PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Lupin III - The Pursuit Of Harimao's Treasure 1995

Here's another of the loaned Lupin DVDs that Mike lent me. Lupin III - The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure is the 1995 TV special in a series of 24 that started in 1989. It's got Lupin after a huge Nazi treasure. He's searching for 3 statues that are keys to the  treasure of Harimao, who stole billions during World War II. The treasure has remained hidden for the last 50 years. Lupin gets one statue and then joins up with Lord Archer and his daughter Diana to go after the other two. Lord Archer is a British spy who is the inspiration for James Bond in Lupin's universe. There are some neo-Nazis scum after the treasure too. They are lead by Herr Maphrodite, who's another villain that ramps up the body count in the pursuit of his goal. He blows up the Channel Tunnel, killing most everyone in the train, in order to push Lord Archer into looking for Harimao's Treasure. There's plenty of running about and fighting, some bit of sex and a few laughs. It's animation and design is similar to Lupin III - The Secret Of Twilight Gemini, not as good as the feature films, but watchable. None of them are as good as The Castle Of Cagliostro. Glad I got to watch them, I wouldn't have sought them out myself. There isn't a cheap set available of the series but I'm sure if I did the torrent thing I could mass a pile more but I got plenty enough to watch with just the library and Netflix.

 

       

I did like these title cards that ran at the start of the movie. Here's a couple of other screen caps from the DVD. I use VLC player to do my screen caps. It's free and a great player that plays all sorts of video files.

  

Elves 41072 Naida's Spa Secret

41072 Naida's Spa Secret is the 20 dollar set and it has 249 parts making them just over 8 cents each. It's one of the best price per part in the theme so far. Of course a lot of the parts are small ones. The set includes the one figure, a purple dolphin, a small waterfall with pool and some kind of work bench. I didn't bother building any of the sets, there doesn't seem much point. Here's the backstory that ties in the set with the theme. 

Find the magical map and help the Elves on their epic adventure!

Search for the magical map with Naida Riverheart, the Water Elf, at her dreamy day spa. The map will guide the Elves to the 4 special keys they need to help their friend Emily Jones return to the human world. But only the wise dolphin Delphia knows where the map is hidden – when will she reveal the secret of the spa? Naida has magical water powers and feels most at home when immersed in her luxurious spa bath playing with Delphia. Find Naida’s golden diary, and sit her on the day bed as she writes down all her thoughts and feelings. Create new recipes for beauty lotions and help her mix them in the crystal jars, then take a shower behind the beautiful waterfall. Includes Naida Riverheart mini-doll figure and Delphia the dolphin.

• Includes Naida Riverheart mini-doll figure and Delphia the dolphin
• Features a spa bath, waterfall with shower space, day bed with secret compartment for diary, and a branch function to reveal the magical map
• Accessories include an opening diary, letter, perfume bottle, beauty lotions, hairbrush, hair decorations, drink, board game, basket, magical map and water power icon
• Play with Naida and Delphia in the spa bath
• Take a shower behind the beautiful waterfall
• Help Delphia jump to thehighest branch and reveal the magical map that the LEGO® Elves are looking for!
• Naida’s Secret Spa measures over 3” (10cm) high, 6” (17cm) wide and 4” (12cm) deep
• Go to LEGO.com/elves to discover more about Emily Jones and the magical universe of the LEGO® Elves
• Collect all the LEGO® Elves models to find the 4 magical keys and send Emily Jones back home to the human world

     
There's a fair number of plant related parts in the set. I count 24 in all. I'm planning on using them on the build I have for the comic con. Most of the parts are in 1s and 2s and there are 28 different colors in the mix. Some are going to be handy like the dark blay slopes and the mixed light blay parts. Some of the technic parts and other random bits are going to be less useful. I did like the pearl gold book. All in all, not a bad set. I would buy some more if I saw them on clearance.
 

Elves 41071 Aira's Creative Workshop

The Friends theme crossover Elves had 6 new sets come out on March 1st this year but I just got around to buying them. I wanted to use the Elf figures in something I'm building for the comic con next month.

41071 Aira's Creative Workshop has 98 pieces and it's $9.99 which puts the price for part at just over 10 cents. There's one elf figure and a huge white bird, along with some sort of elaborate stand for the bird, a desk or work bench and a magical flying machine. Here's how exciting it is when marketing people lend a hand.

Use Aira’s magical wind powers and build a flying machine!

