deaths, and one very brutal and protracted and hard to watch killing by the villagers, which, if you replace said villagers with zombies, is almost a template for later films ...





The title is, I suppose, a play on duckling=children ... but there is some relevance to a mute girl who has a headless doll, and later a headless duck, as a toy ...



The Arrow release is beautifully mastered, with good colours and a clear picture. We watched the film in Italian with subtitles, not realising there was an English soundtrack as well!

And the extras are, again as usual, excellent.




SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:



• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations

• Original mono Italian and English soundtracks (lossless on the Blu-ray Disc)

• English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack

• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack

• New audio commentary by Troy Howarth, author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films

• Giallo a la Campagna, a new video discussion with Mikel J. Koven, author of La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film

• Hell is Already in Us, a new video essay by critic Kat Ellinger

• Interviews with co-writer/director Lucio Fulci, actor Florinda
Bolkan, cinematographer Sergio D’Offizi, assistant editor Bruno Micheli
and assistant makeup artist Maurizio Trani

• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Timothy Pittides



FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector’s booklet with new writing on the film by Barry Forshaw and Howard Hughes

New from Warlord Games

Fans of metal miniature figures will be delighted to hear that several new three-packs have been released by Warlord Miniatures in recent months ... their range is building really nicely, and there's promise of all sorts of goodies to come!



Meanwhile, here's pics of the recent issues:







































Finally, there's a free FISHER KING figure for anyone who spends more than £75 at their online shop - https://doctorwhotimevortex.com/ ... so check them out!

Review: More Mr Men/Doctor Who titles and Paper Dolls

Sometimes this crazy programme that we love throws up some brilliant things. The most recent are the 'Mr Men/Doctor Who' Mash-Up books from Penguin.



Four were published earlier in the year, and now we have four more!  Covering Dr. Second, Dr. Seventh, Dr. Eighth and Dr. Ninth.



In Dr. Second, the Doctor teams with Jamie and Victoria to solve a problem of Yeti in a museum ... Dr. Seventh is with Ace battling the Cheetah people and the Master ... Dr Eighth solves a problem between the Sea Devils and Silurians, and Dr Ninth sees an alternative first meeting between the Doctor and Rose, with Autons and Captain Jack thrown in for good measure!



They are excellent little books, nicely drawn and observed, and for fans of Doctor Who, of course a must-buy.  I heard that there will be actual models of the Mr Men Doctors available soon ... what will they think of next!



















The other book which arrived this week is something of a curio ... back in the day, perhaps the most tenuous book to be released tying in with Doctor Who was perhaps the Doctor Who Pattern Book or the Doctor Who Cook Book ... well now there is a new contender with Doctor Who Paper Dolls!



It's a simple idea ... cut out, stand-up figures of various characters from Doctor Who with clothing choices to also cut out and apply to the standees. On the plus side, the book is well constructed from stiff card (so stiff in fact that I wonder how easy actually cutting the figures out would be) but it's a shame they are not perforated to assist removal.



There are 26 characters represented here: all twelve Doctors; Jo Grant; Sarah Jane Smith; Romana; Ace; Rose Tyler; Donna Noble; Martha Jones; River Song; Amy Pond; Rory Williams; Clara Oswold; Petronella Osgood; Missy; and Bill Potts ... and the outfits range from a cleaning lady that the third Doctor dressed as in 'The Green Death' to Sarah Jane's Andy Pandy outfit.  I feel that some opportunities have been missed though: Bill Potts does not have a Mondasian Cyberman outfit, for example, and Clara's red dress from her debut in 'Asylum of the Daleks' is missing (though arguably you could say that that character was not Clara but Oswin ... but wasn't Oswin meant to be one of the Clara 'splinters'?).  Donna doesn't get her Roman outfit from 'Fires of Pompeii' and Romana, queen of the outfit changes, has just three represented. It's interesting that Rory stands out as the sole male entry in the book (aside from all the Doctors of course) ... what about all the other male companions from Ian to Steven, Jamie to Harry?



Alongside the artwork images by Ben Morris, there are brief notes by Simon Guerrier about the costume elements which pull in facts from behind the scenes on the show. Thus the first Doctor's hat is said to be a karakul ... I always thought it was an astrakhan hat (Googling suggests they may be the same thing) and that Jon Pertwee's green velvet jacket sold for £8400 at auction in 2009!  There's also a caption to the cleaning lady outfit suggesting it's a milkman, which was a different disguise that the Doctor used in 'The Green Death'.



There's also a rather nice piece all about cosplay from Christel Dee, who presents the BBC's 'fan show' on Doctor Who ... and while I can understand the connection between a book of characters from Doctor Who as dressing up dollies, and cosplay, it does seem a little misplaced ... maybe a book actually on cosplay would be a better idea ... showing fans dressed up and explaining how they created and cobbled together their outfits.



Overall, I'm afraid it's a book that I just can't see the point of. There might be an audience out there for it, but I really don't know what age group they are aiming it at. It's certainly not me!  Sorry people ...

Review: The Target Covers of Jeff Cummins

This is the third in a series of portfolios published by Andrew Skilleter and Matt Doe from Who Dares Publishing. I have to mention that I penned the introduction to this, so have a vested interest.



However, this is a smashing collectors item, and limited to 50 copies only!



There are superb reproductions of Jeff's Target paintings here, and a pre-painting sketch of the 'Horror of Fang Rock' cover art ...  brilliant stuff.




The printing quality is amazing, and the whole thing reeks quality, from the little booklet all about the paintings, to the inclusion of a Target badge ...