Build a flying machine with Aira Windwhistler, the Wind Elf, in her Creative Workshop! Add the finishing touches so that with her magical powers she can harness the wind and fly anywhere in a flash. But wait – her pet bird, Pluma, swoops in with an urgent message from the Earth Elf. Aira’s elf friends need to find 4 magic keys to help send Emily Jones back home to the human world, and they need her help right away! Fit the flying machine to Aira’s back, then help her catch the next gust of windand soar through the sky. Later, join Aira at her desk and use the quill to design her next extraordinary invention. Includes Aira Windwhistler mini-doll figure and Pluma the bird.

• Includes Aira Windwhistler mini-doll figure and Pluma the bird
• Features a flying machine, work desk with opening drawer and a bird stand with food compartment
• Accessories include a quill, ink, ruler, scissors, cookie, letter, map and wind power icon
• Design incredible inventions with Aira to make the most of her magical wind powers
• Give Aira’s pet bird a cookie to thank her for carrying her letters to her friend the Earth Elf at 41075 The Elves’ Treetop Hideaway
• Launch Aira’s flying machine as she rushes to help Emily Jones and the rest of the LEGO® Elves
• Flying machine measures over 1” (5cm) high, 1” (5cm) long and 1” (3cm) wide
• Work desk measures over 1” (5cm) high, 1” (3cm) wide and 1” (3cm) deep
• Bird stand measures over 3” (8cm) high, 1” (4cm) wide and 1” (3cm) deep
• Go to LEGO.com/elves to discover more about Emily Jones and the magical universe of the LEGO® Elves
• Collect all the LEGO® Elves models to find the 4 magical keys, complete the story and send Emily Jones back home to the human world

I thought the Aria figure was cute but I'm not always a fan of chase items in sets. The  keys that need to be collected are sort of interesting parts and much better than some of the other chase pieces they have had. Those trans colored pieces in the Monster Fighter sets from last year weren't very good, or useful. Of course there isn't one of the keys in this set so they will have to wait until I get to those sets to see what they look like.

  

There's some average to good parts but the one that stands out is the pair of scissors. The printed parts are kind of nice too. The rest of the parts are average, mostly useful, and colorful. I count 17 different colors including the transparent pieces. Mostly they come in ones and twos but they're going to get mixed in with the other parts I have and that all adds up to something greater than the set itself.

Lupin III - The Secret Of Twilight Gemini 1996

Lupin III - The Secret Of Twilight Gemini is the 1996 release in a series of annual made for TV specials. They're all about 90 minutes and they've done 24 of them since 1989. I hadn't seen any of them so when Mike offered me a couple to watch I grabbed them. I watched the 8th special first but not for any reason. Lupin gets a half a diamond from a dying friend. It, and it's twin, are the key to a vast treasure that belongs to the Geltic Tribe in Morocco. Lupin, Jigen, Goemon and Fujiko travel there and get involved with the tribe and it's bid for power. There's a group of assassins wanting the diamond for themselves. They send a gender confused whip slashing guy in a terrible costume. Inspector Zenigata pops up, looking for Lupin. There's lots of noise and action as everyone chases about Morocco. It's not quite as nicely animated as the feature films that I've watched so far. There's more nudity than The Mystery Of Mamo but it's not something that I care that much about. It's not like it's awful or anything and I enjoyed a fair bit of it. It's another one that I probably don't need to see again. Here's a couple of screen captures.

Lupin III - The Mystery Of Mamo 1978

After seeing the live action Lupin III movie we recently watched on a Friday Night Movie night I looked to see what other Lupin movies were available at my usual sources. The library coughed up the 1978 Japanese film Lupin III - The Mystery Of Mamo the other day and I watched it. It's the first animated Lupin movie and the second Lupin film. There was a live action film in 1974. I have that coming from the library but it's taking it's sweet time getting here. The next animated Lupin movie would be Hayao Miyazaki's The Castle of Cagliostro in 1979. That's the only Lupin movie I'm really familiar with, though I had seen some of the animated TV series a few years ago and didn't like them too much. I found that Lupin to be rather too juvenile. I suspect that I would find the manga it's based on the same but I haven't seen the volume that they have at the library yet. Eventually someone will return it and I can see if I'm on the beam with my surmise.

The movie opens with Lupin being hung in Transylvania. Inspector Zenigata doesn't believe it and he arrives at Castle Dracula to find Lupin alive. There's some escaping and chasing, a common theme in the series, and next thing you know, Lupin is next in Egypt, in a pyramid with Jigen, stealing the Philosopher's Stone. Zenigata is on his trail and arrives to catch him in the act.

They escape Zenigata, with the help of Goemon, only to have Fujiko steal the Philosopher's Stone from them while they're in Paris. It's a fake and her employer, Mamo, is pissed off. He sends an attack helicopter to attack the thieves, killing anyone who gets in his way. There's a fairly big body count in the film. The guys escape to find their hideout all trashed. Jigen and Goemon blame the destruction on Fujiko and Lupin claims he's going to give her up. He's actually pretty stupid when it comes to Fujiko and that promise is soon broken. Jigen and Goemon go their separate ways and I don't blame them.

True to form Fujiko drugs Lupin and delivers him to Mamo on his Caribbean Island. He offers Lupin and Fujiko immortality but Lupin is more interested in the stone. Jigen and Goemon arrive to rescue Lupin. The military, tracking the pair, send missiles to blow up the island. Jigen kills Mamo and they escape to Columbia. They get a visit from Mamo, who apparently isn't dead yet. He tells them he's developed a cloning process and he's kept himself alive for the last 10,000 years. It was he who created the clone of Lupin that got hung in Transylvania. Mamo blows up an atomic power station which causes an earthquake, just cause he's a dick. His henchman Flinch is a murderous thug.

Lupin goes after Mamo and the story gets weirder and weirder as it goes along. I had to laugh at many of the things that were going on and not because they were funny. It's all pretty goofy and noisy. There's a nice mixture of styles and the art jumps from one style to another quite often. Mamo proves to be less than he thinks he is and Lupin tosses him into the sun. There's more trouble ahead for Lupin as Zenigata and Fujiko pop back into his life.

It was fairly fun but I'm still not caring as much for the characters as I did in The Castle of Cagliostro. I would prefer dropping the unsophisticated sex jokes like Miyazaki did in TCOC and Ryuhei Kitamura did in his recent Lupin III. That's just me, I'm sure a lot of the audience would just eat that up. The DVD had 4 different English dub tracks to pick from, all from the various releases over the years, I picked the original Toho English dub. I might listen to some of the others before it goes back. Not something I might need to buy but I was glad to see it. I've got a couple more animations to watch courtesy Mike. I'll be getting to those right quick so I can return them.

Doc Martin Series 5

I had finally got the 5th series of Doc Martin from the library. Martin Clunes plays the Doc who has put his return to London as a surgical consultant on hold. He's got a new son but no wife, the woman to took over his practice isn't doing a very good job, and his Aunt Joan has died while visiting relatives. I'll miss Joan, she was an interesting character, but her sister Ruth, played by Eileen Atkins. turns out to be another interesting character. She's a psychiatrist with developmental issues too. The Doc uses Ruth's funeral to point out that the heavy mourners are in danger from health issues. He's a guy with no idea how to act with people. I blame his parents, they're douchebags. Caroline Catz plays Louisa, the mother of the Doc's baby, and the Doc invites her to movie in with him so he can be more involved with his son. They aren't best at getting along.

When the replacement doctor leaves, Doc Martin takes over the practice again. Jessica Ransom plays the new receptionist Morwenna Newcross. She's highly entertaining and she has a delightful accent. The Doc doesn't take to her fairly well at first but he keeps her on after she gives first aid to her sick grandfather. There's plenty of other medical problems going on around the area. An artistic moody guy steals Ruth's hubcaps and that leads to his sick mother. She'd gotten sick from eating wild game that had spoiled. PC Penhale gets a visit from his ex-wife and she seems to believe they hadn't broken up and divorced. Poor Joe, he's got a bunch is problems but he is good comic relief. Bert has financial trouble with his restaurant. Mrs Tishell, the pharmacist, has an infatuation with the Doc. She kidnaps his child and runs off with the baby. Don't worry they get the baby back and he's ok. The drama helps the Doc profess his love to Louisa. It takes a lot to get an emotion out of the Doc.

The writing remains really good and there's plenty of comedy mixed in with the emotional dysfunction. I'm still having a good time watching the show and will get series 6 from the library next.

Science Fiction Sunday 334

Survival is the last of the Doctor Who serials, ending the 26 season run of the program. It's the 156th story and 3 part story first aired November 22 to December 6 1989. It's the last TV story for Sylvester McCoy as the 7th Doctor and Sophie Aldred as his companion Ace. Sylvester would return as the Doctor in the 1996 TV movie with Paul McGann. Anthony Ainley returns as the Master for the first time in three years. It would be his last appearance as The Master. The screenplay was the first and last story for Rona Munroe. Director Alan Wareing directed this serial and two others before going on to direct hundreds of episodes of Coronation Street, Casualty and Emmerdale Farm. Andrew Cartmel ends his turn as script editor and took a job doing the same on Casualty. John Nathan-Turner was offered a chance to produce Bergerac but he wanted to get rid of John Nettles and move the show from Jersey which the BBC didn't agree with. He would closed down the production offices after Doctor Who wrapped. The extra featurettes spend a lot of time discussing the end and comments seem to point to the then current BBC management not really caring about long running shows or science fiction, even if they were popular.