If you're a fan of the Target cover paintings, then you'll want this in your collection!



Available from: http://www.who-dares.co.uk/shop/

Review: Valerian and the City of A Thousand Planets (2017)

As a massive fan of director Luc Besson's work, I was looking forward to his new science fiction epic, Valerian, with great anticipation.  I have followed his career through films like Angel-A, Leon and of course The Fifth Element, and adored films like the very French The Extraordinary Adventures of Louise Blanc-Sec and the thriller Lucy ... so a new science fiction from Besson was very much appreciated.



And I adored it.



It's rich and clever, painting a tapestry of alien contact through the years (and any film which starts with David Bowie and 'Space Oddity' has to be loved!) and establishing Alpha, a vast inter-special space station let loose from Earth's gravity and sent off into the void, before we head to the very alien world of Mül, whereon the vaguely humanoid inhabitants live an idyllic and peaceful existence before their world is bombarded with debris from a space battle above, and their princess killed.



As she dies, however, she releases a wave of energy which is picked up by Major Valerian (Dane DeHaan) who, along with Sergeant Laureline (Cara Delevingne), is working for the human government as special forces.





There follows a space-jumping adventure as Valerian and DeHaan are tasked to recover stolen goods -  a Mül Converter - from an awesomely conceived alien marketplace which takes place across two dimensions, and then to Alpha where there is a mysterious radiation-locked area in the centre which keeps expanding.



What this all has to do with the Converter which Valerian retrieved from the Market, and the people of Mül forms the core of the film, which is as bold, brash, funny, visually impressive and incredible as anyone might want their science fiction to be!



DeHaan and Delevingne play Valerian and Laureline well, with an on-off romance, and a nice line in wisecracks and humour. DeHaan is perhaps a little too one-note, but this doesn't seem to matter too much as the action keeps coming, and there are enough space battles, blaster fights and alien creations to keep Doctor Who in business for years.



One of the things I loved were the alien races. From the opening scenes of the Human Ambassadors greeting all manner of strange creatures, to those in the market place, vast underwater monsters, alien creatures 'fishing' using butterflies as bait, and of course the people of Mül, not to mention the Converter (which is a cute little creature itself), every element is thought through and works within the concepts of the film. And when we get to Rhianna playing a blue jellyfish-like creature which can mimic anyone or anything, well ...



I did try and see if I could spot any Mondoshawans or Mangalores (from The Fifth Element) lurking about but there didn't seem to be any ... a shame I thought, but then I suppose you can't have everything!





It's a long film, but you never feel that it overstays its welcome and I didn't look at my watch once. The bad guys are sufficiently bad, and there's always something to watch, admire, and smile about on screen.



Overall I adored it, and can't wait to watch it again as we are surely getting the Blu-Ray as and when it appears.

Review: Final Recall (2017)

Final Recall (or just Recall in the USA) is a new film, and I managed to get to see a review screener of it ...  On the surface it looks like something that is exactly my cup of tea, blending horror with science fiction ...



The idea is that a bunch of alien spacecraft appear all over the world and start kidnapping people, for why we don't know ... And there's a bunch of teenagers, three guys (R J Mitte, Jedidiah Goodacre, Niko Pepaj) and two girls (Laura Bilgeri, Hannah Rose May), who are heading off for a weekend in a secluded cabin in the woods ... and at the gas station on the way. they meet a stranger (Wesley Snipes) who seems to have antipathy towards them.  So much, so Cabin in the Woods and Tucker & Dale Vs Evil (not to mention Evil Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and every other film which has a bunch of kids visiting a cabin in the woods).



Things ramp up when the aliens arrive and send in jellyfish-like drones to scout the place out ... we're now in Independence Day or War of the Worlds territory. Snipes' hunter turns out to be someone that the aliens previously captured and who has been 'returned' with strange psychokinetic powers, and some alien decal-like tattoos.





So the kids end up being captured and taken on board the spacecraft, which has a very alien-esque decor, straight out of the Alien franchise, and after some wandering about, one of the kids finds his friends lounging in vats of goo which seem to be either dissolving their lower parts, or turning them into something else ...  This reminded me of elements of The Matrix films with the cybernetic attachments and goo (when Neo wakes in one of the battery-pods).



Then, everyone is returned to earth by the aliens and they head off, only to be stopped by the army and shot!  Except that two of them use their new superpowers to destroy the army, and to heal themselves as well - seems they are immortal!  As are many others who have now been returned to Earth ...



As a film, it's not at all bad. and despite all the derivative elements I mentioned above, is very watchable and exciting.  It's pretty obvious that Snipes would turn out to be a - sort of - good guy, and the kids are likable enough.



The effects are excellent, and you get a sense of the alienness of the creatures and whatever their plan is, specifically because it's not spelled out for you. At the end, you still have no idea why this has happened - it's all part of some alien masterplan in progress.





The aliens are nicely realised too - probably because you don't see much of them. It's a case of less is more!  Though what we do see reminded me strongly of the alien hunter in Without Warning way back in the 80s.



I don't know about 'Cabin Fever meets Skyline' though.  The former is about a virus infection which wipes out a group of kids in a cabin ... the only connection I can see here is that there is a cabin!  And Skyline was about alien abductions ... so I suppose there's a connection there.



If you're into this sort of film: mixing and matching things from all over the place to create an enjoyable alien/horror romp through the genres, then this might be right up your street!



Directed by Mauro Borrelli

Writing Credits: Reggie Keyohara III, Mauro Borrelli, Teddy Wynne, Sam Acton King