Survival has the Tardis drop the Doctor and Ace in her hometown of Perivale which is in North West London. It's mostly council flats and low income folks. Ace isn't so sure she wants to be there but she had said she wanted to know what's been happening to her old mates. Of course they find a bit of a problem, some of those friends have disappeared, and soon after finding that out Ace disappears. Some cheetah people have been jumping through space and time to Earth. They chase human's right back to their planet where they turn into cheetah people or get eaten.

The Doctor follows and meets up with his old nemesis The Master. He's as annoying as ever. The Doctor figures the planet is dying and they need to get out of there. The planet is what is turning people to cheetahs. There's plenty of running about and eventually they figure out how to get back to Earth. Some folks get pretty dead but the Doc puts a stop to The Master's plan. The Master returns to the cheetah planet but the Doc and Ace stay on Earth. They pack it in and head off for new adventures that wouldn't happen for a long time. It was an ok story with fairly good location work.

Sadly the cheetah costumes were really kind of poor as was the animatronic cat they used occasionally. That's it to the left. The cheetah costumes weren't what Rona Murphy imagined, she wanted the actors to just have a hint of cheetah rather than a full body suit of fake fur and a mask that wasn't very expressive. I agree but John Nathan-Turner didn't. The body suits were super hot in the 100 degree weather of the rock quarry where they were filming. Sylvester tells a story on the commentary about one of the actors in the cheetah suit getting fed up with the heat, stripping off her costume and disappearing over a sand dune dressed only in a thong. He rather enjoyed the sight.

 

There's a commentary with Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred and Andrew Cartmel. They talk about the serial and the end of the series. Hardly anyone knew it would happen. The BBC was rather tight lipped and hoped to avoid a big stink like the last time they tried to cancel the series. There are some making of featurettes with interviews with cast and crew. There's a kind of stupid kids special and some kind of special on The Master that I didn't get. Some of the stuff is on a second DVD.

Friday Night Movies 525

Tusk is a 2014 Kevin Smith film that just wasn't that entertaining. It's about an annoying podcaster who goes to interview a young guy in Winnipeg who had cut off his leg with a samurai sword. Like The Star Wars Kid the Kill Bill Kid became an internet sensation. Justin Long and Haley Joel Osment are a couple of podcasters who are as annoying as anything like that could be. They do hurtful comedy mixed with noisy Top 40 AM disc jockey shtick. Justin goes to see the Kill Bill Kid and arrives at his house as they are holding his funeral. Via some more sloppy writing Justin connects with Michael Parks. He's a wheel chair bound man with some interesting stories. He drugs Justin and turns him into a walrus. Michael was ship wrecked back in 1959 and he was befriended by a walrus on a deserted island. He wants to recreate that special time when he made friends with a walrus. Not happy just to get a walrus he kidnaps people, hacks their legs off, cuts out their tongues, and sews them into a walrus skin made from other peoples dead bodies. Sadly Michael is not very skilled as a surgeon. It's all rather unpleasant and it's more torture than horror. Haley and Justin's girlfriend Génesis Rodríguez have been having an affair behind Justin's back. He deserves it, he's turned into a douchebag as he's become more famous. He's not the nice nerd he was when they fell in love and he's been dicking his podcast listeners.

Haley and Génesis get a frantic phone call from Justin before he gets done over as a walrus. They come looking for him. They don't get any help from the police but they do get help from Johnny Depp. He plays a crazy French ex-cop from Quebec. He's got a terrible accent, hardly anyone in the movie does anything other than a skewed Canadian accent. Justin makes fun of his girlfriend in some flashbacks, she's Spanish and he uses a stereotypical Latin accent to poke fun at her. She doesn't sound like that at all but that's part of the reason she's fallen out of love with him. Justin is just a creep and there isn't much of anything for me to like about him so I don't feel any sorrow for his predicament. Haley and Génesis get to Michael's house and there's Justin, all fucked up. We complained a lot about the story and the script and much of the movie. A lot of people complain about it on the internet, it scores a 5.5 at the IMDb but that's way too high. I'd give it a 4 but only if they had filmed it in Canada. Nope, it's Charlotte, North Carolina and LA, so only a 3 for you Mr Smith. I liked Kevin when he was making pointless movies about stoners and pop culture. I'd give it a miss knowing what I know now.

Compared to Tusk, Taken 3 was a much better film, Not great, it's certainly the weakest of the three Taken films. but still mostly entertaining and watchable. It's directed by Oliver Megaton who directed Taken 2 and Transporter 3. This is his fourth feature film and he's gotten a bit better at directing than he was in Taken 2. Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen wrote all three films in the series. This time some scumbags have killed Liam Neeson's wife and framed him for the murder. Liam is nearly caught at his house but escapes. Forest Whitaker is the police Inspector that goes after him. They are always just a half step behind. Maggie Grace is Liam's daughter and she's in danger too. There's plenty of car chases, gun shooting, fights, explosions and major collateral damage to the city of Los Angeles. If you liked the previous two you'd probably like this one for the most part. It's just not as interesting or fresh as the first one was. I'd watch the series again down the road, sometimes I like a mindless action film with a bit of payback heaped on the baddies. If you are only going to watch one Taken movie, watch the first, it's got some great locations and the action is even more interesting.

The Last Detective Series 1

I had seen reference to The Last Detective when I was reading about Peter Davison in all the Doctor Who material I see. It sounded like something I might like so I put it on my Library queue. I watched the first series and really enjoyed it. It's an ITV police show with Peter Davison playing Detective Constable "Dangerous" Davies. The series was produced by Granada and it's based on the Leslie Thomas novels. I hadn't read any of those even though I had one, it may still be up in the attic. There were 4 series, starting in 2003, before they stopped production. That first series has four episodes, a pilot which runs 96 minutes and 3 more that run 72 minutes each. It was filmed in the north London suburbs of Willesden, Neasden and Harlesden. It looks both nice and run down. A place for plenty of characters and that's what drives the show. It's not a high powered crime drama like Waking The Dead. It's much easier going, milder even than Midsomer Murders, and it's got a nice sense of humor.

Speaking of nice, Davies is a nice cop who has been demoted for testifying against another officer. This all happens off screen before the series starts. The detectives in his squad don't like him and his boss treats him like shit. Still he's got a good head on his shoulders and a great sense of fair play. His boss, a bit of a dick, piles on all the shitty jobs. Davies takes the abuse, keeps an even temper and works hard. He can be pushed too far. He helps a good number of people, though it starts poorly for him when he discovers the murderer of a young girl, dead 20 years, has some connection to his police station. In the other three stories he continues to doggedly chase down the clues and solve his cases. Davies has separated from his wife and his lives in a room in a boarding house. They still interact as she keeps his giant pet dog at the house they used to have together. Davies is pals with Mod (short for Modesty) Lewis played by the Irish comedian Sean Hughes. I really only know him from Never Mind The Buzzcocks. He was a regular team leader from 1996 to 2002. He was pretty funny there and he's funny here. He plays a shifty kind of guy who's always on the lookout for some new way to make money. They get along together and Mod helps Davis at times. I'm definitely going to take a shot at the other series. A bunch of them have popped up at the library, ready to pickup tomorrow.

The Aztec Mummy Collection

  

I found a copy of The Aztec Mummy Collection at Half Price Books a year or two ago and it just sat on the shelf waiting to get looked at one day. That day came the other day and I watched all three movies in one go. It's a 3 DVD set of the 1950's Mexican Aztec Mummy films: The Aztec Mummy 1957, The Curse of the Aztec Mummy 1957 and The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy 1958.

The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy was a MST3K selection and it's been more available than the other two. You can see the sequels on YouTube. The Wikipedia says Wrestling Women vs. The Aztec Mummy is another sequel but it isn't the same director and it came out 7 years after the first movie. The three movies in the box are all pretty connected, the second sequels start pretty much where the previous movie left off. The insert flashbacks in the sequels which are clips from the previous films.

  

In the first film Dr. Eduardo Almada uses hypnotism on his fiancée Flor Sepúlveda. She turns out to be a reincarnation of Xochitl who was a woman who had an affair with an Aztec warrior Popoca. She was killed and Popoca was buried alive cursed with immortality. When the Doctor disturbs the tomb Popoca wakes up and does the shambling mummy bit. Toss in a crooked guy with some henchmen and a young woman in jeopardy and you've nearly got a story. They aren't great movies, even by Mexican standards, but they are short. There are some villains and wrestlers to liven things up, and there is that robot.

The robot and the mummy battle from the third movie. It's all pretty silly. Not sorry I saw the films. It would have been nice for someone to have fused them into a fairly lively 90 minute movie and saved everyone a lot of time. There isn't any reason to buy them, sadly they probably aren't going to get watched again.